BioLogic SP150 PGSTAT acquired by HYSA Infrastructure Centre of Competence at Nort-west University Potchefstroom
HySA Infrastructure Centre of Competence is one of the three centres launched by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). It is co-hosted by North-West University (NWU) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and led by Prof. Dmitri Bessarabov (Director).
HySA’s Infrastructure aims to use South Africa’s abundant renewable and mineral resources to produce, store and distribute hydrogen by water electrolysis. Energy carrier, system integration, and infrastructure are their primary technology deliverables (such as electrochemical hydrogen compression, electrolysers, LOHC technology, refuelling stations, safety, etc.). Through technological development and demonstration, their research is driven by product needs.
From left to right: Dr Boitumelo MOGWASE (Post-doctorial fellow) working on Mineral Processing and Beneficiation of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) and Mr Bruno Steiner.
Their expertise includes energy services and access. They can also develop and manufacture CCM, LOHC catalysts, electrocatalysts for water splitting, recombination catalysts, etc. In the photograph, the Electrolysis Laboratory can be seen with Dr Boitumelo Mogwase (Post-doctoral fellow) working on Mineral Processing and Beneficiation of Platinum Group Metals (PGMS), where she synthesises PGM- precursors and nanoparticles for use in PGM-based systems such as water electrolysers, electrochemical hydrogen compression, Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC), etc.
This laboratory is used to fulfil the needs of the National Flagship HySA programme and benefits all SA PGM-related stakeholders, giving them an opportunity to commercialise the PGM-catalysts to address escalating energy demands, clean energy, and depletion of fossil fuels. Recently, to add to their addition of instrumentation, they had bought a new potentiostat SP-150e, which will be used together with a Ring Disk Electrode (RDE) to electrochemically characterise the PGM electrocatalysts that they synthesise in-house using their proprietary methods.
