Sunfire

What they do

Sunfire builds electrolysers, the machines that split water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. It is one of very few companies to master two different technologies. Its pressurised alkaline electrolysers are designed for large industrial projects, while its solid oxide electrolysers run at high temperature and can use waste heat from industrial processes to reach higher efficiency, and can also produce syngas from steam and carbon dioxide.

Why it matters

Green hydrogen is expected to replace natural gas and coal in processes that cannot easily be electrified, such as steelmaking, chemicals and refining. Electrolysers are the bottleneck: the hydrogen economy depends on making them reliably, at scale and at lower cost. Sunfire is among Europe's leading manufacturers and has supplied systems to industrial projects in Finland, Germany and Spain, including a solid oxide unit at the Salzgitter steelworks.

The sector has had a sobering few years, with project delays and cancellations as costs and policy support shifted. That makes industrial track record more valuable, and Sunfire's dual technology offering lets it match different industrial settings rather than betting on a single approach.

Products to know

• HyLink Alkaline: pressurised alkaline electrolysers for large-scale hydrogen production.
• HyLink SOEC: high-temperature solid oxide electrolysers that make use of industrial waste heat.

The German angle

Carl Berninghausen, Christian von Olshausen and Nils Aldag founded Sunfire in Dresden in 2010. The city's strength in materials science and energy research offered a natural base for a company working on high-temperature ceramics and electrolysis. The company manufactures in Dresden, Solingen and Magdeburg and keeps a strategic office in Berlin. It has converted to a European company, Sunfire SE, and is one of the clearest examples of eastern Germany building an industrial foothold in a new energy technology.