Page 50: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2024)

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GREEN HYDROGEN ELECTROLYZERS

Image courtesy of Air Liquide

The inauguration of Air Liquide and Siemens Energy Gigawatt electrolyzer factory paves the way to renewable hydrogen development at scale.

Image courtesy of Accelera Image courtesy of Fortescue

Accelera by Cummins leadership and distinguished In April, Fortescue officially opened an electrolyzer guests cut the ribbon at the opening of Accelera’s manufacturing facility in Australia – one of the first first electrolyzer production site in the U.S. globally to house an automated assembly line. power or being incorporated into industrial plant like at- duced at peak times by running electrolyzers and then stor- mospheric alkaline and solid oxide electrolysis (SOE). ing the hydrogen for later. “Here, there’s an important role

SOE is a growing technology that can also operate in to play for green hydrogen which can operate at a different reverse to act as a fuel cell, and AEM, a development of the scale to batteries to balance out fuctuations in the supply

PEM concept but with cheaper materials, is an emerging of, and demand for, renewable energy production,” says technology. While alkaline electrolyzers use a liquid elec- Synne Myhre Jensen, Public Affairs Advisor at Norwegian trolyte, and PEM electrolyzers use a polymer electrolyte, hydrogen company Hystar. As part of the company’s HyPi-

SOE use a solid-state ceramic electrolyte and requires heat lot project, collaborator Equinor is planning to demonstrate to operate. But new variations on existing themes continue dynamic hydrogen production tailored to the variable out- to emerge as the industry tackles cost and scalability chal- put typically found in offshore wind applications. lenges, and each have different materials, chemistries and Johnson Matthey will supply membrane electrode as- heat and pressure requirements. semblies for Hystar’s patented PEM technology. “Each of

Using solar and wind energy, green hydrogen can be pro- our stacks can produce two to three times more hydrogen 50 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM