The components that go into a complete electrolyzer system, whether it utilizes PEM, Alkaline, AEM, or another technology, require an expansive array of manufacturing capabilities. There are many manufacturers on the market that can provide one or two expertly crafted components for your electrolyzer system. If you wish to construct a PEM electrolyzer, you can source a bipolar plate from one company that specialized in stamping, laser engraving, or electrochemical etching, and then work with separate component manufacturers to contract the creation of your PTL’s and Flow Fields out of sintered powder or fiber or expanded metal. Once you have also sourced membranes and stack hardware, the burden of assembling all these components will fall on your organization. Some component providers offer coating solutions, but others will leave that onus on the purchaser, effectively adding another step to the production process.
Most companies building Alkaline electrolyzer are sourcing woven mesh electrodes from one supplier, expanded metal current collectors from a second, and knitted mesh compression elements from yet another supplier, leaving them with the same responsibility to assemble all these parts in house.
A network of diverse manufacturing partners as described above leaves tremendous room for error. Each of your suppliers must operate their own production lines in a reliable manner to avoid component defects that could have an unfavorable impact on final system performance. Even if components are manufactured well and tolerances are adequately met, there is still a chance that the characteristics of any one of your components are not optimized for use alongside the others even when manufactured flawlessly. There are many ways to construct an electrolyzer and many schools of thought about which technology will turn out to be the most advantageous. Electrolyzer OEM’s must rely on the assumptions of their research teams to select the technology they believe will be the most efficient, cost effective, and reliable but the market will likely not reach any kind of consensus on these matters until the world sees hydrogen production through electrolysis at scale.
So, how can you make sure that each of your component providers are following the same electrolyzer technology doctrine and will produce components that are optimized for each other? The simplest way would be to consolidate your suppliers. ACS Industries is the only manufacturer on the market today that has expertise in every component that goes into an electrolyzer system other than the membrane layer. We have an unmatched set of proficiencies in expanded metal, knitted wire mesh, woven wire mesh, stamped and machined components, diffusion bonding, and much more. ACS engineers will design each component in a way that maximizes efficiency of the system as a whole and we can also assemble the components for you. This means that if you select ACS as your suppliers, you will receive parts that work with each other preassembled; all that’s left for you to do is install membrane layers, greatly cutting down the potential for in-house error.
Consolidating your suppliers in this way can also provide considerable savings in the form of fewer man hours spent assessing potential suppliers, less time spent getting chosen suppliers up to date with your system specs, and less time monitoring the output thereof. Fewer suppliers means fewer quality inspections, less assembly, and less risk. ACS is a long-trusted supplier to the tightly controlled automotive industry, and you can rest assured that we will bring the same operational excellence and attention to detail to your electrolyzer manufacturing project.
Give us a call today to see how ACS can put our time tested and continually improving manufacturing process to work in creating the perfect components for your electrolyzer assembly.
ACS’s electrolyzer component products include:
• PEM:
o Porous Transport Layer
o Flow Fields
o Bipolar Plates
o Stack Hardware
o Assemblies
o Coatings
• Alkaline:
o Knitted elastic elements and bubble eliminators
o Twill Disks
o Flynet Disks
o Expanded Metal Current Distributor
o Expanded and Woven Mesh Elements
o Assemblies
o Coatings
