Hystar Autostack project

In their 2020 report, ‘Green hydrogen cost reduction,’ the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) notes that, when it comes to economies of scale, the tipping point for PEM electrolysers “…seems to be around 1 000 units (of 1 MW) per year, where this scale-up allows an almost 50% cost reduction in stack manufacturing.”

Up to now, most processes around the manufacturing of PEM electrolyser stacks has been largely a manual process. Mass production – with modern and SMART manufacturing – is required in order to reduce costs. This is relevant not only for Hystar, but our suppliers, too. And at the end of the day, the main goal is reducing the costs of green hydrogen itself.

An expert team

With all this in mind, Hystar is gearing up with a team focused on making our stack manufacturing process scalable, flexible, and quality-focused, utilizing the best principles from Industry 4.0.

Hystar’s Autostack project team includes in-house personnel forming the HyStack team and key experts from three external partners. Semcon brings valuable experience from fuel cell design and manufacturing. Tronrud Engineering works with advanced engineering solutions. And SINTEF Digital – a branch from SINTEF, one of Hystar’s key investors – brings a holistic approach to the project, looking at the entirety of the supply chain, and bringing expertise on modern manufacturing in high-cost countries.

A kick-off meeting for the Autostack project team was held in February at Hystar’s headquarters in Høvik, Norway.

“It is really inspiring to see what a great team we have and how well we work together,” says Hystar Project Manager Bente Traa. “All three partners bring such vital competencies to the project and it’s exciting to see how nicely that compliments the experience and expertise we have in-house at Hystar.”

HyStack team gathers for the kick-off meeting outside Hystar’s lab and office in Norway

Technology for a greener future

The design concepts are targeted to be set within Q3 this year. From there, the project team will dig into the concepts with the aim to have tested all critical steps by Q3 2023. Finally, by Q2 2024, the concept will have been fully defined and ready to put into action.

“Hystar’s purpose is to develop technology for a greener future. Our Autostack project is a key factor in making that a reality,” concludes Bente Traa.