Genvia to Scale-up Next Generation of Electrolyzer Technology

Schlumberger New Energy, the CEA and partners signed pilot project agreements between Genvia, a Schlumberger Joint Venture in Clean Hydrogen Technology, and critical-industry leaders on the pathway to net zero in the cement and steel industries. Through these agreements, Genvia will scale up the next generation of electrolyzer technology, developed over two decades of R&D at the CEA, to produce clean hydrogen without CO2 emissions, accelerating the decarbonization of multiple industrial sectors.

During an official visit to the Schlumberger and Genvia facility on November 16, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the joint public-private partnership and reiterated his commitment and ambition for the hydrogen economy. Leveraging Schlumberger’s industrialization expertise and global footprint, these new agreements will set the stage for developing the entire value chain to use hydrogen as the preferred clean energy carrier.

“The agreements are important steps in accelerating the deployment of Genvia technology that will support the future hydrogen economy,” said Ashok Belani, executive vice president, Schlumberger New Energy. “As a scalable, carbon-free energy carrier, clean hydrogen will play a critical role in meeting global energy transition and net-zero ambitions. Genvia will accelerate the large-scale adoption of clean hydrogen through its demonstrator projects in different industries.”

Genvia’s pilot projects will focus on efficiency, performance and decarbonization of industrial processes for the steel and cement industries, as follows:

• Genvia and ArcelorMittal Méditerranée, a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, a world leader in the steel industry, have agreed a pilot project to substitute current hydrogen use, and support the decarbonization of high-performance electric steel production required for the electric vehicle industry.
• Genvia and Ugitech, part of Swiss Steel Group, a world leader in long stainless-steel products, have agreed a pilot project to demonstrate both the technical relevance of hydrogen as a clean fuel for a reheating furnace that can replace natural gas, and the economic efficiency of Genvia’s technology.
• Genvia; Vicat, a cement production group; Hynamics, a low-carbon and renewable hydrogen solutions subsidiary of EDF group; and EDF research have agreed a pilot project focused on the optimization of Genvia’s technology for industrial applications, demonstrated in the cement sector.

Genvia technology aims to achieve the highest system efficiency, resulting in significantly less electricity use per kilogram of hydrogen produced. The projects are expected to produce hydrogen in amounts ranging from 200kg to 600kg per day.

 

About Genvia

Genvia is a clean hydrogen technology venture created to enable individual organizations, industries, and nations to meet their goals for decarbonization by accelerating affordable clean hydrogen production, energy storage and fuel applications at scale. The company represents a unique combination of French science and global engineering, and benefits from the strength of a group of partner companies that include the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Schlumberger New Energy, VINCI Construction, Vicat Group, and the Occitanie Region.

 

About Schlumberger New Energy

Schlumberger is the world’s leading provider of technology to the global energy industry. Schlumberger New Energy explores new avenues of growth by leveraging Schlumberger’s intellectual and business capital in emerging new energy markets, with a focus on low-carbon and carbon-neutral energy technologies. Its activities include ventures in the domains of hydrogen, lithium, energy storage, carbon capture and sequestration, geothermal power and geo-energy for heating and cooling buildings.

 

About CEA

The CEA is a key player in research, development, and innovation in four main areas: energy transition, digital transition, technology for the medicine of the future and defence and security. With a workforce of 20,000 people, based in nine French sites equipped with very large-scale research infrastructures, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners, in France, Europe and worldwide. According to the Clarivate 2019 ranking, the CEA is the first French research organization, in terms of number of patents filed in France and Europe.

The CEA invested through its fully owned subsidiary CEA Investissement, a unique tool for a public research organization. It is assisted and operated by Supernova Invest, the CEA’s private equity partner, which brings its in-depth experience of cutting-edge technologies towards more than 140 investments in deep-tech companies, including in the hydrogen industry.