The hydrogen industry is the key driver for a far reaching energy transition. This is because hydrogen is an all-rounder: hydrogen functions as an future energy carrier, a process gas and one of the most promising energy storage medium at the same time. The potential extends across various sectors, including the plastics industry, which has a key role to play in realising a sustainable hydrogen economy.
Our high-performance plastic materials and components, which are used in key areas of hydrogen technology, open the way to a sustainable and emission-free energy future. They combine favourable material-specific properties, create optimal solutions for existing hydrogen concepts and make numerous hydrogen applications possible in the first place.
With our value chain from the compound to the finished component, we offer comprehensive complete solutions for hydrogen technology. Thanks to our many years of expertise in material development as well as application and production technology, we can advise our customers quickly and reliably. You benefit from our excellent network and close cooperation with leading German and European institutes and OEMs that specialise in fuel cell technology and hydrogen production, among other things.
Technology fields in the area of hydrogen pose a variety of challenges. The focus is on the so-called LCOH (Levelised Cost Of Hydrogen), an important key figure for calculating the profitability of green hydrogen projects. This is to be reduced through a long service life of the components, efficiency of the hydrogen systems, high purity of the materials and lightweight construction. This is where high-performance plastics come into play with their diverse properties such as corrosion and chemical resistance, low outgassing-behaviour, very good formability and low weight compared to metals. Thermoplastics are also recyclable and can be returned to other material cycles more easily than metals or thermosets.
At Ensinger, we are continuously developing new high-performance plastics and technologies for the future hydrogen market to meet the specific requirements of hydrogen technology and open up new fields of technology.
With applications such as polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEM fuel cells) and hydrogen electrolysis, our innovative high-performance plastics can be used in a variety of ways in the hydrogen economy. These green technologies form the basis for an efficient and environmentally friendly energy supply.
We have our own compounding department that specialises in application-specific material developments. This enables us to guarantee an optimised property profile of the high-performance plastics that is tailored to the hydrogen application. The best example is our HTE compounds, which were specially developed for the production of bipolar plates for fuel cells, redox-flow-batteries and electrolyzers.
This customised adaptation of the plastic properties makes a decisive contribution to the efficiency and safety of the fuel cell.
We provide you with comprehensive support in all phases of the product life cycle in the hydrogen industry sector: from the initial development stage to selecting the right plastic for your prototypes through to series production.
As a leading full-service provider for high-performance plastics, we are your reliable partner in the hydrogen industry.
Depending on the hydrogen component and area of application in the stack, the material used must have conductive or non-conductive properties.
Together with its partner Centre for Fuel Cell Technology (ZBT) Duisburg, Ensinger has developed highly conductive hydrogen fuel cell materials with graphite filling that are particularly suitable for bipolar plates of fuel cells or redox flow batteries.
