The agreement will allow CRT to accelerate its research activities to shorten the commercialisation pathway leading to near-term revenue generation, in a hydrogen electrolyser market that the company views as grossly underserviced in the APAC region.
Adani New Industries Limited (ANIL), which is part of the Adani Group, has selected Melbourne-based CRT as a technology partner for developing green hydrogen electrolyser technologies to meet increasing demand in India and the MENA region. Their partnership covers the development of alkaline (AEL), polymer exchange membrane (PEM) and anion exchange membranes (AEM) electrolysers as well as CRT’s innovative ‘C Cell’ technology for mass-scale production. ANIL is setting up a state-of-the-art, vertically integrated 5 GW electrolyser manufacturing plant in India, which is an important element in the plan of Adani Group to invest USD 70 billion by 2030 in green technologies and projects.
Commenting on the agreement, Dr. Ani Kulkarni, CEO of CRT, said: “It is going to be a golden era for hydrogen over the next decade, and CRT is excited to receive such a significant contract from Adani; we believe this contract would underpin clean technology collaborations between two key economies in the APAC region.
“It is a great international endorsement of the activities of CRT’s experienced team which consists of industry experts with core hydrogen research backgrounds in addition to significant engineering and capital market experience.”
CRT’s PEM and AEL electrolyser stack designs are said to be simple, scalable and tailored for mass production with reduced time and cost of machining. CRT has also developed a proprietary low-cost electrode fabrication process for catalyst-coated substrates, which is suitable for manufacturing at scale with established industrial processes.
CRT is also focusing on next-generation AEM and its proprietary C-Cell electrolysers. For its AEM technology, CRT has designed new iridium-free catalysts suitable for volume productions to meet future demands. The company has already built a prototype AEM stack and blueprinting mass production.
CRT’s ‘C-Cell’ is an early-stage yet ground-breaking approach with the potential to improve the efficiency of alkaline water electrolysis. Using a combination of powdered metallurgy techniques and catalyst coating methods, the C-Cell design eliminates the need for intricate machining.
CRT plans to establish a pilot manufacturing plant in early 2024 for AEM electrolyser production.
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