Sunfire and its affiliated partners from industry and research are receiving grant funding from the federal government to prepare for the serial, automated production of alkaline and SOEC electrolyzers.
Green hydrogen has evolved from a contentious “new hope” to a fixed building block of the energy transition, thanks to its potential for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries. It’s no surprise, then, that demand for electrolyzers, which use renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen, is skyrocketing. Installed capacity in the EU alone is expected to increase from 0.2 GW to 40 GW by 2030, according to the plans.
Sunfire, one of the world’s leading developers and producers of electrolyzers, is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacity against this backdrop. The German company is preparing its technologies for gigawatt-scale industrial production in collaboration with research and industry partners. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the lead project H2Giga with a grant of EUR 60 million.
The funding commitment will shorten the time it takes for new high-temperature electrolyzers to reach the market (SOEC). 15 associated partners will receive EUR 33 million under Sunfire’s leadership to establish manufacturing processes and optimize systems. Sunfire’s SOEC electrolyzers use off-heat from industrial processes to produce a kilogram of hydrogen, requiring up to 30% less electricity from renewable energy sources than other technologies. “Our SOEC technology will be even more powerful and durable than it is today,” Christian von Olshausen stated.
“We will redesign individual components to last longer and we will simplify the design of the systems,” added the Sunfire CTO. “With our optimized high-temperature electrolyzers, our industrial customers will be able to produce green hydrogen more efficiently – and therefore more cost-effectively. To further reduce the price of our product, we will be developing process chains for industrial series production.”
Sunfire is embarking on the difficult path to gigawatt-scale production with several partners with whom it has previously collaborated on various projects. For example, the company will use XENON Automatisierungstechnik GmbH’s expertise to help set up a pilot line for automated production. Both companies are already working together to build SOEC electrolyzers for Neste’s refinery in Rotterdam. “It’s a real pleasure for us to work with companies like XENON.” They have a wealth of experience in industrial manufacturing and are eager to contribute their knowledge to help drive the development of new technologies,” Christian von Olshausen explained.
However, the BMBF is not only funding the development of SOEC technology; it is also funding the industrialization of pressurized alkaline electrolyzers. Despite the fact that these dependable systems have been used in industrial hydrogen projects for decades, they have yet to be mass-produced. Sunfire and its eight associated partners have received a total of EUR 27 million in funding to bring this technology’s production to gigawatt scale.
“We will be establishing manufacturing processes and finalizing the new design of our pressurized alkaline electrolyzers,” explained Christian von Olshausen. “In comparison to the predecessor models, these will be yet another step forward in terms of energy consumption and longevity.” This will give a further boost to the process of alkaline electrolysis – which is already well established as the most cost-effective electrolysis technology currently available.
The German government’s commitment under the “Wasserstoffrepublik Deutschland” (Germany’s Hydrogen Republic) program aims to speed up the development and expansion of technologies that will enable energy-intensive industries to produce and use green hydrogen on a large scale. Around 30 independent alliances are now working on transforming electrolysis technologies to the gigawatt scale in the lead project H2Giga. Sunfire will invest significant amounts of its own money in the industrialization process in addition to public funds.
