The history of CAPLINQ, Spectracarb and LINQCELL

Since the term “Spec­tracarb” con­tin­ues to bring many cus­tomers to CAPLIN­Q’s web­site, we are often asked if CAPLINQ man­u­fac­tures Spec­tracarb and what is the rela­tion­ship between Spec­tracarb and CAPLINQ. This sec­tion is meant to answer that ques­tion in more detail while still pre­serv­ing a lot of the his­to­ry and con­tent that was cre­at­ed for Engi­neered Fibers Tech­nol­o­gy (EFT) and GinerELX at the time.

1991 to 2005: Spectracarb the very early days

In the ear­ly days of Spec­tracarb, from 1991 to 2005, the com­pa­ny estab­lished itself as a lead­ing pro­duc­er of GDL prod­ucts for com­mer­cial appli­ca­tions. They were also a leader in the devel­op­ment of new GDL mate­ri­als, and had sev­er­al con­tracts with the Depart­ment of Ener­gy. Addi­tion­al­ly, the com­pa­ny had sig­nif­i­cant sup­port from the auto­mo­tive and indus­tri­al sectors.

2005 to 2012: Spectracarb the early days

From 2005 to 2012, Spec­tracarb was acquired by Engi­neered Fibers Tech­nol­o­gy (EFT), a com­pa­ny owned by Robert Evans who con­tin­ued to grow the com­pa­ny through their focus on engi­neered mate­ri­als research, wet-laid paper devel­op­ment, and spe­cial­ty short-cut fiber inves­ti­ga­tions. Under EFT’s lead­er­ship, Spec­tracarb con­tin­ued to be a major play­er in the GDL indus­try and made sig­nif­i­cant advance­ments in its prod­ucts and processes.

Though the com­pa­ny had earned a name for itself as a pio­neer in the man­u­fac­ture of Graphi­tized Car­bon Paper and Pan­els for use as Gas Dif­fu­sion Lay­ers in Fuel Cells and Elec­trolyz­ers, sales remained low as the mar­ket was still in its infancy.

2013 — 2018: Spectracarb partnership with CAPLINQ begins

In Octo­ber 2013, Robert Evans of EFT had a meet­ing with Christo­pher Per­abo, the Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Direc­tor of CAPLINQ. Dur­ing the meet­ing, Per­abo shared that his com­pa­ny, CAPLINQ, was in the process of devel­op­ing a series of prod­ucts and mate­ri­als that would sup­port the bur­geon­ing Renew­able Ener­gy mar­ket. Rec­og­niz­ing the poten­tial of Spec­tracarb as a unique and inno­v­a­tive prod­uct, Per­abo shared that it could be used as a gas dif­fu­sion lay­er in fuel cells, elec­trolyz­ers, bat­ter­ies, humid­i­fiers, and a vari­ety of oth­er elec­tro­chem­i­cal devices. Togeth­er, Evans and Per­abo agreed that there was a sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op this mar­ket and signed a defin­i­tive agree­ment to col­lab­o­rate and work togeth­er to devel­op, sell and sup­port Spec­tracarb as a gas dif­fu­sion lay­er in var­i­ous appli­ca­tions. This part­ner­ship marked a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward for both com­pa­nies in the ever-expand­ing renew­able ener­gy market.

From 2013 to 2018, CAPLINQ and EFT formed a close part­ner­ship to devel­op cut­ting-edge graphi­tized car­bon prod­ucts for man­u­fac­tur­ers of elec­trolyz­ers and fuel cells glob­al­ly. Annu­al­ly, the com­pa­nies joint­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Han­nover Messe trade show, where they met with both cur­rent and prospec­tive clients and show­cased the newest advance­ments in the porous graphite paper/panel industry.

Spectracarb Products and Nomenclature

Though many oth­er prod­ucts and vari­a­tions were devel­oped with cus­tomers over the years, the fol­low­ing table cov­ers the most pop­u­lar Spec­tracarb prod­ucts that were developed.

