Scaling the hydrogen economy: Why precious metals still matter—and how to use them effectively
As industries accelerate toward net-zero emissions, hydrogen has become a cornerstone of the global energy transition - with precious metals enabling them.
Source: ESG Dive · October 12, 2026 at 2:01 PM · AI-assisted report
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KUALA LUMPUR, 12 OCTOBER 2026 —
As industries accelerate toward net-zero emissions, hydrogen has become a cornerstone of the global energy transition with precious metals enabling them. As hydrogen technologies move toward industrial deployment, the materials inside these systems must deliver more over a longer operating life while making increasingly efficient use of scarce resources.
Market Impact
This creates an important challenge for the hydrogen economy as reducing precious-metal use is important, but using less material does not necessarily mean using it more efficiently. The more relevant question is how much performance and operating life can be obtained from the precious metals required by the system, and how those metals can ultimately be recovered and returned to productive use.
Hydrogen has long held promise as a tool for decarbonizing sectors where direct electrification can be difficult. The challenge now is to move from demonstration and early commercial applications toward reliable, economically viable deployment at industrial scale. The market is growing, but commercialization remains limited. Global hydrogen demand surpassed 100 million metric tons in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency, while low-emissions hydrogen production remained at about one million metric tons.
Installed electrolysis capacity nevertheless doubled during the year to more than four gigawatts, illustrating both the momentum and the scale of the transition still required.
Yet scaling hydrogen is not simply a question of installing more electrolyzers or fuel cells. It also raises a materials challenge. Many hydrogen technologies depend on precious metals that are finite, costly and, in some cases, geographically concentrated. Hydrogen production, purification and utilization place very different demands on catalysts and components.
For materials providers, this means considering not only catalyst performance, but also how effectively precious metals are used over their operating life and what happens to those metals after service. The objective, therefore, is not simply to minimize precious-metal content. It is to obtain greater value from these materials throughout their lifecycle.
Precious metals remain important to several hydrogen technologies because alternative materials can struggle to match their performance under demanding operating conditions. Their catalytic and functional properties are particularly valuable where high activity must be sustained in chemically aggressive environments. Platinum supports electrochemical reactions in fuel cells and water electrolysis. Iridium is important to polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis, particularly under the highly oxidative conditions at the anode.
Palladium selectively permeates hydrogen, enabling separation from other gases, while ruthenium and rhodium can support hydrogen-production and gas-processing reactions.
As hydrogen deployment expands, the cost and scarcity of precious metals make more efficient use essential. For instance, the U.S. Department of Energy notes that iridium accounts for much of the platinum group metals content in PEM electrolyzers. The DOE has established targets that call for substantial reductions in total PGM loading while maintaining performance and durability. The IEA has also identified reducing critical-material intensity as an important area of electrolyzer innovation.
For several critical hydrogen technologies, precious metals are therefore likely to remain important even as the industry works to reduce material intensity. TANAKA approaches this challenge across the precious-metal lifecycle, connecting materials development and manufacturing with recovery and refining. This allows catalyst performance to be considered alongside efficient resource use and the potential to return valuable metals to production.
PEM water electrolysis relies on catalysts that support two demanding electrochemical reactions. Platinum-based cathode catalysts support the hydrogen evolution reaction, while iridium-based anode catalysts support the oxygen evolution reaction. At the anode, highly oxidative electrochemical conditions place demanding requirements on catalyst materials. Iridium provides the catalytic performance and corrosion resistance needed under these conditions, but it is also one of the rarest platinum group metals. Improving iridium utilization is therefore an important engineering priority.
Advanced catalyst design can increase the amount of iridium that contributes effectively to the reaction. Higher surface area and improved mass activity, for example, can help reduce iridium loading while maintaining the activity and durability required by the system. TANAKA is developing high-surface-area water-electrolysis catalysts with this objective.
The objective is not simply to use less precious metal. It is to use the material more effectively while maintaining the performance and durability required by the system, according to Dr. Torsten W. Buennagel, fuel cell manager at TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies Co., Ltd. Lower loading only creates value if the catalyst continues to deliver the activity and durability required by the system, Dr. Buennagel said.
Hydrogen will continue to be produced through multiple pathways during the transition, creating different catalyst requirements. Ruthenium- and rhodium-based catalysts can support hydrogen production from hydrocarbons, while shift-reaction and preferential oxidation catalysts can increase hydrogen yield and reduce residual carbon monoxide in hydrogen streams. Hydrogen produced from various processes can contain other gases and contaminants that must be removed before certain downstream uses.
Palladium selectively allows hydrogen to pass through a membrane while blocking other gases. That makes palladium-alloy membranes useful for producing high-purity hydrogen. Continued materials development is also expanding the operating conditions available for these systems. For example, TANAKA has developed palladium-alloy membrane technology designed to achieve high hydrogen permeability at low operating temperatures.
Polymer electrolyte fuel cells, also commonly referred to as proton exchange membrane fuel cells, depend on electrocatalysts that combine high activity with long-term durability. Because polymer electrolyte fuel cells operate at relatively low temperatures, highly active catalysts are required to achieve practical reaction rates. Platinum and platinum-based alloy catalysts remain important because matching their combination of catalytic performance and durability with alternative materials remains challenging.
Here again, reducing metal content is only part of the engineering challenge. Particle size, dispersion, surface area, catalyst-support interactions, and electrode design can all affect how effectively platinum contributes to the reaction. TANAKA has developed polymer electrolyte fuel cell electrocatalysts since 1985. Its work includes the uniform dispersion of platinum-alloy on carbon, illustrating how catalyst design can improve material utilization without simply increasing precious-metal loading.
As hydrogen technologies move toward industrial scale, metal loading alone provides an incomplete picture of resource efficiency. A more useful concept is material productivity, which measures how much useful performance and operating life can be obtained from the precious metal required to deliver a particular function. Material productivity depends on more than metal loading. Manufacturability, operating efficiency, and expected service life also determine how much value is obtained from a catalyst.
A lower loading provides limited benefit if it leads to faster degradation, reduced system efficiency or more frequent component replacement. Using a precious metal efficiently therefore does not necessarily mean minimizing its quantity. The relevant measure is whether the required performance can be sustained over the intended operating life. Catalyst architecture and dispersion influence how effectively the metal is used, while stability and manufacturing consistency determine how well that performance is retained.
Material productivity also does not end when a catalyst or component reaches the end of its first service life. Responsible precious-metal management extends beyond the amount used in a single component, and circularity can begin during development.
Related: TANAKA Precious Metal Technologies Co., Ltd. · Dr. Torsten W. Buennagel