BNL licenses technology for electric cars

Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton has licensed a technology to a Japanese company that could make the powering of electric cars more affordable and reliable, the lab announced Tuesday.

The lab, which is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, licensed an electrocatalyst patent to N.E. Chemcat Corp. That technology reduces reliance on costly platinum to speed up the production of electricity in fuel cells.

Platinum is the most efficient electrocatalyst for fuel cells, the lab said, but the precious metal is costly, and platinum-based catalysts are unstable and have low durability.

By contrast, the newly licensed electrocatalysts contain just one-tenth of the platinum, and "have high activity, stability and durability," the lab said. They use a palladium-platinum combination.

The lab declined to say how much it received for licensing the patent. But the license is renewable annually, said Kimberley Elcess, principal licensing specialist at the lab.

N.E. Chemcat, a precious-metals compound manufacturer, learned of the lab's technology because of the reputation of Radoslav Adzic, the senior chemist who led the team that developed the catalysts, Elcess said. He is considered a leader in the field of electrocatalysts, she said.

Adzic, in the lab's statement, said, "We hope that [this] . . . will facilitate the development of affordable and reliable fuel cell electric vehicles, which would be very beneficial for the environment since they produce no harmful emissions."