Created in 2001 and located in Aix en Provence (France), HELION belongs since 2007 to the AREVA group Renewable Energy Business Unit. Within this organization, HELION is in charge of the development, manufacture and commercialization of PEM fuel cells and electrolysers systems. Its development work also uses AREVA group competences as well as world class expertise from national and international partners and suppliers, focusing on energy systems key technologies improvement and technological breakthroughs (performance, power, durability, costs,…).

HELION designs and delivers turnkey solutions for electrical power generation meeting high added value markets demands such as stationary distributed energy (coupling to Renewable Sources and back-up power systems), naval industry and urban transport.
HELION is certified ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and integrates competencies in engineering processes, as well as electrochemistry, electricity, fluidics and materials to ensure technological mastery and optimization of stacks and systems performances.
HELION has several test benches equipped with all necessary features for a wide variety of experiments up to 50 kW electric power.

Fuel cell systems built and supplied by HELION to date have significantly increased in power, from 2 to 80 kWe, operated either with pure hydrogen / oxygen or with hydrogen / air.
Its stacks integrate proprietary design, low-cost composite bipolar plates and commercial MEAs that result in high efficiency and high durability in operation.

A 30 kWe H2/O2 fuel cell backup power system was installed by HELION in June 2006 at the CEA headquarters building. Since that date, the system has been successfully tested in real environment and gives full satisfaction to the customer. Based on this experience, a new backup system generation with power range from 25 to 80 kWe is currently under manufacture.

A complete H2/air system has been successfully tested at 60 kWe together with SNCF and DGA in the frame of a project financially supported by the French National Reseach Agency. This system will be soon installed and tested in real operating conditions on a fuel cell hybrid locomotive.

Developed in collaboration with educational organizations and teachers, HELION commercializes since 2008 a complete autonomous 1 kWe didactic fuel cell system integrating a friendly human-machine interface, a simulator as well as materials and practical works.

AREVA started PEM water electrolyser development in the late eighties focusing on hydrogen production in nuclear power stations for preventing oxygen corrosion by de-oxidation of cooling water with hydrogen. A number of lab scale prototype stacks have been built and tested as well as some industrial scale systems which are still in operation.
Capitalizing on these industrial applications, HELION has been developing since 2005 PEM water electrolyser systems in order to produce hydrogen as energy storage. This system connected to renewable energy sources and fuel cell systems could be used to sustain or upgrade current electrical grids.

A new generation stack and complete electrolyser system operating at pressure up to 50 bar has been built and tested. This electrolyser system can produce 1 to 2 kg hydrogen per day.

Based on its experiences and realizations, while pursuing its technological developments, HELION enters a new industrialization step to commercialize its first product lines for permanent power supply and teaching applications.