Imagine a machine that splits water into hydrogen fuel using electricity, but without using expensive or rare metals that are hard to find. It's like switching from a gold-plated engine to one made of common steel that works just as well. This makes producing clean fuel much cheaper and easier to build on a large scale.
Current green hydrogen production relies on expensive, critical raw materials and fluorinated membranes, leading to high CAPEX and supply chain risks.
A CRM-free AEM electrolyzer stack with 400 cm² cells and a 100kW nominal power target, including optimized stainless steel porous transport layers.
If you are an industrial gas producer dealing with high costs of raw materials for hydrogen plants — this project developed a CRM-free electrolyzer that targets a CAPEX of 400 €/kW. This allows for cheaper scaling of green hydrogen production without relying on volatile critical metal markets.
If you are a renewable energy operator dealing with unstable power grids — this project developed a stack capable of handling a high dynamic range of operational capacities. This ensures that excess wind or solar power can be stored as hydrogen efficiently at 60 °C.
If you are an infrastructure provider dealing with the need for high-pressure hydrogen output — this project developed a system capable of 15 bar output pressure. This reduces the need for additional compression stages, lowering overall system costs.
The project aims for a system CAPEX target of 400 €/kW. This is intended to make green hydrogen production more economically viable.
The project has developed a large-area single cell of approximately 400 cm² and is working toward a nominal power of 100kW for the stack.
Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not provided, but the project is led by an SME (Cenmat UG) with 10 industrial partners, suggesting a commercial-heavy IP structure.
The technology is designed to handle a high dynamic range of operational capacities, and stack testing has been conducted under dynamic grid conditions.
The project period runs from 2023-06-01 to 2027-05-31, with a goal to reach TRL 5 by the end of the term.
The consortium is heavily skewed toward commercialization, with 71% industry participation (10 out of 14 partners). The high presence of SMEs (8 partners) suggests a focus on agile development and rapid market entry rather than pure academic research. The collaboration spans 7 European countries, combining specialized material science from one university and three research centers with industrial scaling expertise.
Contact CUTTING-EDGE NANOMATERIALS CENMAT UG in Germany
Contact us to explore licensing opportunities for CRM-free AEM electrolysis.
