Cheap and efficient hydrogen production

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis has demonstrated its potential to produce hydrogen and oxygen in a clean and safe way. Despite its numerous advantages over alkaline electrolysis, high capital costs have been preventing the technology's wide use in hydrogen production. Use of expensive materials, high material usage, limited durability of the main PEM components and complex stack designs mainly account for the high costs.


Eight European partners are joining forces to develop and demonstrate novel materials and competitive PEM technology in the EU-funded project 'Novel materials and system designs for low cost, efficient and durable PEM electrolysers' (NOVEL).


Building on the success of a predecessor project, NOVEL aims to lower membrane, electrode and bipolar plate costs, and also increase membrane electrode assembly (MEA) performance. Furthermore, it will ensure longer lifetime of the most crucial PEM components as well as cost-efficient operation of the electrolyser at high pressures. Accelerated stress test protocols will evaluate the electrolyser lifetime and durability of the novel system components.


So far, project partners have worked on identifying and enhancing understanding of the most important degradation mechanisms affecting PEMs. They have also developed new membrane materials and electrocatalysts that should be included in the production of large-scale MEAs. Baseline MEAs for benchmarking cell testing are ready. Work on producing coatings for bipolar plates and current collectors is ongoing.


To date, results are promising and have a high potential to achieve improved performance and reduced cost of PEM water electrolysers. NOVEL is expected to lead to high-performance electrolysers that should have at least an efficiency of 75 % in producing hydrogen.