A new electrolyzer design is shaking up the green hydrogen industry with an unprecedented 95% efficiency. That's a 20% improvement over current technology, according to Interesting Engineering.
The breakthrough comes from Hysata, an Australia-based company that recently raised $111 million in Series B funding to bring its technology to the global market. Its capillary-fed electrolyzer eliminates wasteful bubbles, allowing the electrolyte to directly contact the electrodes for near-perfect hydrogen splitting.
This leap in efficiency has huge implications. Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy sources like wind and solar, is poised to be a key player in the clean energy transition. It can be stored and used on demand, making it an ideal complement to intermittent renewables.
The International Energy Agency urges expanding hydrogen to decarbonize long-distance transport and heavy industry.
But so far, inefficiency has held green hydrogen back. Conventional electrolyzers waste about 25% of their energy input. At large scales, that adds up to a lot of squandered renewables. Hysata's design slashes the energy usage by about 20%, per Interesting Engineering, from 52.5 kilowatt-hours per kilogram of hydrogen down to just 41.5 kWh per kg.
Replacing dirty gases with clean hydrogen can cut the pollution overheating our planet. That means protecting our communities from worsening heatwaves, floods, and extreme weather. It also safeguards our food supply from climate-driven droughts and crop failures.
When asked about this design's application in future efforts, Hysata CCO Tom Campey told Hydrogen Insight: "There's no more science. The science has been done. Now it's just engineering and scale-up."
He later continued: "Just two months ago, we moved into our new facility in Port Kembla, just south of Sydney, and that will be the location of our first manufacturing line. And then we'll demonstrate the manufacturing at commercial scale there, and then scale up globally from there."
When that happens, using abundant materials in modular designs from kilowatt to gigawatt scale, green hydrogen's potential may finally be unleashed. Imagine a future where planes, trucks, and factories are powered by nothing but water and sunshine. Hysata just brought that dream a big step closer.
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