Lega­cy Spec­tracarb prod­uct codes

• 2050 HF: Oth­er spe­cial grades include “2050 HF” with high­er mean pore size and increased permeability.
• 2050 HT: Spec­tracarb GDL can also be man­u­fac­tured in the den­si­ty and thick­ness ranges shown above, but using mod­i­fied pro­cess­ing to achieve high­er elec­tri­cal con­duc­tiv­i­ty and improved cor­ro­sion resis­tance with our ”2050 HT” Series for use in PAFC and oth­er spe­cial products.
• 2050 L: Spec­tracarb GDL thin papers and thick­er pan­els can also be pro­vid­ed on spe­cial order in a “2050 L” grade which is car­bonized at a low­er max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture to pro­vide a low­er-cost prod­uct for humid­i­fiers and oth­er spe­cial products.
• 2050 P: Both papers and pan­els can also be pro­vid­ed on spe­cial order in our “2050 P Series” where addi­tion­al purifi­ca­tion can be con­duct­ed to pro­vide trace elements
• 2050 WP: Wet proofed grades incor­po­rat­ing a micro­p­orous hydropho­bic lay­er of any of the Spec­tracarb series can be pro­vid­ed through a part­ner company.
• Cus­tomer Spe­cif­ic Grades: It is also pos­si­ble to make Hybrid con­struc­tions in the Mul­ti-lay­er con­struc­tions. Con­tact us to dis­cuss any spe­cial require­ments, or for the design and pro­duc­tion of grades for your spe­cif­ic requirement.
• 2225 Acti­vat­ed fab­ric is also discontinued.

CAPLINQ presents at Hannover Messe in 2016

By 2016, CAPLINQ and EFT had devel­oped a strong part­ner­ship, with CAPLINQ gain­ing exten­sive knowl­edge of the man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es and prac­tices of graphi­tized car­bon pan­els and papers, equiv­a­lent to that of EFT. Through­out the years, CAPLINQ also worked close­ly with lead­ers in the elec­trolyz­er and fuel cell indus­try to cus­tomize and devel­op GDL prod­ucts for spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tions. CAPLINQ was also well-versed in the advan­tages of the paper­mak­ing approach to cre­ate spe­cial­ized GDL prod­ucts. As a result of their exper­tise, CAPLINQ was invit­ed to present at the Han­nover Messe in 2016 as part of the Hydro­gen Fuel Cells Bat­ter­ies Group Exhibit.

Below is a copy of the pre­sen­ta­tion that was giv­en by Christo­pher Per­abo as well as a video of the pre­sen­ta­tion itself dur­ing the 2016 Han­nover Messe.

CAPLINQ Spectracarb Presentation Hannover 2016

CAPLINQ Spectracarb Video Presentation Hannover 2016

2018 — 2019: Spectracarb acquired by GinerELX

In Decem­ber 2018 GinerELX acquired the entire­ty of the Spec­tracarb GDL busi­ness from Engi­neered Fibers Tech­nol­o­gy (EFT). This includ­ed the brand­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, stock, and all of the company’s assets while nat­u­ral­ly inher­it­ing their entire cus­tomer base. CAPLINQ, hav­ing col­lab­o­rat­ed close­ly with the EFT team, was aware of the talks with GinerELX before the acqui­si­tion and sup­port­ed EFT’s deci­sion to be acquired by GinerELX. This was based on the expec­ta­tion that GinerELX, a lead­ing play­er in the elec­trol­y­sis hydro­gen gen­er­a­tor mar­ket, would con­tin­ue to invest in the growth of the Graphi­tized Car­bon Sheet mar­ket, as it serves as a cru­cial com­po­nent in the assem­bly, specif­i­cal­ly as a gas dif­fu­sion layer.

The use of graphi­tized car­bon sheet as a gas dif­fu­sion lay­er is vital for the effi­cient oper­a­tion of elec­trol­y­sis hydro­gen gen­er­a­tors, and CAPLINQ saw the acqui­si­tion as a way for GinerELX to fur­ther strength­en its posi­tion in the GDL mar­ket and con­tin­ue to dri­ve inno­va­tion in this area.

