As the world moves towards cleaning up its polluted planet, one of the most promoted developments is the use of Hydrogen. Hydrogen engines, hydrogen generators are key new tech developments for what is to be a greener transport future, based on the premise that it is cleaner and more efficient than fossil fuels right?
Well it turns out that that’s not as accurate as people would like to believe, and the problem is not in the gas itself but in how the gas is accumulated at scale.
Hydrogen hardly occurs naturally on its own, and is mostly found in compound molecular structures such as water molecules.
The most common form of mas producing hydrogen is via a thermal process typically involve steam reforming, a high-temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen. Many hydrocarbon fuels can be reformed via thermal heating to produce hydrogen, and the most often utilised in Hydrogen production is the use of natural gasses such as methane, or alternatively diesel fuel.
The issue with that is when methane is processed in this way the waste product is carbon dioxide plus the heating process uses large quantities of energy to do so, and this hardly aligns with goals of providing a clean energy source. There is approximately 90 million metric tons of Hydrogen used today in everything from fertilizer production to chemical manufacturing, of which 96% is derived directly from natural gas, oil, or coal – Not particularly Earth Friendly then.
This was the gap that Hgen decided to make a move in filling when they launched their innovative idea to develop and modularize industrial scale electrolyzers, the “chemistry kits” capable of producing green hydrogen by splitting water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. “There’s over $100 billion spent today on hydrogen in industrial applications,” said Molly Yang, co-founder and CEO of Hgen.
Electrolysis itself is not necessarily a clean process either as it requires electricity. And dependant on the source of that energy will dictate how clean the hydrogen actually is. However, as energy generation moves towards cleaner production so too will the electrolysis process to produce hydrogen.
That innovation of concept, earned Hgen a $2 million seed round in 2022, and induction into that year’s Breakthrough Energy Fellows list. Now, Hgen is back with another $5 million funding round from Seven Seven Six with participation from Fontinalis Partners and Founders Fund.
According to Yang, Part of Hgen’s initial pitch was that there is ample electrolyzer technology available today, but it’s not optimized sufficiently for clean hydrogen production. This forced their R&D team to focus on optimizing the entire widget, from the electrolyzer’s electrodes to the structure of the pipes and pumps that support them.
Hgen uses alkaline electrolyzers, which is a tried and tested technology that typically trades some of the efficiency gains of newer approaches in favor of lower costs.
Yang however claimed that Hgen had found a way to shrink the electrolyzer by a factor of twenty, thereby reducing materials and manufacturing costs. “Even with first builds, we’re coming out at a much lower cost,” she said.
In an electrolyzer, the magic happens at the interface between the electrode and the liquid. The electrodes carry electricity into the liquid and produce the chemical reaction that splits the inter-molecular bonds between hydrogen and oxygen. This process releases bubbles of hydrogen at the one side of the electrolyzer and oxygen gas forms on the electrodes and eventually trickle up to the surface.
The bubbles also tend to remain for too long for efficient production which according to Yang, “Blocks the electrodes from being reactive and being able to form new hydrogen”.
The Hgen design team tweaked the electrode design to encourage hydrogen and oxygen bubbles to leave sooner, with the result that Hgen’s electrolyzer stack is smaller and still able to produce the same amount of hydrogen. A smaller stack uses fewer materials and takes up less space, further cutting costs. “Our cell design basically allows for this virtuous cycle,” she said.
According to Yang Hgen units will be small enough to be able to package the entire thing into a 40-foot shipping container that can be delivered to a site and hooked up with minimal labor — “just water and electrical inputs,” she said. The company is initially targeting companies that currently get hydrogen delivered in a liquified form, which Yang said can cost well over $10 per kilogram. “Being able to avoid all of that liquefaction, all of that truck delivery, is just a more appealing cost proposition for them,” she said. “And also a more stable, secure supply for them.”
