Umicore breaks ground on fuel cell catalyst plant in China
Against the back of increasing popularity of green hydrogen and growing demand for fuel cell catalyst products, materials technology firm Umicore recently held the groundbreaking ceremony in Changshu, Suzhou for its large-scale fuel cell catalyst plant.
Over the past 30 years, Umicore has been committed to the R&D of fuel cell catalysts, providing platinum and iridium catalysts for different Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, covering a wide range of industries such as automotive, marine industry, aerospace, energy storage, and water electrolysis for hydrogen production.
Leveraging its durable and high-performance fuel cells catalysts and working closely with customers across the value chain, Umicore says it has become a global leader in PEM fuel cell catalysts for the mobility segment.
Its new greenfield plant in China, expected to become the world’s largest PEM catalyst production facility to date, will enable Umicore to cater for the rapidly growing customer demand, serving demand through to 2030.
The greenfield facility, that will expand Umicore’s existing footprint of fuel cell catalyst production and R&D centres in Europe and Asia, is planned to be carbon neutral from the start and will contribute to reducing scope 3 emissions in the value chain. The plant is expected to become operational in early 2026.
Umicore currently has PEM fuel cell catalyst production facilities in Incheon (Korea) and Hanau (Germany). The activities’ R&D centres and applied technology centres are located in Incheon (Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Suzhou (China), Olen (Belgium, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Hanau (Germany).
