New platinum development lowering hydrogen cost prospects, researchers report

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A novel platinum development has resulted in the $2 per kilogram 2026 green hydrogen cost target being beaten.

The new approach results in more hydrogen being obtained from less platinum and is also applicable to other platinum group metals such as iridium, palladium and ruthenium.

The breakthrough by the Dongguk University of South Korea, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie,

uplifts green hydrogen production through the platinum-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis route in a way that challenges fossil fuels.

The big picture is that the economics of hydrogen to power cars, trucks, buses, ships, planes, commercial buildings, factories, homes, far-flung off-grid rural areas and so much more has been made more attractive as a result of research led by Dongguk University's Assistant Professor Jitendra N Tiwari and Professor Young-Kyu Han in Seoul, where, interestingly, the Global CEO Summit 2025 of the Hydrogen Council involving 140 big-name companies of the world's leading hydrogen-linked businesses, which have a collective market capitalisation of $9-trillion.

Attendees of the summit, who were transported in hydrogen buses and hydrogen cars, witnessed for themselves the speed of vehicle refuelling that matches what today's conventional petrol and diesel refuelling stations provide.

"In the long term, this will accelerate hydrogen adoption, contributing to the fight against climate change," Professor Han is quoted as saying in Fuel Cell Works dated January 21.

No matter where one is in the world, sun, wind and water can potentially be turned into hydrogen and the far-reaching value of hydrogen's local accessibility on every continent is being highlighted more brightly than ever because of the very concerning risk that global geopolitics is adding to energy importation.

Countries are again looking at the economics of producing energy for themselves, by themselves, rather than importing it, and doing what is better for the planet at the same time.

Notably, the Dongguk University breakthrough, now widely publicised, surpasses the US Department of Energy's 2026 green hydrogen cost target, which indicates its application potential.

The US Department of Energy set a primary 2026 goal of reducing clean hydrogen production costs to $2 per kilogram as part of its Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative.

This target focuses on developing affordable, net-zero-carbon, and highly durable electrolyser technologies.

The breakthrough now is that the final structure of the catalysts consists of single platinum atoms bonded to nitrogen atoms, atomically dispersed on graphitic nanosheets.

Because each metal atom acts as an active catalytic site, these materials use precious metals far more efficiently than conventional catalysts, potentially lowering costs while improving performance.

Asked by Mining Weekly to comment on Dongguk University's release, Heraeus Precious Metals global head of strategy and projects hydrogen systems Robert Marić had this to say: "Briefly, today's research and development efforts in PEM electrolysis – both in academia and industry – are still focused on improving iridium-based catalysts for the anode, as this is the main performance, stability and cost-driver.

"Platinum-based cathode catalysts are usually not the bottleneck, especially at today's 'relatively high' platinum loadings. That said, the work of the Dongguk University still matters, as it shows a credible platinum group metals-thrifting route for future platinum-based cathodes.

"They demonstrate an improved activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction with stable operation over 200 hours, compared with an industrial reference in application-relevant tests.

"The overall...