Johnson Matthey signs three-year supply agreement with Norway’s Hystar

Johnson Matthey said on Monday that it has signed a three-year strategic supply agreement with Hystar, a Norwegian high-tech hydrogen company, to ramp up renewable hydrogen production.

The company said this delivers on its milestone of winning at least two strategic partnerships in Hydrogen Technologies.

Matthey will supply membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), key performance-defining components for electrolysers, as part of Hystar's commercialisation ramp-up. This represents the next step in the collaboration between the two companies which began in 2021, focused on electrolyser stack development and manufacturing scale-up, using the components provided by JM and Hystar's patented cell design.

As part of the collaboration, JM will supply MEAs for the Hystar PEM electrolysers to be used in the HyPilot project in Norway. The HyPilot project will verify Hystar's patented PEM technology under realistic field conditions, in collaboration with industry leaders Yara and Equinor, with end market demand driven by the trends in food production and energy security.

Mark Wilson, chief executive of Hydrogen Technologies at Johnson Matthey, said: "This strategic agreement with Hystar is an important endorsement of JM's electrolyser technology, manufacturing capability, supply chain access and our circularity offering.

"Partnerships such as this that bring together complementary capabilities and strengths of different organisations are essential to the development of the hydrogen economy."