The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and clean hydrogen company Electric Hydrogen have inked an agreement to develop high-performance electrolyzer components, helping to scale clean hydrogen and invent new opportunities for decarbonization. The three-year, $3.6 million collaboration will diagnose sources of degradation in commercial electrolysis cells and will validate advanced designs that use higher stack currents.
“Our goal is to build industrial-scale electrolysis so that carbon-heavy industries can adapt,” said David Eaglesham, co-founder and chief technology officer at Electric Hydrogen. “NREL has a history of helping next-up technologies scale to larger markets, and we are confident that this collaboration will achieve similar breakthroughs for renewable hydrogen.”
“This partnership really creates value in multiple directions,” said Guido Bender, NREL principal investigator on the project. “While Electric Hydrogen develops its product, we develop our research capabilities to be more sensitive to device degradation, and, as a result, the entire renewable industry benefits as we achieve new benchmarks in cost and performance” he added.
Multiple stakeholders and countries like the United States have set their sights on clean hydrogen because it is versatile and could provide a near-term path to carbon-free energy systems.
Among its advantages, hydrogen could provide long-term storage, it can be used to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals, and it can support greater renewable integration. This collaboration with Electric Hydrogen will put the modest molecule on a fast track toward commercial applications.
