Accelerating zero emissions transport
When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969 it wasn’t just a giant leap for humanity. It was also the culmination of a huge amount of work by Johnson Matthey’s scientists. Those pioneering teams designed components that powered equipment on those missions, mixing hydrogen with oxygen inside a fuel cell to create a reliable source of energy.
Uncover Emily's story and how she's making a difference to lives
Emily Nesling
R&D Scientist
“JM’s vision means I can use my skills to help tackle climate change, protect the planet for my children and my children's children, and hopefully leave the world in a better place than I found it.”
Inspiring science, enhancing life
Supporting
the Apollo space missions in
the 1960s
Expect to see by 2030…
5% of the world’s trucks powered by fuel cells
JM designed the fuel cells components that powered equipment
It’s my job to take our new fuel cell membranes through development, to understand the product and how it works, then scale it up. That’s the crucial part – making this technology work in the real world is how it will make a difference to the planet. Some days I'm in the lab looking at new technology, doing experiments, testing the feasibility of new materials. Other days I'm looking at the scale-up of material, working with our operations, quality and process engineering teams. JM has a great culture of knowledge sharing and bringing scientists together.
Its vision for a cleaner, healthier world focuses on the issues that are really close to my heart. That means driving down emissions and making everything we do much cleaner, much more sustainable.
Uncover Emily's story and how she's making a difference to lives
It means I can use my skills to help tackle climate change, protect the planet for my children and my children's children and hopefully leaving the world in a better place than I found it. I’m looking at the legacy that I leave behind.
Emily Nesling
R&D Scientist
Decarbonising air travel
Hear from Amelia Cook, Senior Engineer
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Thanks to our expertise in platinum group metals chemistry and catalysis JM makes the components that sit at the heart of a fuel cell that determine how well it will perform. And since 2005, we’ve been involved in more than 50 funded fuel cell programmes to help develop and scale up the technology.
In China, meanwhile, more than 1,300 vehicles have been fitted with JM components, including over 170 heavy-duty trucks, thanks to our partnership with fuel cell technology experts REFIRE. We expect the overall number to more than double by 2023 to 3,000 vehicles. Partnerships like these help us challenge the science more quickly and are essential in commercialising fuel cell technology.
We’ve proved before that our technology is out of this world, now we’re using it to help accelerate the transition to a hydrogen-based economy and protect our planet.
The same technology that helped power equipment on space missions in the 60s is helping to decarbonise transport a little closer to home. Fuel cells can be used in all sorts of vehicles – from ships to passenger cars, but are particularly useful in buses and heavy duty trucks where batteries are too heavy to be practical. What’s so exciting about fuel cells is that they can run on lower-carbon hydrogen, where the only by-product is water clean enough to drink.
While fuel cell technology is still relatively expensive, it is a rapidly growing market. In fact, we believe that 5% of the world’s trucks will be powered by fuel cells by 2030, rising to one-third by 2040. And in China, we expect the market for catalyst-coated membranes used in fuel cells to grow to more than £1 billion a year by 2030. China has also set itself a target to introduce one million fuel cell vehicles and 1,000 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2030.
Unlocking the potential of hydrogen
Read more case studies and see how our people are contributing
Hear from Will McDonnell, Research Scientist, and Mark McKenna, Process Technology Manager
Cleaner air, healthier people
Hear from Sabrina Elix, Industrialisation Lead
Read more case studies and see how our people are contributing
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Decarbonising air travel
Hear from Amelia Cook, Senior Engineer
Read more case studies and see how our people are contributing
Read more
Cleaner air, healthier people
Hear from Sabrina Elix, Industrialisation Lead
Read more case studies and see how our people are contributing
Uncover Emily's story and how she's making a difference to lives
Inspiring science, enhancing life
Emily Nesling
R&D Scientist
Read more
Unlocking the potential of hydrogen
Hear from Will McDonnell, Research Scientist, and Mark McKenna, Process Technology Manager
Read more case studies and see how our people are contributing