Project will help propel company toward commercialization of its large-scale Green Hydrogen production systems
Owen Sound, Ont. (Nov. 30, 2021) – Hydrogen Optimized, a subsidiary of KEY DH Technologies Inc. (KEY), today announced it is receiving advisory services and funding of up to $750,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) supporting a research and development project to advance manufacturing design for its patent pending RuggedCell™ high-current unipolar water electrolysers.
The NRC IRAP funding, to be provided over three years, will support engineering, planning and design work for RuggedCell™ manufacturing.
“We thank NRC IRAP for supporting our work to progress our RuggedCell™ manufacturing processes,” said Andrew T.B. Stuart, President and CEO, Hydrogen Optimized. “The funding will move us closer to our goal of driving down the cost of water electrolysis systems through advanced manufacturing at our Owen Sound plant.”
Stuart added, “This project, in parallel with the ongoing development of our company’s innovative large-scale Green Hydrogen production technology, will support our commercialization effort.”
The RuggedCell™ was designed from the start to deliver the scalability of high-current unipolar technology along with low-cost manufacturing made possible by the use of economic materials and streamlined assembly.
Both of these attributes – technology performance and manufacturing optimization – have been integral to Hydrogen Optimized’s $22 million RuggedCell™ development program. Approximately $10 million has been invested in the program to date. Further investment of $12 million is anticipated over the next three years, backed by retained earnings from the KEY group of companies, investors, and funding from NRC IRAP, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, NGIF Industry Grants, and other funding sources under development.
The objective of the NRC IRAP-funded project is to develop in-house manufacturing processes capable of producing hundreds of megawatts of water electrolysers annually while also reducing the capital cost of each electrolyser produced.
This new project funding follows Hydrogen Optimized’s Oct. 26, 2021 announcement that it has demonstrated a 50,000 ampere RuggedCell™ electrolyser – the world’s highest-current water electrolyser in operation since the 1980s and a breakthrough in large-scale Green Hydrogen production technology. The RuggedCell™ system leverages high-current unipolar technology that has been proven over decades in industrial applications, in a new and innovative architecture.
Large-scale systems will be required by major industrial, chemical, utility and energy end users to significantly reduce their carbon emissions. Aurora Energy Research, Europe’s leading dedicated power analytics provider, projects that the global installed base of water electrolysers will grow one-thousand-fold from 0.2 GW today to more than 200 GW by 2040*. The firm also projects that “typical” electrolyser project sizes will grow to 100-500 MWs by 2025 and to 1 GW by 2030. Looking ahead, Hydrogen Optimized believes that its high-current unipolar approach could be a category-leading solution for plants at the scale forecasted by Aurora.
About Hydrogen Optimized
Hydrogen Optimized is a private hydrogen technology company that develops and commercializes large-scale Green Hydrogen production systems. It is part of Key DH Technologies Inc., a group of innovation-driven businesses in the deuterium and hydrogen industries. As a sustainable energy conversion company, Hydrogen Optimized enables the conversion of green electricity into Green Hydrogen and the transformation of heavy fossil fuel-use industries into sustainability leaders. Using our patent pending high current unipolar RuggedCellTM water electrolysis system, we seek to be the first water electrolysis company to supply an aggregate of 10 GW of hydrogen production equipment. Hydrogen Optimized’s Green Hydrogen production systems are targeted to major industrial, chemical, utility and energy end users. For more information on Hydrogen Optimized, please visit www.hydrogenoptimized.com.
About KEY DH Technologies Inc.
KEY DH Technologies develops innovation-driven businesses in the deuterium and hydrogen industries, serving global markets. KEY’s three main operating companies include: Hydrogen Optimized, a private hydrogen technology company that develops and commercializes the patent-pending RuggedCell™ water electrolysis systems for the large-scale production of Green Hydrogen; Isowater®, a world-leading supplier of deuterium oxide to global customers in the life sciences, high technology and environmental science sectors; and deutraMed™, a breakthrough deuterium science and innovation company that provides clients with high-value deuterium-containing products for specialized applications along with IP-driven research and services. For more information, please visit www.keydht.com.
For more information:
Don Hogarth
416-565-8920
