About
Context
PEMPIRE is set in the context of the European Union’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, where renewable hydrogen is a key solution for decarbonising energyintensive industries and integrating renewable electricity. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers play a central role due to their compact design, high efficiency, and ability to operate flexibly with variable renewable power, but their largescale deployment is still limited by high costs, dependence on critical raw materials, and insufficient lifetime under real operating conditions. PEMPIRE addresses these challenges by developing and validating a new generation of PEM electrolysers at industrially relevant scale, reducing the use of scarce materials, improving durability and system performance and aligning technological development with sustainability, circularity, and EU industrial policy objectives.
Impact
- Supports climate neutrality in Europe by enabling cleaner hydrogen production, which is essential for reducing emissions in energyintensive sectors such as industry and energy supply.
- Reduces dependence on scarce raw materials by significantly lowering the use of critical metals like iridium, making hydrogen technologies more sustainable and resilient.
- Improves the durability and reliability of electrolysers, helping systems operate longer and more efficiently under realworld conditions, including fluctuating renewable electricity.
- Lowers the cost of green hydrogen by combining improved materials, smarter system design, and better understanding of lifetime and maintenance needs.
- Bridges the gap between research and industry by validating new technologies at industrially relevant scale, accelerating market uptake.
- Strengthens Europe’s industrial competitiveness by supporting scalable manufacturing of key hydrogen technologies within European value chains.
- Promotes sustainability and circularity by considering environmental impacts, recyclability, and lifecycle performance from the very beginning of technology development.
- Builds confidence among stakeholders and policy makers by providing robust technical, economic, and environmental evidence for the largescale deployment of PEM electrolysers.
Project Objectives
- Develop nextgeneration PEM electrolyser components with significantly reduced use of critical raw materials.
- Improve durability and performance of PEM electrolysers under real operating conditions.
- Validate new materials and system designs up to an industrially relevant demonstration scale (TRL 6).
- Integrate experimental testing with digital modelling to better predict lifetime and system behaviour.
- Assess economic viability and environmental performance using technoeconomic and lifecycle analyses.
Project Concept
- PEMPIRE develops a next generation of hydrogen electrolysers that make hydrogen production cleaner, more affordable and more sustainable.
- The project improves key components of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, so they last longer and use much smaller amounts of scarce materials such as iridium.
- New materials and designs are developed to be suitable for largescale industrial manufacturing, not only for laboratory use.
- Laboratory experiments are combined with digital modelling to better understand how materials age and how complete systems behave over time.
- The electrolysers are tested under realistic operating conditions, including fluctuating electricity from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
- Development follows a stepbystep validation approach, from small components to a full demonstrator system.
- Environmental and economic impacts are assessed in parallel using lifecycle and technoeconomic analyses.
- By closely linking research organisations and industrial partners, PEMPIRE aims to deliver electrolysers that are ready for realworld deployment and support Europe’s transition to climateneutral hydrogen.
Innovation
- Develops new PEM electrolyser technologies that use significantly less critical raw materials while maintaining high performance.
- Introduces novel materials and component designs that improve durability and efficiency compared to today’s state of the art.
- Combines laboratory development with digital modelling to better understand ageing, performance losses, and longterm behaviour.
- Integrates economic, environmental, and technical considerations directly into the technology design from the start.
- Moves beyond isolated improvements by addressing materials, components, and systems together.
Demonstration and Validation
- Applies a stepbystep validation approach, starting from small components and moving towards complete systems.
- Tests new technologies under realistic operating conditions, including fluctuating renewable electricity.
- Validates performance and durability through longterm testing, not just short laboratory experiments.
- Demonstrates a complete electrolyser system at industrially relevant scale, showing practical feasibility.
- Confirms that the developed solutions are ready for realworld deployment, not only for research environments.