Versogen, a developer of anion exchange membrane (AEM) technologies, has achieved membrane production capacity that can support 1 gigawatt of AEM electrolyzers per year. From the company’s roots in a research lab at the University of Delaware, Versogen has scaled up the production capabilities of its proprietary PiperION polymer by a factor greater than 2,000 times.

Poly(aryl piperidinium) polymers introduce an alkaline-stable cation—piperidinium—into a rigid aromatic polymer backbone that is free of ether bonds. Anion exchange membranes (AEM), or hydroxide exchange membranes (HEM), formed from PiperION polymers exhibit superior chemical stability, anion conductivity, decreased water uptake, good solubility in selected solvents, and improved mechanical properties, Versogen says.

For example, when a 5cm^-2 electrolyzer is fed at the anode with pure water, Versogen membranes deliver an electrical current density of 1,020 mA cm^-2 at 1.8 V and a durability of 160 hours at 200mA cm^-2 using a nickel-based anode catalyst and nickel foam porous transport layer.

Versogen’s membrane is primarily used in electrolyzers that produce green hydrogen. The innovative startup also has customers using the membranes in carbon capture, seawater electrolysis, fuel cells and lithium extraction.

Our customers have told us consistently that our AEMs are the most stable and highest-performing on the market today. The ability to produce over 1 gigawatt per year means that the availability of AEM of consistent quality is no longer the bottleneck of AEM technologies. This is an enormous step towards meeting the Department of Energy’s (DOE) goals of reducing the cost of hydrogen to $1 a kilogram.

—Yushan Yan, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder

This achievement is supercharged by Versogen’s role as an anchoring partner in the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) Hydrogen Hub, which was selected as one of seven winners of the DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program in October 2023. (Earlier post.) The MACH2 may receive up to $750 million in funding to support the development of a network of hydrogen producers, consumers and infrastructure in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.