Johnson Matthey plc (JM; London) has joined the Industry Council of the US Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Innovation (CMI) Hub, led by Ames National Laboratory.
As world experts in PGMs, from market insights and metal management to manufacturing products and recycling them, JM will bring their knowledge to help shape the CMI’s five-year programme on PGMs. This will help to enhance the innovation pipeline for critical materials and their supply chains, accelerating research and creating commercially-ready technologies.
PGMs will play a key role in the net zero transition, sustainably enabling technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers for hydrogen production, and sustainable aviation fuel. They are industrially powerful catalysts – very little is needed to achieve high performance – and have well established recycling routes, meaning PGM technologies can help reduce the strain predicted on other critical materials required for the energy transition.
Marge Ryan, JM’s PGM Strategy and Advocacy Manager said: “At JM, we have a unique and long-standing depth of knowledge across the entire PGM ecosystem, from sourcing, to making products for their vast range of applications, to end-of-life recycling.
“JM will support the CMI Hub in developing technologies that make efficient use of PGMs, applying expertise from our decades of experience across the PGM ecosystem. And we will help embed circularity within these new PGM applications to ensure a sustainable, circular supply to meet existing and future demand.”
The CMI Hub has been set up as a multidisciplinary effort to develop solutions across the materials lifecycle, as well as reducing the impact of supply chain disruptions and price fluctuations associated with these valuable resources. It brings together scientists and engineers from diverse disciplines to find solutions to critical materials challenges for clean energy technologies, including experts from the US national laboratories, universities, and industry partners.