Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Chemours own the Nafion trademark and manufacture it.
https://www.nafion.com/en
They are big enough to finance the purchase of the membrane IP for the kind of sum I suggested. They have a lot to lose by not doing so.
https://www.chemours.com/en/news-media-center/all-news/press-releases/2019/the-chemours-company-reports-third-quarter-2019-results
Sell the IP I say, and license back exclusive use of it in alkaline fuel cells only for 10 years.
That would be similar to how businesses sell their HQ and lease it back. It releases a huge amount of cash that the company can use to grow the business.
That kind of sale has to be worth £500m. Imagine how much progress AFC could make with that kind of money, let alone what the shares would be worth, and no more dilution ever
“If AFC Energy’s alkaline membrane (AlkaMem) becomes as technologically robust as its liquid alkaline technology”. I wonder if De Nora are helping out in that department under the extension of the Joint Development Agreement?
Continued...
If AFC Energy’s solid alkaline membrane (AlkaMem™) becomes as technologically robust as its liquid alkaline technology, it would, in our opinion gain a considerable share of the PEM market. In particular, the ability of the membrane to operate with less pure hydrogen (and hydrogen cracked from ammonia) means that it would require less expensive chemical feedstock for PEM applications.
AFC Energy has identified the following markets as potential key markets for its solid alkaline membrane:
1. Alkaline water electrolysis (Chlor-Akali)
2. Electrodialysis (water treatment, inter alia)
3. Desalination
4. Acid Remediation
5. Salt water batteries
6. REDOX flow batteries (reduction-oxidation batteries)
We have not ascribed any value to the potential of AFC Energy’s AlkaMem™, but have seen the product work under test conditions. If AFC Energy is able to advance its solid membrane to a stage of development comparable to that of its liquid fuel cell technology, we would expect there to be a market for the solid membrane and that it would be an excellent acquisition target for a major chemical or electrical company.
DeNora a global leader in hydrogen and electrode technology and a manufacturing partner of AFC Energy recently undertook third party testing of the AlkaMem™ in Japan. DeNora stated that based on its internal testing standards the membrane technology exceeded internal expectations and has demonstrated the ability to offer significant
improvements relative to what is currently industry standard technology. In particular voltage drops or the rate of fuel cell degradation over time with utilisation was better than standard technologies.
In addition, to its liquid alkaline fuel cell AFC Energy has developed a solid alkaline fuel cell, HydroX-Cell(S), which has a higher power density, meaning that for any given surface area of fuel cell it stands to produce considerably more power than is possible with a liquid fuel cell. Essentially this allows for a more compact system.
The solid alkaline membrane in AFC Energy’s solid alkaline fuel cells, AlkaMem™, has multiple applications outside of fuel cells. The company’s membrane would have many of the applications of proton exchange membranes (“PEMs”), which conceptually serve the same function.
Such membranes allow hydrogen cations (hydrogen atoms with one proton and no electrons) to pass through them while not allowing hydrogen atoms (hydrogen atoms have one proton and one electron) to pass. In other terms such membranes have unique electro-chemical properties and are suitable for a number of commercial electro-chemical processes.
Outside of a fuel cell, there are multiple applications for PEMs and comparable membranes.
The most prominent PEM product is DuPont’s proton exchange membrane, which is sold under the trade name Nafion®. Nafion® was developed by Dow Chemical.
Our understanding is that Nafion® has a dominant position within the PEM market because of its unparalleled performance and durability. A host of markets for Nafion® have developed due to its unique properties:
1. For energy it has been used for a number of specialist electrical applications, to generate hydrogen from electrical energy (electrolysis), to regulate the efficient use and storage of energy and for fuel cells (generating electrical energy from
hydrogen).
2. Many chemical processes that require high-quality resins, membranes and catalysts use Nafion® products. In particular, chemical processes that require extremely pure chemicals can use Nafion® to increase chemical purity.
3. Chlor-alkali processes produce chlorine and alkali simultaneously as a result of the electrolysis of saltwater. Nafion® allows this process to be accomplished without the use of environmentally harmful chemicals or excessive amounts of
energy.
4. Nafion® membranes are suitable for hydrogen powered vehicles because they allow for considerable energy to be produced relative to the weight and volume of the associated fuel cell.
The market for Nafion™ in 2018 has been estimated at $1.2 billion globally and is forecast to grow at 8.5% annually up to 2022 (source: MarketWatch, 7 March 2019)