With the increasing awareness of environmental protection worldwide, the European Union and the United States have introduced bans on fluorinated plastics in recent years, aiming to reduce the potential risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the environment and human health. PFAS, known for their excellent water and oil repellency, high-temperature resistance, and other properties, are widely used in products such as membranes. However, these characteristics also make PFAS difficult to break down in the natural environment, posing a threat to ecosystems. Currently, from a global perspective, stricter regulation of PFAS is a long-term trend. Below is a brief summary of some actions taken by countries currently:

On February 7, 2023, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published a proposal for restrictions on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the REACH regulation, jointly submitted by Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The proposal covers about 10,000 compounds defined as PFAS, with the aim of fundamentally banning the production, use, and sale of all 10,000 PFAS chemicals, thus officially firing the first shot in the comprehensive phase-out of PFAS substances.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the "PFAS Strategic Roadmap: EPA's Commitments to Action 2021-2024" in October 2021 and established a dedicated PFAS Council; on April 18, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled the legislative draft of HR 8074 (IH), the "Permanent Chemicals Regulatory and Accountability Act of 2024," which aims to completely phase out non-essential uses of PFAS and ban all PFAS emissions within 10 years. In addition to the aforementioned federal actions in the United States, several states in the U.S. have also enacted formal legislation to regulate PFAS.

Driven by bans on fluorinated substances in countries such as the European Union and the United States, regulatory restrictions on PFAS will have a profound impact on various industries including semiconductors, photovoltaics, automotive, fluorochemicals, energy, and consumer goods. Actively researching alternative materials to fluorine has become a major strategic choice for countries around the world to address the hazards of fluorine.

Taking the rapidly developing electrochemical energy storage technology as an example: membranes, as one of the key materials for flow batteries, with perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membranes being the most widely used membrane material for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB). PFSA, which belongs to the class of PFAS polymers, is extensively used in electrochemical systems such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, and flow batteries, especially as a highly dependent membrane material and polymer in the development of current green energy technologies.

The carbon-fluorine bond structure and sulfonic acid groups in PFSA endow these products with excellent stability and proton conductivity, but their environmental persistence, mobility, bioaccumulation, and toxicity also pose considerable risks to the ecological environment. Therefore, it is crucial to develop fluorine-free alternatives and reduce the source usage of PFSA.

The "fluorine-free ion-exchange membrane" independently developed by ZH Energy Storage is a material revolution in response to the European Union and the United States' bans on perfluorinated compounds (PFAS). Compared to perfluorinated materials, ZH Energy Storage's "fluorine-free ion-exchange membrane" uses fluorine-free resin materials from the source, abandoning the drawbacks of traditional fluorine-containing materials, and completely solving the impact of PFAS bans. In terms of performance testing, through multi-level structural design, it has successfully addressed the previous shortcomings of fluorine-free ion-exchange membrane materials in chemical stability, ionic conductivity, and ionic selectivity. While achieving battery performance at the level of Nafion membranes, the cost is reduced by more than 80%, making it an ideal alternative to current fluorine-containing ion-exchange membranes. It provides a low-cost and sustainable solution for the fields of flow batteries, hydrogen energy, and fuel cells. The company has now delivered 60-centimeter wide products to customers for pilot testing, successfully helping customers reduce the cost of end products and enhance competitiveness.