The STELAH project, driven by Técnicas Reunidas, Matteco, the Technological Institute for Children’s Products and Leisure (AIJU), and the University of Valencia, has achieved decisive strategic results in its first year of execution for the development of new catalysts, electrodes, and configurations of next-generation alkaline electrolysis stacks that are more efficient for producing renewable hydrogen.
In this way, STELAH moves towards its goal: making green hydrogen a more sustainable and competitive alternative. The consortium aims to accelerate the market arrival of highly efficient, scalable electrolysers, essential to reducing costs and contributing to the decarbonisation of industries and long-distance transport.
The joint work focuses on developing and validating high-performance electrodes – both anodes and cathodes – along with optimised stacks capable of delivering superior performance compared to currently available alkaline electrolysis technologies.
Milestone achieved: higher-performance, sustainable, and scalable materials
The Matteco team has developed new advanced combinations of catalytic materials for anode and cathode composition, characterised and validated by the University of Valencia.
These new formulations, which avoid the use of scarce and critical materials such as platinum derivatives, exhibit greater electrochemical activity and improved stability—essential factors for continuous electrolysis in industrial operating environments. In addition, they have been scaled to the size planned for this phase of the project.
Meanwhile, the teams from Técnicas Reunidas and AIJU have evaluated the electrodes with different substrates in a precursor stack setup. The results have been satisfactory: they confirm the feasibility of the new material combinations under representative operating conditions and their scaling potential.
These results pave the way for the next milestone: integrating the optimised materials into cell prototypes and modular stacks at the final planned size.
A key project for the hydrogen economy and energy sovereignty
STELAH está financiado STELAH is funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (IVACE+i) and the EU through the FEDER programme, with total support of €903 513.17.
The four partners combine research in advanced materials, electrochemical engineering, and the development of modular architectures aimed at industrial scalability. Their progress helps strengthen the positioning of the Valencian Community and Spain as strategic hubs in the development of key technologies for the hydrogen economy.
In doing so, STELAH is fully aligned with the European Hydrogen Strategy and the electrolysis deployment targets for 2030.