Australian electrolyzer invention
enables green hydrogen under US$1.5/kg by ‘mid 2020s
“We’re not talking about incremental
improvement, this is a really giant leap,” Hysata CEO Paul Barrett
told pv magazine Australia. Hysata is commercializing a
breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong which
effectively, Barrett says, invented a “brand new category of
electrolyzer,” vastly improving efficiency.
New South Wales company Hysata
is on track to commercialize the world’s most efficient electrolyzer,
capable of producing green hydrogen for less than US$1.5 per kilogram
by the ‘mid 2020s,’ it says. Moreover, the company believes it can
reach gigawatt scale hydrogen production within a similar timeframe,
saying its design is simple and suitable for mass manufacture today.
The company was born out of an
electrolysis breakthrough made at the University of Wollongong, south
of Sydney, around three years ago. There, researchers led by Gerry
Swiegers discovered hydrogen could be produced far more efficiently
using capillary-fed electrolysis.
How Hysata's capillary-fed
electrolyzer cell works Image: Hysata
The Hysata electrolyzer
consumes 40.4kWh of energy for every kilogram of hydrogen it produces.
The Nature paper noted commercial electrolysis cells tend to
use around 47.5kWh/kg, though Hysata CEO Paul Barrett claimed it was
closer to 52.5kWh/kg. This equates to around 75% system-level
efficiency, whereas the Hysata system claims a total efficiency of
95%.
This 20% efficiency boost has
enabled the massive cost reduction Hysata says it’s only a few years
away from making a reality. “You really collapse the project economics
through that efficiency lever,” Barrett told pv magazine Australia.
The academic added the company has “a simplified system which really
reduces the cost quite substantially.”
Cost
Barrett didn’t want to commit
publicly to the price of the Hysata electrolyzer, but said the company
is in conversation with around 30 “name brand companies,” needing
green hydrogen, who are “thrilled” about the economics.
“Our technology will enable
hydrogen production of below US$1.50 per kilogram by the mid-2020s,
meeting Australian and global cost targets much earlier than generally
expected,” Barrett said.
Barrett said the company is
busy building its pilot line of electrolyzers in a house near
Wollongong now. “We’re building a huge test capacity, like, today,” he
said. He is hoping to begin testing them in parallel within the next
few months, with plans to ramp up the pilot line in 2023.
The Hysata Team in Wollongong,
which is on the New South Wales south coast. Image: Hysata
From pilot scale, the company
wants to jump directly into gigafactories. To enable this, Hysata will
grow its team of 20 engineers significantly this year.
“We are planning to have
systems in the field by 2025,” Barrett said.
“I’ve got plates working today
at the efficiency and performance that we’ve got on that paper,” he
added, referring to the study in Nature, and adding: “our
next thing is to basically string lots of those together, not unlike
the way you’d string multiple solar modules together. We’ll connect
them in series and that becomes our stack.”
The company “certainly” plans
to keep its manufacturing in Australia, Barrett said, possibly
remaining in Wollongong – which is right next door to the proposed
Port Kembla hydrogen hub.
“This can be an era defining
company for Australia,” the CEO said, noting that Australia imports
the vast majority of its renewables equipment today, such as solar
panels and wind turbines. “There’s a real opportunity to build
sovereign manufacturing capacity here in Australia and export it to
the world,” he added.
Port Kembla has been identified as
a priority site for a green hydrogen production hub. The port adjoins
Wollongong. Image: Wollongong City Council
This very much aligns with
Matt Kean’s plan, the state’s environment and energy minister as well
as treasurer. In February, he announced AU$250 million (US$180
million) in funding to boost locally manufactured renewable energy
content and a further AU$300 million (US$216 million) to build a
renewables-powered manufacturing base including renewable hydrogen.
The company is the “first in
the world” to commercialize a capillary-fed electrolyzer, according to
Barrett. To date, he says, electrolyzer technology has been “too
inefficient and too complex” to make green hydrogen attractive.
Hindering efficiency in electrolyzer cells is resistance, which has
typically come from bubbles which are non-conducting, and mask
electrodes.
An evolution of electrolyzers
graphic, showing how capillary-fed electrolysis works.
Barrett said the research team
at the University of Wollongong “basically looked at that problem with
a blank sheet of paper and really tried to understand where all the
resistance is, inside the cell.” That exercise led to the invention of
capillary-fed electrolysis which eliminates these bubbles and boosts
efficiency.
This leads to a “double whammy
benefit on the economics,” Barrett says, because hydrogen projects
would need less renewables to get the same hydrogen output, saving on
capital outlays while also only needing to purchase a smaller
electrolyzer.
Electrolyzer details
The company’s electrolyzer is
fives times smaller than a traditional alkaline electrolyzer, Barrett
says, and contains 20 times less liquid. It fits inside a six-meter
shipping container and can be moved by forklift for easy
transportation, he added. “So we’ve got a drastically simplified
balance of plan.”
Hysata’s electrolyzer cell
frame is made using a scalable, low cost and mass manufacturing
technique – making the product nimble so it can get to market as
quickly as possible.
“We’re one of the few, if not
the only, electrolyzer from time zero, to be mass manufacturable,”
Barrett said.
Paul Barrett and Gerry Swiegers
with one of the Hysata cells. Image: Hysata
Swieger, who led the
University of Wollongong ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials
Science research, has since become Hysata’s chief technology officer.
