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Opening the Door to Mass Production of Green Hydrogen Using Natural Sunlight!
Fuel Cells Works
By
Fuel Cells Works
May 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM EDT
FuelCellsWorks
Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) The ultra-large photoelectrode system developed by the research team led by Dr. Jihye Lee at the Nano Lithography Research Center
KIMM successfully demonstrates a 576 cm² ultra-large photoelectrode system
The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Seog-Hyeon Ryu, hereinafter referred to as KIMM), under the National Research Council of Science & Technology (Chairperson Kim, Yeung-Shik), has developed a technology that stably generates high photocurrent under natural sunlight to efficiently produce hydrogen. By simplifying previously complex multi-step processes, this advancement drastically reduces fabrication time and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of solar-powered hydrogen production technologies.
The research team led by Dr. Jihye Lee, a principal researcher, head of the Nano-lithography & Manufacturing Research Center at KIMM’s Nano-convergence Manufacturing Research Division, has developed a technique to enhance the productivity of BiVO4 (bismuth vanadate) photoelectrodes, thereby maximizing hydrogen production. BiVO4 is a metal oxide recognized as a key material for solar water-splitting systems due to its high light absorption and solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency.
Previously, BiVO4 precursor solutions could only be prepared at concentrations up to 100 mM. This limitation necessitated over eight repetitions of spin-coating and heat-treatment steps to form high-performance thin films, which significantly slowed the process and increased material consumption, resulting in low productivity.
To overcome these limitations, the research team developed a high-concentration BiVO4 precursor solution by optimally mixing acetylacetone, acetic acid, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). With this new solution, a one-step spin coating is sufficient to produce uniform and high-performance BiVO4 thin films, improving overall productivity by approximately 5.9 times compared to conventional methods.
Furthermore, the team fabricated a large-area 144 cm² photoelectrode and connected four of them to create a 576 cm² ultra-large electrode system. Notably, by linking this system in parallel with Si solar cells, they succeeded in producing hydrogen using only natural sunlight, without any external power source. This system generated stable and high photocurrents even under natural sunlight, thus significantly improving the economic viability and efficiency of eco-friendly hydrogen production and enhancing the prospects for commercialization.
Dr. Jihye Lee stated, “This research represents a breakthrough in the fabrication efficiency and productivity of large-area photoelectrodes through the development of a high-concentration BiVO4 precursor solution. We expect it will contribute to accelerating the transition to sustainable energy and the commercialization of green hydrogen production.”
The research team has filed for domestic and PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents based on this technology. The results have also been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A (JCR Q1, Impact Factor: 10.7), an international journal issued by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Title of the article: “Breakthrough in the large area photoanode fabrication process: high concentration precursor solution with solvent mixing and one step spin coating for high PEC performance of BiVO4” (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA03349C)
This research was supported by KIMM’s Basic Research Program (Development of Core Nanomanufacturing Technologies for Ultra-Realistic Extended Reality Devices), the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Industry-Academia-Research Platform Cooperation R&D Project), and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Electronic Components Industry Technology Development Project and Industrial Technology Alchemist Project).
Utility Achieves Industry-First Hydrogen Production Using Steel Manufacturing Off-Gases
Mar 10, 2025, 09:31 ET
Onsite hydrogen production using industrial off-gases now offers a commercially viable,
economic clean energy for heavy industry
HOUSTON, March 10, 2025 /CNW/ -- Utility, the leader in affordable, reliable and clean hydrogen solutions that drive a profitable energy transition for hard-to-abate industries worldwide, today announced the successful operation of the company's H2Gen® system at a major steel plant in North America. Utility's H2Gen system successfully produced the world's first hydrogen using steel plant off-gas (blast furnace gas) in an elegant single process step under actual site conditions. Additionally, this marks the industry's first successful implementation of a system that can produce clean hydrogen from water without the need for electricity. The H2Gen system is now proven as the leading economic clean hydrogen platform solving the steel industry's significant clean energy challenges. It is a solution that is commercially available, cost-effective, offers a profitable pathway to a clean energy transition and easily integrates with existing assets.
