A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between Green Hydrogen International (GHI) and Hydrogen Optimized for the proposed development of a large electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Texas.
GHI’s planned Hydrogen City project, a previously announced 60 gigawatt (GW) green hydrogen production and salt cavern storage hub to be built in South Texas, will use the factory to produce Hydrogen Optimized’s RuggedCell water electrolyzers.
The proposed RuggedCell manufacturing facility will be constructed in stages, with a goal of producing 5 GW of electrolyzers per year. GHI plans to buy the entire output of the facility for the first ten years of its operation in order to supply its Hydrogen City project. Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Corpus Christi are among the cities being considered for the factory.
The Green Hydrogen Initiative’s plan for gigawatt-scale green hydrogen production necessitates the use of extremely large-scale water electrolysis technology. The patented high-current RuggedCell technology developed by Hydrogen Optimized was built from the ground up for large-scale hydrogen production at a significantly lower capital cost. Individual RuggedCell installations of 100 MW are being targeted as a stepping stone to systems capable of 400 MW. Most systems on the market today, by comparison, cannot scale beyond 20 MW per unit, and in many cases, 5 MW per unit.
Furthermore, unlike the RuggedCell, many of these systems rely on expensive iridium, which isn’t readily available in large enough quantities to meet the world’s multi-gigawatt annual demand for electrolyzers. The RuggedCell’s dynamic response to changes in electrical current levels from 0 to 100% power load in just a few seconds is another key feature.
According to a March 2022 report from Guidehouse Insights, global electrolyzer capacity is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 78 percent, from 0.5 GW in 2022 to 84.7 GW in 2031. Only widespread adoption of large-scale electrolysis technology can realistically achieve this capacity. GHI estimates that by 2028, its global operations will necessitate up to 10 GW/year of new production capacity.
