Italy grants €317m to state-owned company to build AEM hydrogen electrolysers

Ansaldo's 1MW machine, with an efficiency of 55kWh/kgH2, is entering a highly competitive, overcrowded market

The Italian Ministry of Enterprise has awarded €317m ($332m) to state-owned power engineering firm Ansaldo Energia to develop and industrialise AEM (anion-exchange membrane) electrolysers, including the construction of a new production line.

The six-year project by subsidiary Ansaldo Green Tech was awarded state-aid approval and IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) status by the European Commission back in July 2022.

AEM electrolysers are said to combine the low cost of alkaline electrolysers with the fast-acting responsiveness to variable renewable energy input of PEM (proton exchange membrane) machines, but have a lower technology readiness level than their more mature counterparts.
According to a fact sheet on the company website, the electrolyser requires 55kWh per kilogram of hydrogen, a fairly low energy-efficiency level in what is already a highly competitive, overcrowded market. A figure of 50kWh/kgH2 is generally considered to be highly efficient, while Australian start-up Hysata claims an efficiency of 41.5kWh/kgH2 for its proprietary capillary-fed alkaline machines.
“The Ansaldo Green Tech project, called IANUS, is aimed at the construction of the new production line of AEM Electrolysers, the expansion of the research laboratories at the Genova site and the development and industrialization of modular electrolysers including both 1 MW containerised and “open design” solutions for large-scale multi-MW industrial applications,” Ansaldo explained in a press release.
Ansaldo claims that its AEM electrolyser “ensures cutting-edge performance and higher sustainability compared to competing technologies… [while offering] high efficiency and flexibility, pressurised hydrogen production, reduced use of critical raw materials, and lower water consumption”.

The company — which is 88%-owned by majority state-owned Italian sovereign wealth fund CDP Equity and 12% owned by China’s Shanghai Electric — only concluded testing on its 1MW AEM electrolyser prototype in January 2024, but sold its first model in November last year.

Italy grants €317m to state-owned company to build AEM hydrogen electrolysers | Hydrogen Insight

Italy grants €317m to state-owned company to build AEM hydrogen electrolysers | Hydrogen Insight