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Hy9 Corp. Secures Exxon Deal, Opens New Manufacturing Facility

December 03, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Hy9 Corp., a manufacturer of metal membrane hydrogen purifiers for the industrial, specialty gas and energy markets, announced that it has entered into an agreement with ExxonMobil Corp. to provide its products to ExxonMobil’s on-board fuel cell reformer project. Hy9 also announced that it has opened a new manufacturing facility as a direct response to market demand for the company’s hydrogen purifier and reformer products.

The ExxonMobil project, aims to develop fuel-cell-powered forklifts to run on a variety of hydrocarbon-based fuels, such as diesel fuel. While the hands-on research will be done on forklifts, Hy9 and at ExxonMobil say the project is a precursor to bringing such technology to passenger vehicles.

Hy9 states that it manufactures globally-deployed, high-productivity, low-cost membranes and products with leak-tight seals that extract pure hydrogen from gas mixtures much like a filter. Hy9’s patent-pending process intensification is said to combine a membrane and catalyst in a cost-effective, one-step reforming process which provides high purity hydrogen. Hy9’s purifiers are said to allow for 10-times less palladium when compared to conventionally used palladium/silver tubular purifiers, which is said to make Hy9’s purifiers far less expensive than conventional purifier products. As a result, Hy9’s products can now be deployed in existing and new applications for the industrial gas, semiconductor, chemicals, metal processing and fuel cell markets.

The company claims that palladium membranes are recognized as the only solution for high purity hydrogen purification, as palladium alloys allow hydrogen atoms to permeate through the membrane while blocking all other contaminants. Palladium is a precious metal that is a member of the platinum group. Hy9 states that it has addressed the cost problem with the company’s patented membrane thinning process that provides the benefit of using thinner palladium foils which, until now, have not been available on the market.