- The European Union awards €3 million through a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) to a consortium of leading companies and research centers to transform the economics of large-scale production and facilitate the mass deployment of green hydrogen.
Valencia (Spain), 25th April 2024 – Matteco, the multinational companies Horiba Group and Siemens Energy, as well as Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energies (HI ERN), and the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol) of the University of Valencia, are collaborating to develop an innovative, sustainable, efficient, and scalable alkaline electrolysis with zero critical raw materials to reduce the cost of green hydrogen production.
Energy costs are the main factor in determining the levelized cost of green hydrogen. Increasing efficiency is therefore an essential lever for reducing production costs.
The SEAL-HYDROGEN project, coordinated by Gonzalo Abellán, co-founder and CTO of Matteco, and head of the 2D-Chem materials research group at the University of Valencia, has been awarded 3 million euros through a Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) grant from the European Union’s Horizon Europe program.
The European organization recognizes Abellán and his team’s ability to address scientific challenges and contribute significantly to advancing knowledge in new materials. The new international consortium combines scientific research advances with the technological and commercial expertise of leading industrial partners, supported by European funding.
SEAL-HYDROGEN will pioneer efficient and stable oxygen evolution catalysts, combining the benefits of established alkaline technology with cutting-edge innovations to make the systems more cost-competitive. The consortium’s technology replaces precious metal-based catalysts with catalysts that do not require critical raw materials, such as nickel and iron, and enables higher current densities and efficiencies making the production of electrolyzers more sustainable and reducing costs for producers of green hydrogen.
The project consists of the scale-up of PGM-free nickel-iron-based catalysts, coatings and electrodes by Matteco, and the design of a full-scale electrolyzer stack to bring the new technology to a pre-pilot level. Siemens Energy will contribute to the consortium with its expertise in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE).
Gonzalo Abellán states: «It is inspiring to carry out a tangible transfer of knowledge and technology, from the initial conception in the laboratory, through the field of experimentation and finally transforming it into a concrete application for the green hydrogen industry. We are proud to collaborate with leading organizations in the field, bringing together the best of both industrial and academic talent«.
