Spanish company, Dubbed Mateco, announced on the 23rd of November 2023 that they have launched their groundbreaking material, which is designed to reduce the amount of energy electrolysers consume by 30%, whilst also improving their efficiency.

The company, who is owned by Zubi Groups, made the announcement during the European Hydrogen Week. The company used to be part of a university research team at the Universitat de València (UV), but after moving away from the University, after 10 years of research, they are now part of Zubi Labs, another research team who is part of Zubi Groups.

In order to achieve the best results, the company has been based in a 10,000m squared site, located at the UV Science Park in Paterna, Valencia, Spain. At this site the company will work to generate and produce catalyst powders and electrodes which have a 1 GW capacity. Matteco aims to be fully operational and open for full-scale production and business in the second quarter of 2024, and once this has occurred, the company also plans to expand its business to a worldwide service.

The company’s overall aim was to manufacture materials which effectively reduce electrolyser energy consumption by up to 30%. This allows the electrolysers to operate more efficiently, with a lower energy consumption, making them even greener and environmentally friendly. This project was co-founded by the Zubi Group’s Executive Chairman, Iker Marcaide, and Gonzalo Abellán, Principal Investigator, who is Head of the 2D-Chem Materials Research Group at the Institute of Molecular Sciences (ICMol). Matteco has also revealed it plans to make its product a commonly and widely used material in electrolysers. Alongside this plan, the Spanish company will also make a 15-million-euro investment during 2025, plus they aim to grow their company’s team from 25 to 100 people within the next two years.

The CEO of Matteco, Marcaide, commented, “Matteco aims to be a key player in the value chain, helping to reduce the cost and accelerate the adoption of hydrogen. We already have customers in Europe and Asia and our goal is to have our technology quickly incorporated by the main international electrolyser manufacturers and thus contribute to hydrogen production projects in every corner of the planet.”

Matteco’s Chief Technology Officer, Abellán, mentioned, “Our technology is the result of years of research in which we have been able to synthesise and scale up a catalyst that, without having PGMs like iridium or platinum, outperforms them. It is also a very flexible technology that allows us to produce large electrodes. We are focusing on solutions for high current densities with low energy consumption for the electrolysis process.”