Australian hydrogen electrolyzer start-up, Hysata Pty Ltd has announced that its "world-leading" technology has been recognized on the global stage with ground-breaking research published in top-tier peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications.
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Green hydrogen is vital for the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors like steel, heavy transport, and chemicals. The Energy Transitions Commission expects demand for green hydrogen to grow to 500- 800 million tonnes per annum by 2050 to meet demand in these sectors, creating a new multi-trillion-dollar industry.
Currently, however, green hydrogen is too expensive to compete with fossil fuels, due in large part to the low efficiencies of existing electrolyzers.
Ultra-high efficiency electrolyzer
Paul Barrett, CEO of Hysata, said the company is on a clear pathway to commercialize the world’s most efficient electrolyzer and reach gigawatt-scale hydrogen production capacity by 2025.
Hysata’s ultra-high efficiency electrolyzer will make green hydrogen competitive years earlier than generally assumed, accelerating global decarbonization and increasing energy security.
The global momentum towards net zero is creating a massive opportunity for green hydrogen and electrolyzers. Economics will ultimately determine which technologies win, and with our world-beating efficiency, Hysata is well placed to lead in this major new global market, Paul Barrett said.
The research paper “A high-performance capillary-fed electrolysis cell promises more cost-competitive renewable hydrogen“, published in the journal Nature Communications, confirms Hysata’s ‘capillary-fed electrolysis cell’ can produce green hydrogen from water at 98 percent cell energy efficiency.
This is well above International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) 2050 target and significantly better than existing electrolyzer technologies, enabling a hydrogen production cost well below AU$2/kg (US$1.50/kg).
Our electrolyzer will deliver the world’s lowest hydrogen cost, save hydrogen producers billions of dollars in electricity costs, and enable green hydrogen to outcompete fossil fuel-derived hydrogen. Our technology will enable hydrogen production of below US$1.50/kg per kilogram by the mid-2020s, meeting Australian and global cost targets much earlier than generally expected. This is critical to making green hydrogen commercially viable and decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, said Paul Barrett.
University of Wollongong spin-out
The technology was invented by scientists at the University of Wollongong (UOW), in Wollongong, New South Wales (NSW), and is now being commercialized by Hysata, with backing from IP Group and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
Hysata has some of Australia’s brightest minds working together to position Australia as a leading manufacturer and exporter of electrolyzers, with plans underway to build a pilot electrolyzer manufacturing plant and employ dozens of new highly skilled specialists in 2022. Green hydrogen is forecast to be a trillion-dollar industry with the backbone of this industry being the electrolyser. Given the urgency to reach net zero, we are gearing up to scale up as quickly as possible. The elegant design of our electrolyzer is perfectly suited to mass production, said Paul Barrett.
This significant step change in hydrogen technology is on track to accelerate the global hydrogen economy and drive down the cost of green hydrogen production in Australia and globally, positioning Australia as a leading manufacturer of electrolyzers and producer of green hydrogen.
Professor Gerry Swiegers, Chief Technology Officer at Hysata said the overall design of the Hysata electrolyzer system was simpler than existing technologies.
Electrolyzers have been around for 200 years, however, the large amounts of renewable electricity required to produce green hydrogen and the overall cost of electrolyzers today have prevented large-scale uptake of green hydrogen. Hysata’s overall electrolyzer system has been designed for ease of manufacturing, scaling, and installation, delivering 95 percent overall system efficiency, equivalent to 41.5 kWh/kg, compared to 75 percent or less for existing electrolyzer technologies. For hydrogen producers, this will significantly reduce both the capital and operational costs to produce green hydrogen. Hysata is proud to be at the forefront of this technology innovation and introducing an entirely new category of electrolyzer that is as monumental as the shift from the internal combustion engine to electric motors, Professor Gerry Swiegers concluded.
