Maersk and Carbon Sink partner to accelerate green methanol production; Maersk’s 8th green methanol deal
Domestic flights are as full as they were before the pandemic

Nel ASA and GM to collaborate on electrolyzers

Nel Hydrogen US, a subsidiary of Nel ASA, has entered into a joint development agreement with General Motors to help accelerate the industrialization of Nel’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer platform. By combining GM’s extensive fuel cell expertise and Nel’s deep knowledge of electrolyzers, the two companies are looking to enable more cost competitive sources of renewable hydrogen.

A PEM electrolyzer and a fuel cell are largely based on the same principles. A PEM electrolyzer uses electricity and water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, while a fuel cell reverses the process, using hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water. As GM has made major steps and gained expertise with fuel cells, the two companies see substantial synergies by transferring this to Nel’s PEM platform.

Nel will be compensating GM for the development work and IP transfer on an ongoing basis and pay a license after successful commercialization dependent on how much of the end product is based on GM technology.

General Motors is one of the global leaders in hydrogen fuel cell propulsion with more than 50 years of experience. We believe this collaboration will give us a competitive advantage in industrializing the production of our PEM electrolyzers and further improving the efficiency of our technology. An automated production concept is key when scaling up and driving down cost on electrolyzer technology.

—Nel’s CEO, Håkon Volldal

Adding Nel as a strategic collaborator is an important step to help us commercialize fuel cell technology. Electrolysis is key to creating consistent, clean sources of hydrogen to power fuel cells. Nel has some of the most promising electrolyzer technology to help develop clean hydrogen infrastructure, and we believe our HYDROTEC fuel cell IP can help them get closer to scale.

—Charles Freese, GM executive director, Global HYDROTEC

Nel was the first company in the world with a fully automated alkaline electrolyzer production line. The next step will be to industrialize the production of its PEM electrolyzer equipment in a similar way which will enable considerable technology advancement.

GM is developing and commercializing both HYDROTEC hydrogen fuel cell and Ultium battery technologies that deliver where it matters most: performance and cost. This is opening new revenue potential for GM as industries—including freight trucking, aerospace, power generation and locomotive—turn to GM to improve performance and reduce emissions.

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.