Common Misperceptions of Palladium Membranes -

One of the main misconceptions regarding palladium technology is that it is very expensive. Palladium, a precious metal, has only had one major price spike back in 2000/2001. For detailed information on the history of pricing related to palladium, please refer to Stillwater Mining’s website on the pricing history of palladium at http://www.stillwaterpalladium.com/priceJM.html.

Hy9 uses a planar technology (foil) that is several fold less in the amount of palladium compared to conventionally-used palladium tubular structures, many of which utilize a palladium/silver alloy. Thus the total cost of palladium in our membrane purifiers/reformers is relatively minimal relative to the total cost of each unit. In addition, Hy9 uses another palladium alloy that includes a support structure which can withstand back pressurization and does not require a nitrogen purge system should the power be turned off.

Another common misconception is that palladium foils are not durable. Hy9 has sold over 600 purifiers that have a cumulative run time of some 3 million hours under thousands of cycles and can even withstand reverse pressurizations.

Hy9’s ten years of development and over five years of commercial sales have enabled the company to develop and sell proprietary, enabling, economic, high purity/reforming hydrogen solutions for small, medium and larger scale applications.