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What will this webinar cover?

In recent years, the potential of clean renewable energy from the generation and subsequent reaction of hydrogen to generate heat or electricity has gained a tremendous amount of interest from both government and private industry. The “science” of hydrogen conversion, i.e., the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen to generate energy is relatively simple and has been used successfully for many years on a very small scale; in fact, hydrogen fuel cells were used on the Apollo Moon missions over fifty years ago. However, the use of hydrogen for economical power generation or for transportation on the scale needed to displace petroleum as a primary fuel source presents tremendous engineering challenges on every step of the hydrogen fuel cycle.

One key gap common across all steps in the hydrogen value chain is the limitation of many current “best in class materials” for each step of the production, storage, and use of hydrogen, particularly plastics materials.  Hydrogen is one of the smallest molecules and presents many challenges in compression, and containment. Many current plastics materials often don’t fully meet technical requirements. In addition, without understanding of the material science that governs performance, extensive empirical testing is required, and if the material fails you are no closer to a solution if the mechanisms of failure are not understood.

What has been discussed in the literature and seen in actual real-world applications in hydrogen and fuel cell service is that failure modes of creep and chemical resistance are often the underlying cause(s) of performance degradation. The use of crosslinking technology, common in elastomer products, as well as some crosslinked plastic products (thermosets, crosslinked polyethylene) can be used to improve the underlying properties of the base polymers to be crosslinked.

Crosslinking of PEEK yields significant, measurable advantages over the base PEEK polymer system as has been reported by Greene Tweed and our customers over the past 10 years. The crosslinking of PEEK also improves its properties to allow it to displace other high-performance polymers such as polyimides. Greene Tweed's engineers were the first to develop and commercialize a PEEK crosslinking technology, Arlon® 3000XT. A general overview of the Arlon® 3000XT crosslinked PEEK material platform, as well as review of selected material properties relevant to hydrogen applications and enhancement of reliability of polymeric components will be presented. We will show some examples of products where the base PEEK technology did not fully meet the product needs, and the application of crosslinking technology enabled successful product performance, where other material systems did not work.

Who is presenting?

Kerry Drake is an experienced technical leader, responsible for building and leading global cross-functional teams for research, development, and commercialization of new polymer technologies and new products in Aerospace, Semiconductor, Energy, & Life Sciences Markets. He is an inventor on multiple granted patents in polymers, coatings, and elastomeric products, and has presented at several international conferences in Polymer chemistry and materials science.

Kerry holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from Drexel University. He also a BS from Bucknell University and an MS from the University of Michigan, both in Chemistry.

Kerry's specialties include expertise in ultra-performance polymers and materials including polyarylether ketones (PAEK/PEEK) and their composites, high-performance thermosets, elastomer chemistry and product development, and organic and inorganic coatings. He has led the development of multiple new products from concept through synthesis, pilot scale production, and commercial launch and revenue generation.

Technical panelists include Philippe Allienne, Greg Gedney, and Brian Callahan.