An Owen Sound company that develops green hydrogen technology is a step closer to getting its equipment to market after achieving a breakthrough.
Hydrogen Optimized — located in the former Tenneco plant at 1800 17th Street East — is a hydrogen technology company that focuses on converting green electricity to green hydrogen through its patent-pending RuggedCell water electrolysis system.
This process involves the application of an electric current into water to separate its constituents of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then used for major industrial, chemical and utility applications to replace fossil fuel use.
Hydrogen Optimized president and CEO Andrew T.B. Stuart says the company recently operated its RuggedCell unipolar electrolyser at 50,000 amperes in its demonstration centre in Owen Sound — marking the highest current flow of any water electrolysis cell on the market today.
“This means we can build the world’s largest water electrolysis plants with module size in the 100s of megawatts,” Stuart explains.
Stuart says the milestone is a pathway step to the commercialization of the company’s large scale green hydrogen production systems. Moving forward, he says the company will focus on turning its demonstration system into a commercial product and scaling.
“Our primary focus will be to manufacture the equipment to produce the hydrogen and sell that equipment to these large scale industrial users, such as cement factories, ammonia producers, or companies that make steel but want to make it ‘green steel,” Stuart says. “These companies or others who may wish to own and sell the hydrogen to them.”
Stuart says the company hopes to be ready to take its RuggedCell water electrolyser to market in 2022.
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Meanwhile, Hydrogen Optimized is working to advance manufacturing capabilities to enable the production of electrolysers annually at its Owen Sound plant. According to a company release, it also plans to establish new manufacturing facilities in other markets to meet growth projections in the demand for large-scale green hydrogen production.
Ontario’s Minister of Energy Todd Smith recently visited Hydrogen Optimized’s facility in Owen Sound and was impressed by the company’s progress on its green hydrogen production system.
“Ontario businesses such as Hydrogen Optimized can help place our province at the forefront of clean energy technology and manufacturing,” Smith says in a statement.
Stuart believes green hydrogen technology will be critical in enabling global carbon-neutrality targets to be reached by replacing oil, natural gas and coal in industrial, chemical and utility applications.
Canada is one of more than 120 countries that has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In July, the Government of Canada set a new target of lowering the country’s emissions to 40-45 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.
