The two companies will embark on a joint benchmarking project.
Advent Technologies Holdings Inc. (NASDQ: ADN) announced an agreement with Airbus for a joint benchmarking hydrogen technology project involving an optimized Ion Pair™ Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) for hydrogen fuel cells.
The collaboration will take place over two years.
Driven by innovation, Advent Technologies is a leader in the fuel cell and hydrogen technology sector, and Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. Both companies are contributing their expertise to the multi-million-dollar project.
Advent will reportedly invest in people, third party research centers, hardware and materials, while Airbus will provide the project with financial support and its vast knowledge of the aviation industry.
The collaboration is expected to occur over the course of two years, with the primary goal of the project being to speedup the development of Advent’s MEA and benchmark the Ion Pair™ MEA against aviation requirements and present/expected technological limits.
The hydrogen technology project’s main focus is on the needs for future hydrogen-powered planes.
Thermal management is one of the biggest challenges that the aviation industry faces in regard to the use of fuel cells. Incumbent low-temperature fuel cells have demonstrated limitation in supporting hydrogen flight due to these thermal management issues.
Advent believes that HT-PEM MEAs is a superior option due to its ability to operate at temperatures higher than 180 Celsius (360 Fahrenheit). In fact, the hydrogen technology specialist believes that HT-PEM is also the superior option for the automotive industry, heavy-duty trucks and marine use.
Primarily, the project with concentrate on the needs for future hydrogen-powered aircraft, while simultaneously having the potential of significantly lowering the weight and volume of the powertrain system via a simplified balance of plant and cooling subsystems.
HT-PEM, a “promising technology”.
“We are pleased to announce that Airbus and Advent have aligned visions and efforts to achieve hydrogen flight. Both companies believe that HT-PEM is a promising technology to be benchmarked and developed as it can enable better thermal management for airplanes,” said Dr. Chris Kaskavelis, Chief Strategy Officer of Advent Technologies. “We are excited to join this multi-year project with Airbus.”
The hydrogen technology project will be carried out by Advent’s MEA team and monitored closely by Airbus. The project is slated to begin in January 2024.
