In January ECN announced that it was shedding 96 staff following the Dutch government’s decision to discontinue a research subsidy, with the fuel cells and hydrogen research program one of the sectors affected.

The agreement means that the high-quality knowledge on hydrogen energy developed at ECN will be preserved for the Netherlands. For 25 years, ECN has made significant contributions to the development of fuel cells. A large number of its inventions are currently being marketed by Dutch and foreign companies.

The transfer includes patent applications and research equipment. A number of ECN hydrogen experts have already started working at HyET. The company was established in 2008 with the aim of developing efficient hydrogen technology.

‘Although we regret that ECN had to end its hydrogen research, we are satisfied that we managed to take over a large part of the knowledge and research,’ says Wiebrand Kout, Head of Process Design at HyET. ‘This agreement gives us the opportunity to accelerate these developments significantly.’