Australian hydrogen development firm Hysata plans to produce electrolysers from 2025 using a process that offers greater efficiency than other technologies under development.
Manufacturing activity will be undertaken in Australia before the firm expands production into international markets. Hysata is also working with steel producers to use hydrogen for steelmaking.
Hysata has developed a capillary-fed electrolysis cell that can produce green hydrogen from water at 98pc cell energy efficiency. This is well above the International Renewable Energy Agency's (Irena) 2050 target for cell efficiency, and significantly better than existing electrolyser technologies, enabling a hydrogen production cost well below A$2/kg ($1.48/kg).
"We would be looking to get commercial systems into the field from 2025 and beyond. That is the timeframe we are working on," Hysata's chief executive officer Paul Barrett told Argus.
Hysata is planning to build an electrolyser plant that would produce 1,000MW/yr of electrolysers, Barrett said. "On the path to net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, 20pc of the world's energy system needs to be green hydrogen," he added. Around 20pc of the world's energy system by 2050 equates to around the size of the current natural gas industry, Barrett said.
"This is a trillion dollar plus market, to wean the world off fossil fuels and get us into mass-produced green hydrogen from renewables," he said.
Hysata plans to have its first electrolyser manufacturing plant based in Australia, which is not known for a strong manufacturing sector. The firm is in talks with various state governments about building its electrolyser plant in their state. Each of Australia's six states have ambitions to develop a significant hydrogen sector for domestic use and the export market.
"While we are going to be an Australian headquartered company, there is likely that there will be manufacturing overseas over time," Barrett said. Hysata was formed at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales (NSW), following work by PhD students who were tasked with redesigning the electrolyser instead of making tweaks to prevailing designs.
The transition from a research firm to a manufacturer will require significant capital investment. Hysata is working with its foundation investors, including UK-based venture capital firm IP and the Australian government agency Clean Energy Finance (CEFC). "We are working with them on a capital strategy to turbo-charge the company to get us to the multi-production stage," Barrett said.
Hysata is also working with its key investors to bring in high-value partners that offer not just cash, but access to markets. The firm is talking to around 30 key big corporates globally that are on a mission to decarbonise. These firms are in various industries, including steel, shipping and transportation, as well as chemical manufacturing, he said.
"All these corporates say this system efficiency is of big interest to them, and so we are well-advanced in our discussions with lots of these customers, and they are interested because we fundamentally change the economics of the green hydrogen production for them," Barrett said.
The advantage of Hysata's capillary-fed electrolysis cell, which has less resistance than traditional electrolysers, is that it does not require a cooling system to lower the heat generated from the resistance created in the electrolysis process, Barrett said. The lack of a cooling system reduces the installed electricity capacity required. These lead to two areas of cost savings. One area is in operational costs saved for not requiring a cooling system and the second is on the capital expenditure side for not requiring as much investment in electricity generation, he added.
The lack of resistance and the accompanying heat generated is because of the reduced liquid volumes used in the electrolysis process. Hydrogen is largely created by splitting water using two electrodes that are surrounded by liquid in a contained area. But the Hysata process only requires a small volume of water, amounting to millimetres, that is transferred to the electrodes using a sponge-type system, called the capillary-fed process, Barrett said. The Hysata design is inserted into an injected plastic mould that seals the electrolysis process, he added.
"With electrolysers, the key is to keep resistance low, because you don't want any electrons going into producing heat because that is a waste. You want all the electrons going in to split the water," Barrett said.
