HyperSolar, a developer of renewable hydrogen, has announced its intentions to build a pilot plant to demonstrate commercial viability of its technology.
Image:: HyperSolar plans to build pilot plant to produce hydrogen. Photo courtesy of James Knight/Freeimages.com
HyperSolar claims that its laboratory research and development efforts over the last seven years have resulted in several innovations in renewable hydrogen.
The company stated that it can use its stability coatings and catalysts with readily available commercial solar cells encapsulated in panels with water to demonstrate renewable hydrogen generation system at production pilot plant scale.
HyperSolar is presently negotiating with the various suppliers to manufacture the quantity of hydrogen generation panels required for its production pilot plant. Once a manufacturer is selected, the company’s technology team is expected to transfer lab processes and techniques for the production of hydrogen.
The company intends to design and manufacture its hydrogen generation panels in a way that they can be interchanged. It will also be designed to enable insertion of the company’s second generation nanoparticle technology without changing the plant infrastructure.
Presently, the company is in discussions to retain the services of an engineering firm with industrial gas experience to design and build its production pilot plant.
Some engineering challenges involved in the project include handling the capture, pressurization, and storage of the produced renewable hydrogen.
HyperSolar stated that the pilot plant could be located near a large fulfillment or distribution center where extensive hydrogen fuel cell forklifts and materials handling equipment will be used.
HyperSolar CEO Tim Young said: “We are very excited about the prospect of moving out of the lab and into a real-world environment where our hard work and the efforts of our development partners (The University of Iowa and University of California, Santa Barbara) can be showcased and demonstrated to potential customers.”