Sustainable Recovery of Critical Materials from Fuel Cells/Electrolyzers

Recycling platinum group metals from end-of-life fuel cells and electrolyzers through traditional hydro/pyrometallurgical processes can lead to off-gassing of toxic fluorinated compounds. These recycling processes also suffer from an inability to preserve valuable parts of the membrane electrode assembly such as ionomer membranes and carbon supports. This project will develop an environmentally friendly electrochemical process for recycling platinum group metals from end-of-life fuel cells and electrolyzers. The process will use mildly acidic and benign electrolytes to provide a safe and efficient electrochemical process that integrates readily into the existing recycling infrastructure. Phase I will provide a proof-of-concept demonstration of the electrochemical recovery of platinum group metals. A bench-scale electrochemical cell will be built to process membrane electrode assemblies from end-of-life electrolyzers. The potentiodynamic electrochemical process will be tailored to maximize the recovery of platinum group metals in the form of an aqueous solution. This will be shown to avoid the generation of toxic byproducts that typically result from the thermal/chemical processing of fluorinated membranes in alternative recycling processes. The project will be transitioned from a bench-scale batch process a pilot-scale continuous process in Phase II, demonstrating efficient recycling of end-of-life membrane electrode assemblies at commercially relevant quantities. In Phase III and beyond, recycling will be performed for commercial suppliers of spent membrane electrode assemblies with the goal of selling recovered platinum group metals to fuel cell/electrolyzer manufacturers.