From fuel elements to bipolar plates

Reading time: 8 minutes

Text: Thomas Masuch

The energy, oil, and gas industry is extremely diverse. Something that is also reflected in the many possible applications of additive manufacturing, which range from the development of new generators to bipolar plates, as used in the hydrogen industry, to numerous power plant components. And wherever energy is converted, heat exchangers are also used. AM and integrated cooling channels can be used to make these exchangers more powerful and efficient. 

Power plants

In coal, gas, and nuclear power plants, for example, AM is used in pump parts called labyrinth discs, which are found in valves and improve maintenance work, as well as numerous parts and components found in turbines. 

Siemens Energy has been using AM for almost 20 years, with various centers of excellence, including one in Finspång, Sweden, being a key driver of development.  In 2017, an important milestone was reached with the first 3D-printed gas turbine blades, which were successfully tested in the turbine under full load conditions. Today, AM at Siemens Energy does much more than prototyping: The company is involved in the series production of complex parts such as burner nozzles and turbine blades. 

AM components are also frequently used in nuclear power plants. Vattenfall, for example, is using 3D-printed spare parts and components to enhance the operational safety and increase the service life of older reactors built in the 1970s and 1980s. Westinghouse, one of the world’s leading nuclear power technology companies, also uses AM on an industrial scale. In 2020, it installed the first safety-related AM component, a thimble plugging device, in a commercial reactor. Just four years later, it produced its thousandth additively manufactured component for VVER-440 fuel elements. These are only used in Soviet pressurized water reactors, but after Russia’s war in Ukraine, Western companies such as Westinghouse have also begun to qualify these hexagonal fuel elements for delivery to countries using former Soviet reactor technology (in Eastern Europe and Finland, for instance).

Oil and gas

The extraction and processing of oil and gas is a classic application sector in the energy industry. Prototypes have been made using AM for around 25 years, functional metal parts for around 15 years, and certified industrial applications for around 10 years. The oil and gas industry often requires small quantities at short notice, which are produced flexibly in a decentralized manner (e.g., on oil rigs). And if production is affected because of a missing spare part, it rarely matters if a component is slightly more expensive, as long as it can be delivered quickly. In some cases, 3D printers are operated remotely on oil platforms. By now, almost every major player in the industry is likely to be using AM with applications ranging from heat exchangers and pressure vessels to drilling components and alignment systems for oil and gas wells.

Hydrogen

Bipolar plates were on display at numerous booths at Formnext 2025. These play a central role in the use of hydrogen as an energy source, whether in its production in electrolysers or in its conversion into electricity in a fuel cell. The leak-tight bipolar plates distribute the reaction gases hydrogen and oxygen, conduct the electric current between the cells, provide cooling, and at the same time separate the individual cell compartments from each other. Thanks to AM, complex cooling structures with integrated flow channels can be produced that are difficult or impossible to achieve using conventional methods. This reduces pressure losses and allows better utilization of the reaction surfaces, for example. Another advantage is that AM can reduce the weight of the bipolar plates, which is extremely important for aircraft engines, for example. The topic is also being advanced in research. For example, the Chair of Digital Additive Production (DAP) at RWTH Aachen University is working with partners from industry and research to develop innovative additive solutions along the entire hydrogen value chain. These range from optimized, scalable cell architectures for electrolysers to hydrogen-compatible pipelines and industrial burner systems.