Electrolysis Technology

Water Electrolysis Redesigned for Green Hydrogen at Scale

The AquaHydrex Difference

Reimagine water electrolysis. Our electrolysis technology is a clean-sheet redesign to create the ideal electrolysis platform for large-scale, energy-efficient production of Green Hydrogen. Our innovative technology platform delivers the following benefits:

  • High performance without reliance on expensive or precious materials
  • Minimized balance of plant with no flowing electrolyte loop
  • True product architecture that’s highly scalable
  • Responsive over a 10X range and able to directly tie to variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such as solar and wind

Approach

Our mission has been to develop the ideal platform for producing Green Hydrogen. We’ve employed ‘right-to-left’ thinking, defining the ideal attributes of an electrolysis platform for Green Hydrogen, then working to achieve it. Our solution overcomes the challenges presented by legacy platforms, delivering a revolutionary solution to help the world achieve Net Zero.

The Challenges with Legacy Solutions

Low-cost production of Green Hydrogen is critical for humanity’s energy transformation. Legacy alkaline and PEM electrolysis technologies were designed in a different era and leave gaps in key areas required for massive and complete decarbonization.

Alkaline Electrolysis

Alkaline electrolysis is well-proven and doesn’t require expensive metals or rare element catalysts. However, alkaline usage is problematic in the following ways:

  • Alkaline typically operates at low current density and the flowing anolyte and catholyte loops create a multitude of problems including:
    • Parasitic shunt currents that lower efficiency
    • Electrical communication between cells and the electrolyte loops that cause corrosion and prevent the system from being able to be turned off (really!)
    • A complex balance of plant that, when deployed in a project, takes-up a large footprint and is akin to building a chemical plant
  • Alkaline is typically not capable of directly connecting to variable renewable energy (VRE) without a battery buffer, which adds cost
  • Alkaline typically produces hydrogen at atmospheric pressure, necessitating an external compressor

PEM Electrolysis

PEM electrolysis operates at high current density in a compact footprint and produces pressurized hydrogen. However, PEM is challenged as follows:

  • PEM’s cell environment is acidic and corrosive, which means that low-cost metals can’t be used and instead incorporates expensive machined titanium
    • The acidic environment in PEM makes the anode reaction especially difficult, and the only catalyst that works well is iridium, which is extremely rare and expensive
    • PEM’s reliance on iridium may limit its ability to meet the large-scale demands of green hydrogen
  • Further, the PEM membrane is made of a thin cation-exchange material that turns from a conductor into a resistor (very bad) if minor amounts of hardness pass through water treatment and into the cell – both incoming water treatment and water treatment of the recycled cell water cooling loop.

The AquaHydrex
Solution

AquaHydrex has developed a technology platform that projects to achieve a powerful, scalable, and cost-effective electrolysis solution with minimal footprint for Green Hydrogen.

The AquaHydrex Technology

  • Uses only low-cost materials and avoids reliance on iridium
  • Uses a highly conductive cell environment with excellent catalysts to boost performance and produce purer hydrogen
  • Eliminates the flowing electrolyte loops that hold back performance and add parasitic energy losses, cost, complexity, and footprint
  • Operates flexibly over a broad current density range at high efficiency
  • Able to directly tie to variable renewable energy
  • Is deployed as a modular product with a reduced balance of plant that benefits project time and cost
  • Employs a low-cost power architecture that is grid friendly and grid supporting

Interested in Learning More?

Learn how AquaHydrex’s innovative technology platform helps you to produce the lowest-cost Green Hydrogen at scale.