Clean Power Hydrogen (CPH2), the Doncaster developer of the unique Membrane-Free Electrolyser™ which generates clean hydrogen has been awarded a £338k grant by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
CPH2 submitted its application to Innovate UK’s Smart Grant Programme in October 2019. The programme is an opportunity to compete for a share of up to £25 million to deliver ambitious or disruptive R&D innovations that can make a significant impact on the UK economy.
Andy King, CEO (CPH2) said “This funding is a significant injection for us as it accelerates the safer, simpler and more sustainable development of our Membrane-Free Electrolyser™. It will enable us to improve the system design and build processes for which the outcome of the work will be a commercial-scale hydrogen production system. This will be used to disseminate learning, demonstrate performance and safety and move towards full commercialization of this innovative technology”.
“This funding from Innovate UK is a terrific endorsement of our research and development work which is helping the UK tackle climate change” commented Rodney Brook, Business Development Director who led the bid. “It provides a tremendous boost to the development of our company and the award is highly motivational for the team to know that the work they are involved in is tackling carbon emissions not only in the UK but globally”.
More than 95% of global hydrogen production is currently by steam methane reformation. This is largely a centralist activity in industrial plants and in general, the carbon dioxide produced in the process is not captured. With the unique technology that CPH2 is developing it will allow wider scale adoption, reducing barriers to clean hydrogen technology.
Hydrogen as energy generates zero carbon emission at point of use. When produced by electrolysis from renewable sources, there is also zero carbon emission in production. Uptake of hydrogen-based solutions supports the UK’s commitment to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 and there is tremendous potential for hydrogen as an energy carrier and energy store. There is a wide range of emerging applications for hydrogen, namely decarbonising of heat, powering fuel cells to displace combustion engines in transport and non-road machinery, and renewable electricity storage. Replacing conventional fuels in these sectors also delivers emissions and noise reductions to improve the local environment, especially air quality.
Nowadays there is considerable and growing interest in electrolysis for hydrogen production using electricity from non-fossil fuels. Not only is this carbon-free, but it also provides an opportunity for scaling of production to meet local demands, thus avoiding long supply chains from production to point of use.
Most of the current developments in electrolysers are based on membrane technologies to separate the oxygen and hydrogen which are produced by electrolysis. Uniquely, CPH2 has developed an innovative Membrane-Free Electrolyser™ and gas separation system with the potential to deliver market-leading efficiencies and cost competitiveness, at the required levels of purity and with world-class levels of reliability and safety. The membrane-free solution avoids the high initial costs and high maintenance and replacement requirements of membrane-based solutions plus the avoidance of rare metals that are characteristically required for Proton Exchange Electrolysers.
Innovate UK which is part of UK Research and Innovation, funds business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains, and UK regions. For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org
For more information about Clean Power Hydrogen Group Limited contact Samantha Lee on 07866 746215 or [email protected]
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