Sustainable Electrolysers for the Energy Transition

Authors: Fabian Scheepers, Gerd Schumacher, Olivier Guillon; Speaker: Fabian Scheepers

The EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050^1,2. The European net zero goal requires deployment of all available clean and efficient energy technologies. Renewable technologies, like PV and wind energy, will play a key role in the ongoing energy transition. However, an energy system with a high share of volatile energy production technologies requires buffering ups and downs in energy production. Most industrialized nations plan to use hydrogen as a energy carrier and for storage of renewables. Global hydrogen use reached 95 Mt in 2022³. Most of the produced hydrogen is fossil based and to meet climate ambitions, there is an urgent need to switch to low-emission hydrogen production. Today, only 0.7% of the global hydrogen production is from low emission production (green hydrogen). Forecast by the Hydrogen Council predicts that for 2030 the announced EU hydrogen production capacity via electrolysis will be above 90 GW.
Such a high increase in the installed electrolyzer capacity requires major materials innovations, since cost reductions and an increase in efficiency are needed. The International Energy Agency published a roadmap in the Global Hydrogen Review 2023, which shows the technological maturity of different electrolyser types. AEL and PEMEL are already commercially available, but the costs have to be reduced and safety issues have to be solved by cell design and materials improvements. AEL is the most mature electrolyser technology with over 100 years of application experience and there are almost no expensive rare earth metals involved in the devices, but gas cross over issues are causing safety problems⁴ and the efficiency is relatively low compared to other electrolyser technologies. PEMEL is currently the most advanced and commercially available electrolyser technology but is relatively expensive due to critical raw materials being used for the electrodes and electrolyte. SOEL are entering commercialization and improvements in the durability of materials for interconnects and other components need further improvement⁵ . AEMEL is still in a stage of research and first demonstrations projects have been successfully launched. In this presentation we will show, that besides manufacturability and improving the efficiency of the electrolyser systems, it is vital to consider the availability of critical raw materials as well. Furthermore, toxicological aspects of certain substances of concern cannot be neglected at such an expected global scale of technical application. Therefore, scenarios for sustainable electrolyser development will be presented predicting a timeline for sustainable and safe by design electrolyser innovations.

1: Going climate-neutral by 2050; A strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral EU economy; European Union, 2019; doi:10.2834/02074.

2: Net-Zero Industry Act: Making the EU the home of clean technologies, manufacturing and green jobs; European Commission - Press release from the 16th of March 2023.

3: Global Hydrogen Review 2023; International Energy Agency.

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