Partnerships and external references

Bekaert has a proven track record of more than 20 years in electrochemical applications, including water electrolysis, electrochemical CO2 reduction and fuel cells. Several of these products have been commercialized. 


To keep up with industries’ evolving needs, we are strongly committed to innovation. We constantly create new solutions in close collaboration with customers, independent research partners and leading technology developers.

External collaboration

Bekaert is partner of European H2020 project LOTER.CO2M, which aims to develop advanced, low-cost electro-catalysts and membranes for the direct electrochemical reduction of CO2 to methanol by low temperature CO2-H2O co-electrolysis.

Together with other industrial pioneers like Colruyt Group, DEME and John Cockerill, Bekaert is joining forces with Flemish research centres imec and VITO (partners in EnergyVille), to invest in the production of green hydrogen. Under the flag of Hyve, the consortium aims at a cost-efficient and sustainable production of hydrogen at gigawatt level. Hyve will put the Flemish region in the driver seat for the deployment of a hydrogen economy and the transition towards a carbon neutral industry in Europe.

Thanks to our leading expertise in PTL supply for PEM electrolyzers, we partnered with Johnson Matthey (global leader in sustainable technologies), TNO (leading independent research institute in the field of hydrogen) and Schaeffler (leading global supplier to the automotive and industrial sectors) in a shared research program to drive forward next generation technologies to reduce the levelized cost of hydrogen and improve component efficiency.

A selection of recent papers where Bekaert’s sintered metal fibers have been used as porous transport layers:

Tobias Schuler et al 2019 J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 F270
Polymer Electrolyte Water Electrolysis: Correlating Porous Transport Layer Structural Properties and Performance: Part I. Tomographic Analysis of Morphology and Topology

Tobias Schuler et al 2019 J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 F555
Polymer Electrolyte Water Electrolysis: Correlating Performance and Porous Transport Layer Structure: Part II. Electrochemical Performance Analysis

Stefanie M.A.Kriescher et al 2015 Electrochemistry Communications Volume 50, January 2015, Pages 64-68
A membrane electrode assembly for the electrochemical synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO2(g) and H2O(g)

Grace A. Lindquist et al 2021 ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2021,FORUM ARTICLE, August 10, 2021
Performance and Durability of Pure-Water-Fed Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers Using Baseline Materials and Operation