Cummins to Expand Belgium Electrolyzer Manufacturing Capacity To 1 GW

American multinational Cummins Inc. has announced that it will expand PEM electrolyzer manufacturing capacity at its Oevel, Belgium, factory to 1 GW with the support from the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hy2Tech program. Cummins held that IPCEI will help Cummins develop a new generation of PEM electrolyzer cell stacks to power large-scale hydrogen production systems.

IPCEI was recently approved by the European Commission and IPCEI Hy2Tech includes 41 projects from 35 companies in 15 European countries.

Alexey Ustinov, Vice President of Electrolyzers at Cummins, opines, “This funding from IPCEI is important for the entire hydrogen value chain and proves that Cummins is on the right track to drive the hydrogen economy forward. Continuously accelerating R&D capabilities and increasing our manufacturing capacity will help us respond to growing market demand in Europe and globally.”

Cummins said that the expansion in Belgium adds to its already scaling global electrolyzer manufacturing footprint. The company has added capacity at its Mississauga, Canada, facility and is building two new electrolyzer factories in Spain and China, each starting at 500MW of manufacturing capacity and scalable to 1GW.

Cummins claims to have powered the world’s largest PEM electrolyzer in operation at 20 MW in Bécancour, Canada and also got the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger train in pilot operation across Europe.

The Greater Aim of Europe

The European Commission says that a Hydrogen account for less than 2% of Europe’s present energy consumption and 96% of it comes through natural gas that causes CO2 emissions.

The EC published REPowerEU plan in May 2022, to implement the European hydrogen strategy while further increase the European ambitions for renewable hydrogen as an important energy carrier to move away from Russia fossil fuel imports. It aims to produce 10 million tonnes and import 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU by 2030.