Johnson Matthey begins recycling fuel cells

Johnson Matthey (JM), a London-based multinational specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies company, says it has begun fuel cell recycling in China.

The plant, in Zhangjiagang in the Jiangsu province, is refining and recycling platinum group metal (PGM) content from membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), a key component of an automotive fuel cell, from Unilia, one of the world's leading providers of fuel cell stack technology, according to JM.

The volume of materials for refining will be small initially, however, JM says it has sufficient capacity and ability to scale up its facilities to meet the demand expected over the coming years.  

China is the biggest PGM market in terms of demand but with very limited natural resources, so recycled PGMs will be critical to meet this demand, the company says. On average, JM says roughly 80 percent of the PGMs it uses are sourced internally.

"PGM-based fuel cells are critical in decarbonizing transport, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and buses, but the cost of PGMs are relatively high,” says Simon Wang, PGM Services Commercial lead at JM in China. “Therefore, it is important we put in place the ability to recycle fuel cells at end of life. We are confident that having in place the capacity and ability to recycle will enable our customers in China to create a circular economy, supplying them with some of the world's scarcest metals whilst driving long-term circularity."

The company says secondary supply of PGMs is expected to grow globally at roughly 3 percent to 5 percent annually.  Recycled metals cost less and have a much lower carbon footprint (up to 98 percent less) than primary supply PGMs.