Funds will support $900,000 project to demonstrate the operation of Hydrogen Optimized’s RuggedCell™ water electrolysers with intermittent solar, wind and electrical grid connections
Owen Sound, Ont. – Hydrogen Optimized today announced that it will receive $300,000 in funding from NGIF Industry Grants, a division of NGIF Capital Corporation, to optimize the operation of its unique RuggedCell™ water electrolysers using an unstable electrical supply. The funding will be applied to a $900,000 project to demonstrate the company’s large-scale Green Hydrogen production technology under solar panel, simulated wind turbine and intermittent electrical grid conditions
“We thank NGIF Industry Grants for providing funding support for the advancement of our innovative RuggedCell™ water electrolysis technology,” said Andrew T.B. Stuart, President and CEO of Hydrogen Optimized. “The funding will help us obtain critical data on the performance of RuggedCell™ electrolysers in conjunction with unstable renewable electricity sources and, ultimately, to achieve our goal of driving down the cost of producing Green Hydrogen at scale. It will also help us support the work of Canada’s natural gas industry to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of natural gas.”
Green Hydrogen produced from renewable energy can be blended with natural gas for industrial and residential applications. In addition, Green Hydrogen when reacted with CO2 can produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) through the methanation process.
“Next-generation hydrogen technologies including Hydrogen Optimized’s high-current water electrolyser can enable the production of hydrogen that can be blended with natural gas and ultimately lower its emissions profile,” said John Adams, President and CEO of NGIF Capital Corporation and Managing Partner of NGIF Cleantech Ventures. “The NGIF model offers industry validation which is key to customer creation and market commercialization for startups who are leading in the emerging hydrogen industry.
Hydrogen Optimized’s RuggedCell™ water electrolysers have a unique unipolar design which overcomes the historic difficulties of bipolar electrolysers in effectively using all the available energy from intermittent electricity sources. This, in turn, makes the RuggedCell™ an ideal solution for industrial end users to significantly reduce emissions from their processes using Green Hydrogen.
Hydrogen Optimized’s Green Hydrogen production systems are targeted to major industrial, chemical, utility and energy end users. According to a 2020 Goldman Sachs report, the Green Hydrogen market in Europe alone could reach US$12 trillion by 2050*.
“I am pleased to see NGIF Industry Grants supporting Hydrogen Optimized’s work in advancing green hydrogen production,” said Timothy M. Egan, President and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association and Chair of NGIF Capital Corporation, which operates NGIF Industry Grants. “The versatility of natural gas and its energy infrastructure help explain how the natural gas industry is ideally suited to lead on efforts to integrate hydrogen and intermittent renewable electricity sources in the energy system. It is exciting to see innovative Canadian startups leveraging the affordability and reliability of natural gas in order to advance the industry’s environmental performance and support Canadians’ daily energy needs into the future.”
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