Company Discloses Steps to Complete Pilot Plant to Demonstrate Commercial Viability
SANTA BARBARA, CA–HyperSolar, Inc. (OTC:HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water, today announced details of its plan to build a production pilot plant to demonstrate the commercial viability of it first generation system in a real world environment.Â
In November of 2018, HyperSolar announced its intention to build a demonstration pilot plant, and that has been the focus of intensive effort in the laboratory as well as working with contract manufacturers and engineering firms for assembly and plant construction.  While its patented nanoparticle (Gen 2) technology is still in development, the Company’s management believes it can utilize its proprietary stability coatings and catalysts with readily available commercial solar cells encapsulated in panels with water (“hydrogen generation panels”) to demonstrate a completely renewable hydrogen generation system at production pilot plant scale.  The pilot plant itself will be a full plug and play facility featuring the Gen 1 technology. As the company’s more advanced and efficient GEN 2 units come available, GEN 1 technology can easily be replaced without changing the plant infrastructure.
The Company has outlined the process to plant completion as follows:
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
- Device operation validation
- Fine tune catalyst and protective coating development to increase device stability
- Refine exterior hardware design and development for device packaging and hydrogen collection
- Optimize integrated membrane configuration onto a standard solar cell
- Test operation under outdoor environment for variances in temperature, sunlight, water feedstocks etc.
- Manufacturing
- Select and align manufacturers for solar cell, catalyst, protective coating, hardware and assembly
- Manufacture the hydrogen generation panels
PILOT PLANT CONSTRUCTION
- Construction plans
- Establish relationship with industry partner as an advisor on practical applications and potential site location partner/customers
- Contract with engineering firm to create feasibility plans
- Location
- Identify customer/partner
- Secure pilot plant location
- Finalize engineering plans
- Build plant and begin operations
- Develop operations procedures including process control, hydrogen collection and storage, and plant management
- Contract with construction company and execute
The Company’s management is in discussions with contract manufacturers, engineering firms and industry partners that will provide critical input and service in the drive to completion of the pilot plant.
Ideally, the production pilot plant will be located at or near a distribution center where hydrogen fuel cell forklifts and materials handling equipment is being utilized. HyperSolar’s renewable hydrogen produced on site will replace a portion of the hydrogen produced using steam methane reforming that is current transported to the site. Steam reforming accounts for over 95% of the hydrogen production today and while the byproduct of the hydrogen is pure water, the manufacturing process still uses a fossil fuel, such as natural gas, and releases tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.  HyperSolar’s process will be truly clean, using no hydrocarbons—only water and the power of the sun.
“We are very confident in moving forward resolutely in the completion of the pilot plant. Its construction and operation will lead us to commercialization of this truly green technology—which we believe will eventually provide economically-viable, clean hydrogen, through a truly clean process, less expensively than ever before,” stated Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “This plant will not only lead to the initialization of our Gen I offering, but will help hasten the development of our truly game changing advanced Gen II technology.”
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