This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.A far-reaching new drive is under way to ease iridium scarcity still further and, especially in the short term, demand for platinum group metals (PGMs) from electrochemical processes is on the way.That is the news from clean chemistry company Mattiq, which aims to decarbonise chemicals production.The Chicago-based Mattiq is intent on providing low-iridium materials for PGMs-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers that generate green hydrogen, the globally recognised enabler of the climate-vital transition to sustainable energy and net zero emission."When I say low iridium, we're typically talking about say one-third or less iridium by mass," Mattiq product management head Dr Mike Ashley outlined to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)With the aim of making low-iridium materials commercially available in 2025, Mattiq intends to clinch a partnership with a catalyst manufacturing concern in the second or third quarter of this year."Especially in the short term, we're going to see a pretty significant increase in demand for PGMs from electrochemical processes," said Ashley.Mattiq is developing electrochemical processes that run on clean electricity to decarbonise chemicals production."For the same reasons that iridium is quite durable over long periods of time in PEM electrolyser applications, other PGMs such as platinum, palladium, rhodium, exhibit similar characteristics where they're active and efficient catalysts, and they're very durable over long periods of time. Fortunately, all those materials are less expensive and not as scarce as iridium," said Ashley.Regarding the softening of PGMs demand from catalytic converters for internal combustion engine vehicles, he said: "We see electrochemistry as a potentially very important substitute demand source for PGMs moving forward."In addition to green hydrogen, Mattiq foresees making many more chemical products in a low-carbon way using electrocatalytic processes.Examples of those chemical products the company sees as being attractive include acetic acid for food and beverage production, adipic acid for nylon production in particular, as well as ethylene glycol, a chemical used in coolant and antifreeze."These are a few examples of chemicals that are fairly carbon intensive today, that we can help to decarbonise by running through electrochemical processes that are run on clean power," Ashley explained.Mattiq finds that even having small quantities of PGMs in the system can improve durability considerably."The addition of small quantities of PGMs will always improve the durability of your system in a meaningful way."We think that the chemical sector is going to be the hardest-to-abate sector of the economy, due to its inherent ties to fossil fuels, leveraging both fossil fuel feedstocks and fossil fuels to run chemical processes, and we think that electrochemistry is a very key part of the decarbonisation strategy of chemical companies across the globe."We think that electrochemical systems are a very important piece of the puzzle to decarbonisation targets for the major chemical companies across the globe."We think electrochemistry uniquely allows you to bypass some of the heaviest emitting parts of chemical processing."Think things like high temperature process heat, compressors to produce high pressure reaction systems, we can completely circumvent these parts of the process by using electrochemical processes."Simply by running these systems on electricity rather than fossil fuel burners will allow chemical companies to achieve their decarbonisation targets in the coming decades," Ashley emphasised.BIG IRIDIUM FOCUSHighly corrosion-resistant, iridium is the only known material that can last for long periods of operation under harsh acidic and oxidative conditions, which is why it is a key PEM catalyst material.Because it is ...