Hyzon Motors is announcing plans to build the largest fuel cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA) production line for zero-emission commercial vehicles in the United States, Kallanish reports.

The plant will be called the new Hyzon Innovation Centre in Bolingbrook, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Production is expected to begin in the fourth quarter 2021 and the plant will open with 2,601 square metres of manufacturing space, before growing to 7,432 sq m. The plant will support about 50 full-time jobs.

At full capacity, the facility is projected to produce enough MEAs to cover the production needs of up to 12,000 hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks/year. It is billed as the first high-volume MEA production line for hydrogen fuel cells in the US and will reduce fuel cell costs, says the company that is a global supplier of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell powered commercial vehicles.

The MEA is the critical component of a fuel cell and accounts for 70% of the cost of a fuel cell stack. MEAs are currently produced in Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea and China at commercial scale. Smaller-scale MEA production in the US has been a supply and cost bottleneck for US fuel cell vehicle production, the company says.

“The new Hyzon Innovation Centre is essential to our strategy to expand the US hydrogen supply chain, reduce fuel cell costs for commercialisation and create local jobs,” says Hyzon chairman and co-founder George Gu in a statement. “We are looking forward to empowering the unique ecosystem so that we can further accelerate the energy transition and decarbonise heavy road transport.”

Adds ceo and co-founder Craig Knight: “We see a substantial uptake in Europe already and anticipate North America will soon follow suit on this decarbonisation journey for heavy transport.”

The Illinois facility will also conduct research and development on materials for fuel cells, electrolysers, solid-state batteries, advanced e-drive systems, autonomous driving technologies and green hydrogen production technologies, it says.

Hyzon, with headquarters and facilities in Rochester, New York, also has operations in Europe, Singapore, Australia and China. It produces commercial vehicles in Groningen, The Netherlands. It is planning to build a new plant in upstate New York to produce next-generation fuel cells. Last month, the company said it plans to go public through a merger with Decarbonisation Plus Acquisition Corp in a deal that values the fuel-cell truck company at $2.7 billion. That deal will close in 2Q 2021.