The acqui­si­tion of Spec­tracarb by GinerELX ter­mi­nat­ed the agree­ment between CAPLINQ and EFT. CAPLINQ remained a cus­tomer of GinerELX which con­tin­ued to sup­ply the Spec­tracarb GDL to CAPLINQ as well as oth­er mar­ket partners.

2019: The birth of LINQCELL

Though rela­tion­ships between CAPLINQ and GinerELX were very pos­i­tive, as part of their acqui­si­tion GinerELX decid­ed not to con­tin­ue to devel­op the broad­er Spec­tracarb GDL mar­ket. Instead, GinerELX decid­ed to stream­line its Spec­tracarb GDL offer­ing, choos­ing to focus only on man­u­fac­tur­ing the spe­cif­ic range of porous car­bon sheets that could be used as GDLs in elec­trolyz­ers. This elim­i­nat­ed all the very thin GDL sheets used as GDLs in Fuel Cells, as well as the oth­er car­bon paper, car­bon felts, and acti­vat­ed car­bon cloths used in elec­trolyz­ers and oth­er elec­tro­chem­i­cal devices.

As a result, from August 2019, GinerELX has adapt­ed or com­plete­ly removed some of the prod­uct lines to reflect the ser­vices GinerELX’s clients most­ly need. Among oth­er pop­u­lar CAPLINQ cus­tomer prod­ucts, this result­ed in the 55 x 55cm Spec­tracarb GDL pan­els being discontinued.

CAPLINQ respond­ed by invest­ing in the devel­op­ment and man­u­fac­ture of its own car­bon-based prod­uct line, LINQCELL, which includes Graphi­tized Car­bon Paper and Pan­els. This exclu­sive prod­uct line was designed not to com­pete but rather to com­ple­ment the Spec­tracarb elec­trolyz­er GDL offer­ing and con­tin­ue ser­vic­ing cus­tomers in the fuel cell, elec­trolyz­er, and elec­tro­chem­i­cal device markets.

Uti­liz­ing its mar­ket knowl­edge, prod­uct exper­tise, and man­u­fac­tur­ing expe­ri­ence, CAPLINQ was able to devel­op its own prod­uct port­fo­lio, allow­ing it to con­tin­ue inno­vat­ing its prod­uct line for exist­ing cus­tomers and attract a larg­er cus­tomer base with new products.

2020: Bye Bye Spectracarb. The end of an era.

In Sep­tem­ber 2019, Plug­Pow­er, a lead­ing provider of hydro­gen engines and fuel­ing solu­tions unveiled a 5‑year plan to tar­get $1B in rev­enue by 2024. Part of their strat­e­gy it turned out was to acquire GinerELX out­right and set out to do so. By June 2020, Plug­Pow­er had com­plet­ed its acqui­si­tion of GinerELX includ­ing the Spec­tracarb business.

As part of its ver­ti­cal strat­e­gy, Plug­Pow­er want­ed to both con­trol the entire ver­ti­cal mar­ket as well as lim­it access of its com­peti­tors to it. This nat­u­ral­ly involved cut­ting off the sup­ply of Spec­tracarb prod­ucts to its “fren­e­mies” in the mar­ket — those cus­tomers that Plug­Pow­er need­ed to dri­ve down the price of GDL sheets but that also com­pet­ed against Plug­Pow­er in sim­i­lar markets.

As such, it was only log­i­cal that Plug­Pow­er would stop sup­ply­ing Spec­tracarb mate­ri­als to CAPLINQ or to any oth­er Spec­tracarb cus­tomer. Since the end of 2020, Spec­tracarb is only avail­able through chan­nels that acquired Spec­tracarb man­u­fac­tured pri­or to 2021.

