Hydrogen Optimized, a subsidiary of Key DH Technologies Inc., has demonstrated the ability of their patent-pending RuggedCellTM high-current unipolar electrolysis device to ramp from 0 to 50,000 amperes in less than 10 seconds, a world-first for alkaline water electrolyzers.
This achievement demonstrates how RuggedCellTM technology may be utilized to stabilize electrical grids and maximize energy recovery from intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
Andrew T.B. Stuart, President, and CEO of Hydrogen Optimized, will speak at the National Bank of Canada’s Green Revolution: 2nd Annual Hydrogen and CCUS Conference on the breakthrough.
“We exceeded our targets for rapidly varying the power flowing through a RuggedCellTM, including moving from 0% to 100% in under 10 seconds and achieving stable operation at full power and then at reduced power levels,” Stuart added. “Until now, Green Hydrogen experts around the world have agreed that only PEM water electrolyzers could rapidly absorb and shed electricity, allowing them to be utilized to stabilize variable electric power sources. We’ve now demonstrated that RuggedCellTM alkaline technology, which is uniquely scalable to individual system deployments in the hundreds of megawatts, can handle variable power levels as well as or better than PEM technology.”
“Deploying our solution at scale will help electrical grid operators manage the impact of substituting relatively steady fossil fuel power output with unstable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines,” Stuart added. This indicates that our water electrolysis system has the potential to become a powerful and cost-effective instrument for expanding renewable energy deployment and speeding the energy transition to net-zero carbon emissions.”
The RuggedCellTM’s quick power load response rate stands in stark contrast to today’s low-current, low-power bipolar alkaline technology. The range of power variability in these systems is intrinsically limited, and ramping up and down can take several minutes or more. Individual bipolar alkaline modules, like PEM technology, are limited to smaller-scale output.
The RuggedCellTM electrolyzer on display is thought to be the world’s largest water electrolysis cell. The technology has been developed to fulfill the requirements of the most demanding Green Hydrogen applications. Wind and solar power generation equipment providers, renewable power system designers and operators, renewable hydrogen project developers, and end-users of Green Hydrogen all rely on its ability to quickly alter hydrogen production rates in response to variations in available power.
Major industrial, chemical, utility, and energy end-users will need large-scale solutions to considerably reduce their carbon emissions. According to Aurora Energy Research, Europe’s top specialized power analytics provider, the global installed base of water electrolyzers will rise 1,000-fold by 2040*, from 0.2 GW now to more than 200 GW. By 2025, the business predicts that “average” electrolyzer project sizes will increase to 100-500 MWs, and by 2030, to 1 GW. In the future, Hydrogen Optimized believes that its high-current unipolar RuggedCellTM technology could be a category-leading option for Green Hydrogen production plants of Aurora’s scale.
