Bright heads for green ideas: Michelin drives the hydrogen initiative forward
Green hydrogen is the basis for emission-free, clean mobility in the future. Michelin has been researching hydrogen technology for more than 20 years and is a pioneer in this field. Hydrogen fuel cells are being created at the SymphonHy giga factory in Saint-Fons, France - a centre for research, innovation and industrialisation for technological and industrial excellence around hydrogen propulsion. Michelin is now going one step further and is participating in another research project to produce green hydrogen.
Goal: sustainable production
Other partners include the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the University of Grenoble Alpes (UGA), the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (INP) and the University of Savoie Mont Blanc Partner. Over a period of four years, the research teams aim to develop a technology for the sustainable production of hydrogen. The joint laboratory called AlcalHylab is already the third LabCom to bundle the hydrogen expertise of Michelin and CNRS. "The Michelin Group has been researching hydrogen technology for more than two decades. This has great potential to reduce CO2 emissions and contributes to the energy transition in mobility, but also to the decarbonisation of numerous industrial sectors. The opening of this new joint laboratory is specifically dedicated to hydrogen research. It will strengthen our expertise in terms of processes and materials that will enable tomorrow’s large-scale decarbonisation of our production," says Christophe Moriceau, VP of Advanced Research at Michelin.
Green hydrogen as an energy source is a key to environmentally friendly propulsion. There are various methods of producing green hydrogen using solar and wind power or hydropower - but they currently account for less than five percent of the world’s total production. At present, there is still no method for production on an industrial scale. This is the task of the research teams of the joint AlcalHylab laboratory: The development of new materials that enable large-scale environmentally friendly, low-carbon and sustainable hydrogen production.
The best of existing processes
One of the methods for producing green hydrogen is alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), which was discovered more than 200 years ago. However, this process, which is widely used in industry, cannot produce ultra-pure hydrogen, and it is slow to produce and difficult to combine with renewable energies.
Another is the PEMWE technology. While this enables the production of gases with high purity and higher efficiency, it also brings new limitations: The process requires precious and rare metals such as platinum, iridium and titanium. Electrolysis also produces harmful gases.
With the support of Michelin’s research and development centre in Clermont-Ferrand, the researchers at AlcalHylab, led by Frédéric Maillard (CNRS researcher), want to develop a water electrolysis technology that combines the best of the AWE and PEMWE methods: AEMWE is a process with future potential because it combines the advantages of the two established technologies: the use of cheap metals, high hydrogen production rates, high gas purity and the coupling with renewable energies. "The establishment of AlcalHylab, Michelin’s and CNRS's tenth joint laboratory, is another example of the close and fruitful cooperation between companies and research institutions. Working together with the research partners will take us a big step further towards mastering hydrogen technology," says Jacques Maddaluno, Director of CNRS Chemie.