Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen is the ideal energy carrier for a decarbonized world.  When hydrogen is burned, no CO₂ is emitted. 

Hydrogen

However, the vast majority of hydrogen production today is via fossil-fuel intensive processes which release vast amounts of CO₂ defeating the promise of decarbonizing the world. 

Today, hydrogen has many applications in industry, and more than 70 million tons are consumed every year. As important as hydrogen is today, hydrogen is an essential ingredient in decarbonizing large segments of the economy.

Extracting hydrogen from water is also possible. This process is known as electrolysis and requires electricity. If the source of the electricity is renewable, then this process releases no CO₂. This is known as “green hydrogen”. 

Uses of Hydrogen

Transportation

Hydrogen vehicles convert hydrogen to electrical energy (in an emissions-free process) and use it to power electric motors. Essentially, they are like battery electric vehicles, but instead of carrying a battery, they have a hydrogen tank. 

Since 1kg of hydrogen contains roughly as much energy as a 100kg battery, hydrogen vehicles (also known as Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles, or FCEV) have a much better range and can be refueled in minutes, rather than hours. 

This makes hydrogen an ideal fuel not just for cars, but also for trucks, busses, trains, ships and airplanes.

Industry

Green hydrogen can replace gray and black hydrogen in chemical industries such as ammonia production that use hydrogen as a feedstock. In addition, it can replace coal in steel production and natural gas for industrial heating.

Energy Storage

Full transition to renewable energy requires that we store energy when we have it so that we can use it when we need it. For example, storing solar energy during the day for use at night, or even from summer to winter.

Hydrogen can be used to store solar and wind energy and convert it into electricity when needed. 

There are other ways to store energy, such as batteries. However, increasing storage capacity with batteries requires additional batteries (at a cost of ~$200/kWh), while increasing storage capacity with hydrogen, requires additional tanks (at a cost of ~$2/kWh).

E-TAC (Electrochemical, Thermally Activated Chemical) is a revolutionary method for splitting water

Similar to electrolysis, E-TAC uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, unlike conventional electrolysis, hydrogen and oxygen are generated separately in different steps - an Electrochemical (E) step and a Thermally-Activated Chemical (TAC) step.

E-TAC’s membrane-free electrolytic reactors are suitable for high-pressure hydrogen production and cost-efficient scaling. This disruptive process enables the production of green hydrogen in a way that retains high energy efficiency (98.7%HHV) inside the reactors (see Nature article) and a 95% system efficiency. 

Why E-TAC?

Affordable

E-TAC decouples hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions into two consecutive steps, ensuring hydrogen and oxygen never mix.

This eliminates the need for the most expensive, most delicate part of an electrolyzer - the membrane

As a result, E-TAC devices are simpler and cheaper to make, which means greatly reducing CAPEX.

E-TAC supports high pressure hydrogen production (100+ bar), decreasing the need for compressors, further reducing CAPEX and compression related OPEX

In addition, the decoupled hydrogen generation electrochemical process and oxygen generation chemical process enable partial-load operation without risk of H₂ /O₂ mixing, making E-TAC water splitting more compatible with renewable power sources such as solar and wind than conventional water electrolysis.    

E-TAC water splitting enables green hydrogen production at high pressure (suitable for industrial applications) and high efficiency (> 25% more efficient than conventional water electrolysis). Furthermore, due to the lack of membrane separators in the E-TAC water splitting cells, the technology is relatively easy to scale-up and requires less maintenance than conventional water electrolysis, resulting in significantly reduced CAPEX and OPEX costs.