Hydrogen
Fluoropolymers Power the Clean Hydrogen Industry
Growing demands for clean energy have focused attention on hydrogen production. Innovators envision a society that uses hydrogen to fuel heating, power cars, and store and transport energy. Access to a specific type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), fluoropolymers, is required to produce and deploy clean hydrogen.
The hydrogen industry’s biggest challenge is quickly and exponentially scaling a new supply chain that is robust enough to meet the escalating demand for rapid advancement toward a global hydrogen economy, demand that will continue to grow as countries across the world work towards carbon neutrality. The European Union (EU), for example, attaches a key role to green hydrogen in achieving its Green Deal and has set a target of producing 25 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030.
As a leading manufacturer of ion exchange materials, our fluoropolymer membrane technology is at the heart of the hydrogen economy, making Chemours chemistry essential to producing and deploying clean hydrogen.
Without fluoropolymers, clean hydrogen doesn’t exist.
Fluoropolymer membranes create an environmentally safe way to generate large amounts of hydrogen without carbon dioxide emissions. These membranes help to reduce production disruptions, maintain consistently higher outputs, and promote an environmentally sustainable solution to hydrogen production. Fluoropolymers are required to produce hydrogen membranes. No alternatives possess all of these unique properties while delivering the same high level of performance.
What are fluoropolymers?
Fluoropolymers are a specialty plastic that possess a unique combination of properties that make them critical to modern life and a wide variety of sectors and industries. They are one specific class PFAS, a group of thousands of chemical compounds with varying characteristics, properties, and environmental and safety profiles. Importantly, fluoropolymers do not pose a significant risk to human health or the environment when used for their intended purposes.
Critical Fluoropolymer Applications in the Hydrogen Industry:
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Cleaner hydrogen production:
The use of fluoropolymers allows for cleaner hydrogen production, rather than using fossil fuels.
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Emissions reductions:
The use of fluoropolymers reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, resulting in more sustainable hydrogen production.
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Power grid enhancement:
Fluoropolymers enhance the efficiency of power grids, while simultaneously reducing environmental footprints.
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Renewable energy:
Hydrogen fuel cells, powered through the use of fluoropolymers, are a source of renewable energy.
The Next Normal: The Birth of the Hydrogen Economy | The Chemours Company
In 2020, the world reduced its demand for fossil fuels for the first time in human history, signaling in no uncertain terms the growing demand from society for more sustainable climate-friendly solutions.
Maintaining that trend is essential to stabilizing the climate, and the growing hydrogen economy will help make that possible.
Responsible chemistry is essential to our changing world, and continued innovations, such as Nafion™ membranes and dispersions, will usher in the next normal – the birth of the hydrogen-powered society.
That society will be built on a foundation of water electrolysis, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen by combining renewable energy with Nafion™ membranes.
The resulting hydrogen can energize everything from huge industries to tiny cottages, from bullet trains to the fleet of the future.
This is the promise of the hydrogen economy, and the technology to make it happen has already been invented.
All that's needed is scale – and continued expertise, innovation and leadership.
At Chemours, we're leading the charge with responsible chemistry and essential solutions to help drive change and bring about the next normal.
