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Thank you! We are going to need low cost green hydrogen. Existing electrolyser technology uses precious metals and so they are expensive/current limiting facto

Thank you! We are going to need low cost green hydrogen. Existing electrolyser technology uses precious metals and so they are expensive/current limiting factor. However there are lots of startups working on bringing to market electrolysers that use non precious metals. In terms of chemical processes, fermentation is quite simple. In addition to the bioreactor you need a device to control the gas inputs and you need some downstream processing (product extraction). For ethanol distillation is most commonly used but there are newer lower energetically demanding techniques that can be used for extraction. Not all products can be distilled out though, so extraction is somewhat product dependent.

idealmedtech 5y ago
What is your read on how quickly electrolyser companies will be able to scale? Historically they were only used industrially in very niche applications (submarines, some space applications), so their production was in the ~MW order of magnitude. Going towards GW and TW scale is difficult when you were previously operating on bigger budget, longer lead projects. Do you have any particular companies you're keeping an eye on?
- DavidPBL 5y ago
  I am optimistic that with the interest, government policy and both public and private funding, we can achieve the necessary scale required. It will probably take longer than the optimists predict and less time than the pessimists think. edit: some interesting hydrogen companies https://www.sunhydrogen.com/technology https://www.sunhydrogen.com/technology (like a solar panel but for hydrogen, uses light energy to split water into H2 + O2) https://www.alchemr.com/technology/ https://www.alchemr.com/technology/ (electrolysers that use non precious metals) https://www.h2pro.co/technology https://www.h2pro.co/technology (membrane free electrolysers) There are also several companies developing 'turquoise' hydrogen, which is a plasma based technology. I have no connection to this website, but the first few paragraphs it lists a few companies in this space: https://www.h2-view.com/story/four-more-technologies-for-turquoise-hydrogen/ https://www.h2-view.com/story/four-more-technologies-for-tur...
  - idealmedtech 5y ago
    Great, thanks and best of luck to you!
    - DavidPBL 5y ago
      Thank you!

idealmedtech 5y ago

What is your read on how quickly electrolyser companies will be able to scale? Historically they were only used industrially in very niche applications (submarines, some space applications), so their production was in the ~MW order of magnitude. Going towards GW and TW scale is difficult when you were previously operating on bigger budget, longer lead projects. Do you have any particular companies you're keeping an eye on?

DavidPBL 5y ago
I am optimistic that with the interest, government policy and both public and private funding, we can achieve the necessary scale required. It will probably take longer than the optimists predict and less time than the pessimists think. edit: some interesting hydrogen companies https://www.sunhydrogen.com/technology https://www.sunhydrogen.com/technology (like a solar panel but for hydrogen, uses light energy to split water into H2 + O2) https://www.alchemr.com/technology/ https://www.alchemr.com/technology/ (electrolysers that use non precious metals) https://www.h2pro.co/technology https://www.h2pro.co/technology (membrane free electrolysers) There are also several companies developing 'turquoise' hydrogen, which is a plasma based technology. I have no connection to this website, but the first few paragraphs it lists a few companies in this space: https://www.h2-view.com/story/four-more-technologies-for-turquoise-hydrogen/ https://www.h2-view.com/story/four-more-technologies-for-tur...
- idealmedtech 5y ago
  Great, thanks and best of luck to you!
  - DavidPBL 5y ago
    Thank you!