Our technology
Eight controlled stages, all under one roof — from PGM chemistry through to a tested assembly, a finished stack, and the metal recovered at end of life.
The short version
Every product on this site — a catalyst for a refinery, a precursor for a semiconductor fab, a membrane electrode assembly for an electrolyser — begins at the same place: refined platinum group metal taken into solution and converted into a precursor of high and consistent purity.
Across every PGM, a single master chloride or salt is the gateway to an entire downstream family of compounds. Establishing that chemistry at source is what captures value at the highest-margin point of the chain.
What follows traces one of those routes end to end — the membrane electrode assembly, our most vertically integrated product. Everything about a PEM system's efficiency, durability and power density is decided in a stack of layers thinner than a business card, and it is decided by the chemistry upstream of it.
That is why we are vertically integrated. We do not buy in catalyst and coat it, or buy in coated membrane and assemble it. We control the chain from the precursor chemistry forward, because every step upstream constrains what is achievable downstream.
Anatomy
An MEA is a symmetrical sandwich built around a proton exchange membrane. Hydrogen is oxidised at the anode catalyst layer; protons cross the membrane while electrons are forced around an external circuit; oxygen is reduced at the cathode. Run it in reverse with electricity in, and the same architecture splits water to make hydrogen.
The catalyst layers either side of the membrane are the performance-defining component — and they are where the platinum and iridium do their work.
The process
These are our core capabilities. Each is a controlled process step with its own quality gates, and each feeds the next without leaving the building — ending where it began, with the metal recovered and refined.
Refined platinum group metal is taken into solution and converted into the precursor salts and complexes that catalyst manufacture depends on. Purity and speciation here set the ceiling for everything that follows.
Precursors are deposited onto support materials to produce supported platinum and iridium catalysts, with control over particle size, dispersion and metal loading — the levers that govern activity and durability.
Catalyst, ionomer and solvent are combined into a stable, coatable ink. Rheology and dispersion state determine how the catalyst layer forms, so ink formulation is treated as a product in its own right, not a preparation step.
Ink is applied directly to the proton exchange membrane on precision coating equipment, then dried under controlled conditions. Uniformity of loading across the active area is measured, not assumed.
Coated membranes are combined with gas diffusion layers and sub-gaskets and consolidated into finished assemblies, sized and configured to the customer's stack design.
Assemblies are characterised on in-house test stations for performance, and put through lifecycle and durability testing. Nothing ships on the basis of an incoming certificate alone.
Assemblies are built into electrolyser and fuel cell stacks, with in-house CAD producing ready-for-manufacture designs and an automated test station handling quality control, at scales up to megawatt size.
Closed-loop recovery of platinum group metals from spent catalysts, process residues and end-of-life components. The route is planned to deploy IBC's SuperLig® Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT™), commercially proven in PGM refining since the mid-1990s and demonstrated on Isondo surrogate feeds separating iridium, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium and palladium at catalyst-grade purity. Recovered metal returns to the front of the chain, giving customers material security and a recoverable residual value. This stage is in development.
The chain
Our position spans the middle of the beneficiation chain — the part that historically happened offshore — and closes it with a recovery loop.
Why integration matters
Every assembly traces back through its coating run, its ink batch, its catalyst lot and its precursor. When something moves, we can tell you why.
Changing a catalyst loading or an ionomer ratio does not mean renegotiating with three suppliers. Development cycles compress to what the chemistry actually needs.
The facility sits next to the world's dominant platinum reserves, inside a Special Economic Zone, with recovery capability closing the loop at end of life.
On the floor
Active area, target current density, duty cycle, operating window — send us what your stack needs and our technical team will come back on what is achievable.
