Verde LLC will supply state-of-the-art green hydrogen generation systems which the Company will use at intermittent renewable power sites, such as wind and solar farms, to demonstrate economic viability and new technology under development
SANTA CLARITA, Calif., Feb. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NewHydrogen, Inc. (OTC:NEWH), a developer of breakthrough green hydrogen technologies, today announced that it will begin providing green hydrogen generators to intermittent renewable power sites, such as wind and solar farms, to demonstrate economic viability and new technology under development. Under the terms of a Manufacturing Supply Agreement, Verde LLC, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of state-of-the art green hydrogen generation systems (“Verde”), will supply the Company with hydrogen generation systems.
“We are very excited about our new business relationship with Verde and our plan to partner with operators of intermittent renewable power sites, such as wind and solar farms,” said David Lee, CEO of NewHydrogen. “Verde will manufacture the systems for NewHydrogen, which the Company will purchase for use at the sites.”
The Company is targeting wind and solar farms which produce excess solar and wind energy during certain times of the day. This power can be used to run an electrolyzer (the primary component in a hydrogen generator) that converts water into green hydrogen, which is distributed in pipelines and converted back into electricity when needed. This green hydrogen can be stored in tanks and underground caverns, forming a network that can energize industry and back up electric grids. Having the flexibility to redirect unused energy capacity into making fuels can fill the gap between constant energy demands and variable energy resources.
Dr. Lee continued, “For NewHydrogen, this is a major leap forward. By owning and controlling the hydrogen generators at these sites, we will be able to move very rapidly to demonstrate the economic viability of this approach, as well as new technology currently under development including our breakthrough catalysts.”
The goal of NewHydrogen’s sponsored research at UCLA is to lower the cost of green hydrogen by eliminating or drastically reducing the use of precious metals in electrolyzers. Electrolyzers currently rely on rare earth materials such as iridium and platinum. These materials often account for nearly 50% of the cost of electrolyzers.
In 2021, the sponsored program at UCLA developed a non-precious metal-based catalyst with significant improvement of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic conditions for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. Researchers then improved the catalyst performance by modifying the structure and optimizing loading conditions. Most recently, application of a unique surface engineering technique further improved the long-term stability of the catalyst. Higher stability implies reduced operating cost of electrolyzers in the longer term.
In a parallel effort, researchers have been developing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts for alkaline electrolyzers. Their work is focused on developing platinum based HER catalysts that use significantly less platinum, as well as a totally new type of HER catalyst that does not use platinum at all. To date, significant progress has been made on both fronts. This is in line with the Company’s focus on developing OER catalysts to enable electrolyzers that cost less to manufacture and to operate.
“Prior to scaling up the process for studies with a prototype electrolyzer in late 2022, researchers will continue to explore additional improvements to both the OER and the HER catalysts to maximize the overall performance of an actual water electrolysis device,” Dr. Lee concluded.
NewHydrogen is developing ThermoLoop™ – a breakthrough technology that uses water and heat rather than electricity to produce the world’s lowest cost green hydrogen. Hydrogen is the cleanest and most abundant element in the universe, and we can’t live without it. Hydrogen is the key ingredient in making fertilizers needed to grow food for the world. It is also used for transportation, refining oil and making steel, glass, pharmaceuticals and more. Nearly all the hydrogen today is made from hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas, which are dirty and limited resources. Water, on the other hand, is an infinite and renewable worldwide resource.
Currently, the most common method of making green hydrogen is to split water into oxygen and hydrogen with an electrolyzer using green electricity produced from solar or wind. However, green electricity is and always will be very expensive. It currently accounts for 73% of the cost of green hydrogen. By using heat directly, we can skip the expensive process of making electricity, and fundamentally lower the cost of green hydrogen. Inexpensive heat can be obtained from concentrated solar, geothermal, nuclear reactors and industrial waste heat for use in our novel low-cost thermochemical water splitting process. Working with a world class research team at UC Santa Barbara, our goal is to help usher in the green hydrogen economy that Goldman Sachs estimated to have a future market value of $12 trillion.
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