A US start-up has announced it will build a 3.75GW gigafactory in Massachusetts to manufacture its “revolutionary” anion-exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysers, which it says will “provide the lowest capital and operating costs for green hydrogen production”.

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California-based EvolOH says its patent-pending Nautilus electrolysers were designed for “high-speed manufacturing using low-cost materials that only require domestic supply chains and no precious metals”.

“When operated using pure water, EvolOH’s electrolysers provide the lowest capital and operating costs for green hydrogen production,” the company said in a press release.

The path to Net Zero depends on green hydrogen, and the electrolyzer manufacturing methods of today will never get us there.

The start-up says that the 3.75GW capacity factory, which it is calling the “Manufacturing Center of Excellence”, will be the largest in the world, although Norwegian electrolyser maker Nel is planning to build a 4GW gigafactory in the US.

“Facility work” on the new plant will begin this year, with manufacturing starting in 2025, it said, adding that it is already planning a second gigafactory, to break ground in 2026, that “will have the capacity to make up to 15GW per year of electrolyzer stacks”.

“Since EvolOH’s founding our target was not just to develop a better, less expensive electrolysis technology, but also to develop a better, less expensive electrolyzer manufacturing process,” said CEO and founder Jimmy Rojas. “Our Manufacturing Center of Excellence is the first step in those efforts, and we will continue to push the boundaries of our technology for lower cost and higher speed.”

Chief commercial officer Art Shirley added: “The path to Net Zero depends on green hydrogen, and the electrolyzer manufacturing methods of today will never get us there. For developers announcing green hydrogen mega-projects that will come on stream in the last half of this decade and beyond, electrolyzer availability is as important as cost and efficiency. EvolOH will be the supplier of choice for these customers.”

The electrolysers — which are designed for large-scale green hydrogen projects — will have power ratings of “up to 5MW” for a single stack, with 50MW in a single containerised module.

EvolOH, which was founded in 2020, describes itself as being “at the forefront of the development and commercialization of low-cost and mass-produced water electrolyzers”.

“The company's patent-pending electrolyzers incorporate a design for high-speed, low-cost manufacturing, making green hydrogen production possible at gigawatt scale,” it states on its website.

“NautilusTM is EvolOH’s earth-abundant, pure water electrolyzer stack platform, designed from the ground-up with the system integrator in mind. Highly scalable and based on a consistent core cell architecture, NautilusTM offers single-unit stack capacities from 20 through 2,000 kg/day and packaged stack modules of 10 and 20 tonnes per day with the smallest footprint and lowest water pressure drop in the industry.”