Enapter opens electrolyzer factory in Saerbeck

In “Klimakommune” Saerbeck, a municipality in the regional district of Münster in Nordrhein-Westfalen, an AEM-based megawatt-electrolyzer was put into operation in May 2023. According to the manufacturer, Enapter, this is the “world’s first” plant of this kind. Vaitea Cowan, co-founder and CCO at Enapter, stated: “With the Multicore, Enapter ushers in a new era for environmentally friendly solutions for the decarbonization of industry and the economy.”

Enapter does not rely on large electrolyzers like other manufacturers, but on many small individual stacks that can be combined as needed. In an AEM Multicore are installed a total of 420 modular cores (see cover of this issue) combined into a whole system, which can produce around 450 kg of green hydrogen per day with a purity of 99.999 percent. Correspondingly, Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, founder and managing director of Enapter AG, stated that the Italian-German company is already today “the largest producer of electrolyzers in the world by number of units.”

The location of the AEM Multicore is within Bioenergiepark Saerbeck, not far from the Enapter research campus. There, on over 80,000 square meters (861,000 sq ft), a production facility for electrolyzers, including research laboratories, development centers and administrative offices, appeared in recent months, some of which have already started operations. The area, including the production facilities, is supplied entirely with renewable energy. Stack production is to be ramped up still before the end of the year. In 2024, the AEM Multicore should then be ready for pre-series production.

“With the Multicore production on the Enapter Campus, we are taking a giant step towards the circular manufacture as well as cost optimization of electrolyzers. With our AEM technology, we will make hydrogen cheaper than fossil fuels in the next few years.”

Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO of Enapter, Production site of the AEM electrolyzers from Enapter, Enapter-Campus-03-05-2023-3.jpg