The Stuart family of Ontario, Canada may have had to wait four generations, but with the latest iteration of the family business—Hydrogen Optimized—it is well placed to take advantage of the upcoming global green hydrogen boom.

The company has developed the patent-pending Ruggedcell high-current water electrolysis system. The system is ideal for the world’s largest chemical, industrial, and heavy-duty transportation applications— the largest potential market sectors—as its unique technology is highly scalable and cost-effective, unlike low-current bipolar alkaline and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers in the marketplace today.

“We’ve had an enormous pickup in enquiries for large-scale projects,” Andrew Stuart, president and CEO of Hydrogen Optimized, tells Hydrogen Economist. “And we have a true sense of urgency to scale our company to meet this market need. The global market for electrolysers has been 10-12MW per year for the past 25 years, but should rapidly expand to 10-12GW in the next 5-10 years. This is true exponential growth.”

"The global market for electrolysers has been 10-12 MW per year for the past 25 years, but should rapidly expand to 10-12 GW in the next 5-10 years” Stuart, Hydrogen Optimized

The Ruggedcell electrolysis system is based on a high-current unipolar design first developed by Stuart’s grandfather and known as the ‘Stuart Cell’, Stuart says, whereas both low-current alkaline and PEM electrolysers in the market today have bipolar architectures. The advantage of a unipolar design is it allows for high-system power, which in turn allows for much larger-scale electrolysers than bipolar systems. And, of course, larger-scale electrolysers lead to greater economies of scale and lower cost.

“As far as we know, and based on feedback from our clients and companies who have been calling, our unipolar electrolysis technology is unique,” says Stuart. “The Ruggedcell has been developed with three principles in mind: lowest-possible cost; scalability; and capability for high-volume manufacturing.”

Working with ABB

To better prepare for the growing global hydrogen market, and to potentially expand market opportunities, Hydrogen Optimized has recently made two major moves: it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with global technology company ABB to jointly explore development of large-scale green hydrogen production systems to be connected to electrical grids; and it has established a large new technology development and manufacturing facility.

The MoU, signed last September, formalises an agreement between Hydrogen Optimized and ABB to prove the Ruggedcell electrolysis technology can be used to develop an integrated product solution on a 100MW single-module plant design concept.

Among other things, ABB is a leading worldwide supplier of high-power rectifiers for any industrial application, and using single or multiple units it can provide nearly unlimited current and voltage combinations to meet most plant-specific requirements. This is pivotal for scaled-up versions of Hydrogen Optimized’s Ruggedcell electrolyser system.

“ABB is a world leader in the control and electrification solutions designed for large-scale electrochemical processes,” says Stuart. “Such technology is an excellent fit with our patent-pending Ruggedcell. Together these technologies create a continuous reduction in the installed capital cost as the scale of the green hydrogen project increases.”

Expansion

In early February, Hydrogen Optimized announced it had signed a lease agreement for a massive new facility in Owen Sound, Ontario—part of the Grey-Bruce Hydrogen Hub—where the company is planning to refine its Ruggedcell electrolysis technology and manufacturing processes. The lease agreement for the former auto parts plant will allow the company to expand the facility to almost 200,000sq ft over time.

500MW – Target for annual electrolyser production

“We are developing the capability to manufacture up to 500MW of Ruggedcell electrolysers annually,” says Stuart. “Looking farther ahead, we intend to drive costs down to the lowest possible level with manufacturing plants rated at 2,000MW or more of annual Ruggedcell production.”

Once Hydrogen Optimized has further refined its technology at scale and the manufacturing process, it is planning to work with partners around the world where domestic demand justifies the construction of Ruggedcell electrolyser manufacturing plants.

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Author: Vincent Lauerman