HyperSolar noted that a low cost method to produce renewable hydrogen would enable distributed hydrogen production for renewable electricity via hydrogen fuel cells.

“We believe that we can offer a cost competitive renewable hydrogen alternative for those who need power 24/7,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “We believe that our intensive R&D efforts will finally pay off in the form of a go to market commercial product. One key discovery was an efficient and low cost polymer protective coating that will allow us to protect solar devices against photocorrosion. Using this coating to treat traditional silicon solar cells, we are able to eliminate the expensive electrolyzer by integrating the electrolysis function directly into a solar cell immersed in water.

“We have given our tech team the green light to complete the product design required to build the first demonstration system,” Young continued. “With a demonstration system in hand, we can then move to the manufacturing phase of the business.”

The HyperSolar H2Generator will be designed to be a linearly scalable and self-contained renewable hydrogen production system. As a result, it is intended to be installed almost anywhere to produce hydrogen fuel for local use. This distributed model of hydrogen production would address one of the major challenges of using hydrogen fuel on a large scale — the need to transport hydrogen in large quantities.

HyperSolar said each stage of the H2Generator can be scaled independently according to the hydrogen demands and length of storage required for a specific application. A small scale system can be used to produce continuous renewable electricity for a house, or a large scale system can be used to produce hydrogen to power a community.

For more information, visit www.hypersolar.com.

Publication date: 4/8/2013