James Cropper Advanced Materials works at the edge of material science, creating future focused solutions across a broad portfolio of products. From ultra-fine glass non-wovens found on most commercial aircraft, to electrochemical coatings creating green hydrogen at the heart of PEM electrolysers. James Cropper specialises in providing innovative solutions for current and next-generation technologies.
The Advanced Materials division services a number of tier 1 industry partners through our manufacturing sites in the United Kingdom and United States. Additionally, we have a vast network of distributors and agents that sell our products across North America, Europe, China, and Taiwan. We proactively work with strategic partners to create a portfolio of products that will deliver cutting edge solutions in both the near and long term.
James Cropper Advanced Materials manufacture a range of carbon nonwovens specifically developed for use as a substrate for a fuel cell Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL). This forms the basis of both the anode and cathode, and is responsible for water management, the transport of reactants, electricity and heat, as well as providing structural support to the fuel cell assembly.
Lee is currently CEO of Fuel Cell Systems Ltd (FCSL). Industry insiders often talk about Hydrogen’s Chicken and Egg problem: Vehicle manufacturers cannot sell hydrogen vehicles without a refuelling infrastructure; Infrastructure & fuel network providers cannot recoup their investment if there are not enough vehicles using hydrogen. The result is Gridlock! Our approach has been to redefine the Chicken and Egg problem as simply “Refuelling Infrastructure is too expensive”. Now that’s an engineering problem we can fix!
Prior to FCSL, Lee spent eight years at UK Fuel Cell manufacturer Intelligent Energy, completing his time there as Chief Sales Officer. Leading the global commercial team and launching Intelligent Energy’s low carbon hydrogen products in to three market sectors: automotive, power generation and aviation. Lee’s involvement with the hydrogen industry started back in 1995 when among other projects he supported the field trials of SOFC CHP.
