The development work was carried out by KS Gleitlager GmbH, a Rheinmetall subsidiary, which acted as consortium leader for the German government-funded project ‘Noble Metal-free Electrodes for the Next Generation of Alkaline Electrolysis’ (E²ngel). The project was funded under Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy and aimed to improve electrolysis performance through the use of noble metal-free catalysts.
According to Rheinmetall, the new electrode technology enables a doubling of power density or an efficiency improvement of more than 10% compared with current alkaline electrolysis systems. These performance gains are intended to reduce overall system investment costs and lower the production cost of green hydrogen.
“The use of our innovative electrode technology will make electrolyser systems more powerful and efficient than they are today,” said Dr. Karsten Lange, Head of the E²ngel consortium project.
Rheinmetall attributed the rapid development to its expertise in special alloy materials, metallic coating processes, and forming and joining technologies. Consortium partners supported qualification and validation activities, with the German Aerospace Centre (DRL) testing multiple development variants and McPhy Energy Germany evaluating the electrodes in an electrolyzer system during the final project phase. The stated project targets for cell voltage and current density were exceeded.
Preparations for pilot production have already begun, with the start planned for next year at Rheinmetall’s St. Leon-Rot site. The planned production line is designed for electrode dimensions of up to two meters, enabling use in multi-megawatt electrolyzer systems. Process and production technologies were selected with future volume scaling requirements in mind.
