The future of energy conversion and storage is expected to rely on the production and storage of hydrogen using water electrolyzers. In this scenario, water electrolyzers will play a key role in the establishment of an energy matrix based on renewable but intermittent power sources (e.g. wind turbines and photovoltaics). Hydrogen has the potential to drive multiple revenue streams like transportation, chemicals, green production of fertilizers, regeneration of electricity through fuel cells, and also initially supplement the energy gap through methanation. Moreover, the production, storage, or distribution can be chosen to be centralized or decentralized, and is recognized as the only option to store multi-GWh electricity. ¹

In order to meet the future demand for water electrolyzers, investment and operational costs still have to be reduced. It is also crucial to develop electrolyzers that are able to operate at high current densities, variable partial load, overload, and on/off conditions. These requirements usually place PEM water electrolysis as an optimal alternative to couple with intermittent power sources. In any case the high costs of PEM water electrolysis components (based on Pt, Ir, and Ti components) are still hampering its large-scale commercial application.²

Though consistent R&D we aim to drastically reduce the costs and increase the efficiency of PEM water electrolyzers. By using advanced methods to design and characterize nanostructures and catalyst coated membranes, and by properly accessing the performance and durability of cell and stack components, we hope to be able to demonstrate in the next years the next generation of PEM water electrolyzers, and its future incorporation into our energy matrix for energy storage and conversion.