2020: Hello LINQCELL | Graphitized Carbon-Based GDLs

In 2018, when EFT announced that GinerELX would take over the Spec­tracarb busi­ness, CAPLIN­Q’s cus­tomers — who relied on this inno­v­a­tive porous graphite paper for their Gas Dif­fu­sion Lay­ers — became ner­vous. Despite ini­tial assur­ances from GinerELX, a devel­op­er of elec­trol­y­sis hydro­gen gen­er­a­tors, that there were no plans to dis­con­tin­ue Spec­tracarb GDL, many of CAPLIN­Q’s cus­tomers rec­og­nized GinerELX as a man­u­fac­tur­er of elec­tro­chem­i­cal devices — the same mar­ket they com­pet­ed in.

Though there was no way to pre­dict the series of events that would lead to the unavail­abil­i­ty of Spec­tracarb GDL, CAPLIN­Q’s cus­tomers turned to our team of experts to devel­op alternatives.

In response to GinerELX’s dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of the thin graphite car­bon paper used as a gas dif­fu­sion lay­er in fuel cells by a lead­ing sup­pli­er, CAPLIN­Q’s engi­neers quick­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed with the mar­ket­ing team to devel­op a suit­able replace­ment. The result was LINQCELL GDP180, a 180-micron porous graphi­tized car­bon paper. This inno­v­a­tive prod­uct was the first in the LINQCELL prod­uct fam­i­ly and was specif­i­cal­ly devel­oped to meet the needs of a fuel cell cus­tomer. This prod­uct was made avail­able to cus­tomers just weeks after the dis­con­tin­u­a­tion was announced, min­i­miz­ing dis­rup­tion and ensur­ing a smooth tran­si­tion for our val­ued cus­tomers. This prod­uct is a close alter­na­tive to the Spec­tracarb 0850.

Short­ly there­after, GinerELX announced the dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of the Spec­tracarb GDL pan­els in 55 x 55 cm sizes. This prod­uct too was a pop­u­lar prod­uct for CAPLINQ cus­tomers work­ing on elec­trolyz­er appli­ca­tions. In response, CAPLINQ devel­oped a thick­er car­bon pan­el result­ing in the LINQCELL GDL1500, a 1.5mm porous graphi­tized car­bon pan­el.

These two prod­ucts formed the basis of CAPLIN­Q’s LINQCELL Graphi­tized Car­bon Paper port­fo­lio but quick­ly grew to include sev­er­al more prod­ucts as we worked to cus­tomize cus­tomers’ par­tic­u­lar requests con­cern­ing thick­ness, tol­er­ance, poros­i­ty, den­si­ty as well as fin­ish­es includ­ing PTFE and MPL.

The LINCELL line of prod­ucts also expand­ed to include Car­bon Cloths and Acti­vat­ed Car­bon Fab­rics and our exist­ing line of LINQSTAT elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tics round­ed out our portfolio.

By the end of 2020, when Plug­Pow­er had announced the dis­con­tin­u­a­tion of the Spec­tracarb line of graphi­tized car­bon papers for GDLs, CAPLIN­Q’s LINQCELL Car­bon-based prod­uct line was already very well devel­oped and had attract­ed many new cus­tomers. Any remain­ing cus­tomers of Spec­tracarb came to CAPLINQ and we were able to offer suit­able alternatives.

2020 to present day: The future of LINQCELL

Since 2020, CAPLINQ has invest­ed heav­i­ly in the R&D and man­u­fac­ture of LINQCELL prod­ucts. Our new inno­va­tions include alter­na­tive fur­nace process­es, alter­na­tive man­u­fac­tur­ing prac­tices, and many oth­er han­dling process­es that make LINQCELL prod­ucts even more cost-effec­tive than Spec­tracarb prod­ucts while improv­ing also the tol­er­ances of the prod­ucts we provide.

Fur­ther­more, we have also made some sig­nif­i­cant part­ner­ships to be able to also offer poly­mer-based solu­tions including:

• Ion-exchange mem­branes
• Ion-exchange poly­mers

This offer­ing allows CAPLINQ to offer a more com­plete range of mate­ri­als to elec­trolyz­er and fuel cell man­u­fac­tur­ers. For any ques­tions on any of the prod­ucts or appli­ca­tions men­tioned in this arti­cle, please vis­it our web­site or feel free to con­tact us to see how we can help you with solu­tions to your design challenges.