New BASF membrane adds 50% more power to HyPoint hydrogen fuel cells

HyPoint’s aviation-targeted fuel cells were already promising three times the power of a regular fuel cell by weight, but thanks to a new proton-conductive membrane developed in partnership with BASF, their power density is set to jump by another 50 percent.Yes, BASF – the same company that became a household name in the 1980s making audio cassette tapes. A name most people won’t have heard of since CDs took over in the 1990s. As it turns out, BASF is a German multinational chemicals producer that’s been around since 1865, and boy is its Wikipedia page an eyebrow raiser.BASF has spent 156 years making all kinds of chemicals. Dyes, soda, sulfuric acid, ammonia, plastics, urethanes, styrenes, explosives, you name it. It was a member of the IG Farben conglomerate, which, among other things, debuted the world’s first tape recorder in 1935. Under the Nazi regime, IG Farben’s Zyklon-B…

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