Electrolysers: opportunities for the high-tech manufacturing industry : The case of PEM

The global challenge of the current climate crisis presses governments, businesses and knowledge organisations all over the world to mobilise behind energy saving, phasing out fossil energy and rapid deployment of renewable energy and green hydrogen. The latter is needed primarily to decarbonise the heavy industry, aviation and maritime sectors. Given the large volumes of green hydrogen required for the energy transition, there is a need to vastly ramp up the capacity for green hydrogen production through electrolysis in the coming decade. Currently, available electrolysis technologies and electrolyser manufacturing capacity are not yet fit to match the expected demand.1 To meet the energy transition challenge, manufacturing capacity of electrolysers has to scale up while simultaneously improving the design of the technology on a fundamental level, from its basic materials, to components, to entire system architecture. This paper illustrates how the challenge of rapid upscaling and improving electrolysers can be addressed by using high-tech manufacturing technologies as currently applied for the production of thin-film electronics. Generally speaking, such technologies leverage the potential of massive economies of scale and at the same time open up novel possibilities for product design. The scope here is limited to the case of so-called Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolysers to allow for discussions on the component level. The PEM electrolyser cell comprises multiple components that are very thin layers for which the functionality highly depends on their interfaces. This architecture lends itself well to high-tech manufacturing solutions adapted to the production of thin-film large surface components with highly integrated functionality. However, many of the discussed principles are equally applicable to the alternative technologies, which are Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE), Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) and Alkaline Water Electrolysis (AWE).