18-04-2024

Avantium and TNO partner to manufacture electrolyser test stations for green hydrogen production

Avantium N.V., a leading company in renewable and circular polymer materials, has announced that its subsidiary Avantium R&D Solutions has signed a partnership agreement with The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) for the manufacturing of PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyser test stations. The PEM electrolyser is the key technology for the production of green hydrogen.

Under the partnership with TNO, Avantium will get access to TNO’s technical knowledge and expertise  – including design and software – on single-cell and multi-cell lab-scale electrolysis test stations. With this knowledge, Avantium will manufacture, further develop, and sell these electrolyser test stations to customers worldwide. This will allow Avantium R&D Solutions to accelerate its electrolysis offering and expand its activities in the development of green hydrogen technologies.

Avantium R&D Solutions offers innovative and tailored R&D products and contract R&D for selected sustainable chemistry markets. One of those areas is electrolysis for the production of green hydrogen. TNO is a globally recognised leader in research and innovation in various fields, including energy, sustainability, and technology. In the field of electrolysis, TNO has worked in the past years on improving the efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of electrolysis processes. TNO has developed single-cell and multiple cells PEM electrolysis test stations with multiple generations of improvements and has obtained unique expertise in this field.

TNO and Avantium intend to further develop and improve these PEM electrolyser test stations. Avantium will bring in its uniquely innovative expertise in accelerating R&D, manufacturing and commercial skills, while using the know-how of TNO on electrolysis test units.

Richard Braal, Division Director Industry at TNO Energy and Materials Transition, comments: “We are pleased to partner with Avantium and we see this as a first step towards a stronger collaboration with Avantium to jointly develop technologies and services to accelerate the energy transition in the chemical industry. This is a strong collaboration of two Dutch based and internationally operating parties and a nice example of where realising the energy and materials transition can go hand in hand with increasing the export potential of industry.”

Lennart van der Burg, Cluster Manager Green Hydrogen at TNO, adds: “There is globally a large need for reliable high-performing electrolyser test stations in order to accelerate innovation, product development and securing safe operation of electrolyser technology. With the significant quantities of green hydrogen necessary for the energy transition, there is an imperative to significantly increase the capacity for green hydrogen production via electrolysis in the coming decade.”

Steven Oliver, Managing Director of Avantium R&D Solutions, says: “We believe that this partnership with TNO brings together two recognized leaders in R&D and innovation to help industry to accelerate the development of electrolysis to manufacture green hydrogen. Currently, existing electrolysis technologies and manufacturing capabilities are insufficient to meet projected demand in the coming years. We believe we can serve the need to scale up electrolyser capacity while enhancing the technology's design with our expertise on manufacturing custom-made, innovative R&D units. This fits well within the purpose of Avantium: to help transition the chemical industry to sustainable and circular solutions.