H2Gen system installed in steel plant
Steel production is vital to industrial progress, but it is also one of the world's most energy-intensive processes, facing significant energy transition hurdles in reducing its carbon footprint. These challenges include:
Capital costs in the billions of dollars for alternative steelmaking technologies compared to the blast furnaces used in making most of the steel globally
Limited space and infrastructure constraints for making economic on-site clean hydrogen that can reduce carbon footprint of existing steel plants
The need to balance sustainability with productivity and global competitiveness while lacking economic carbon capture solutions for the steel industry
Utility's H2Gen system offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges by producing hydrogen from water using industrial off-gases, such as blast furnace gas. The H2Gen system enables on-site hydrogen production with a compact footprint while delivering enriched CO2 at a single point for cost-effective carbon capture. With more than 3,000 hours of successful operation at a major steel plant, H2Gen has demonstrated its ability to drive a cost-effective, scalable, reliable and commercially ready energy transition pathway for heavy industries including steel, biogas-to-hydrogen, chemicals, refining, upstream oil & gas, power, and hydrogen-powered data centers.
REAL-WORLD PROJECT RESULTS:
Hydrogen Production: The H2Gen system consistently produced hydrogen on-site without the need for electrical input to the reaction.
Seamless Integration: Designed for compatibility and operational simplicity, the modular, factory-built H2Gen system integrates with existing steel plant processes with minimal pre- and post-gas treatment, enhancing operational efficiency.
Robust Performance: The system demonstrated significant flexibility, handling a wide variety of feed gas conditions and could restart in less than 15 minutes after feed gas outage events.
Cost-Effective and Scalable Solution: By minimizing operating and capital costs with a very small onsite footprint and modular scalability, H2Gen provides a practical, economic pathway to clean hydrogen production for decarbonizing steel manufacturing, among many other hard-to-abate industry sectors.
"Decarbonizing heavy industries like steel, mobility, chemicals, refining, and power has been one of the toughest challenges in the energy transition — until now. Our successful deployment of H2Gen at a major steel plant proves we can deliver scalable, economic, clean hydrogen solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure and assets. H2Gen is the only commercially viable solution for producing clean hydrogen in hard-to-abate industries like steelmaking." stated Parker Meeks, chief executive officer of Utility. "Utility is rapidly scaling to meet global demand, with strong momentum in steel, biogas-to-hydrogen for mobility and beyond. Our H2Gen systems provide an economic, modular solution without the high costs and infrastructure barriers of alternative hydrogen technologies. With strong customer and partner momentum including the recent ArcelorMittal funding and GH EnA Project Development announcements, we are accelerating the shift to clean hydrogen at scale."
Utility Global, Inc. (www.utilityglobal.com) is a portfolio company of Ara Partners (www.arapartners.com), a private equity firm specializing in industrial decarbonization investments.
About Utility
Utility is a Houston, Texas-based off-gas-to-value company built specifically to enable economic decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors like mobility, steel and others. Utility's H2Gen® system needs no electricity to utilize the remaining electrochemical energy contained in a wide range of dilute off-gases to produce high-purity clean hydrogen from water.
Utility's H2Gen systems are highly scalable, modular, smaller in size and compatible with existing industrial processes and assets. H2Gen minimizes balance of plant, increases operational flexibility and offers attractive benefits in total cost of ownership. Utility helps companies in hard-to-abate industries meet sustainability and business goals by reducing emissions, energy use and waste profitably. Utility turns the environmental challenges of off-gases into competitive advantages as onsite energy, fuel or feedstock.
About Ara Partners
Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private equity and infrastructure firm dedicated to decarbonizing the industrial economy. Ara seeks to build, scale, and optimize companies with significant decarbonization impact across the industrial and manufacturing, chemicals and materials, energy efficiency and fuels, and food and agriculture sectors. The company operates from offices in Houston, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Dublin. Ara Partners closed its third private equity fund in December 2023 with over $2.8 billion in new capital commitments. As of September 2024, Ara Partners had approximately $6.3 billion of assets under management.
For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.
FuelCell Energy Participates in Innovation Agora as Part of Annual CERAWeek Conference
FCEL | 2 hours ago
Company highlights its low carbon power and hydrogen solutions.
DANBURY, Conn., March 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FuelCell Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: FCEL) is pleased to announce that Kent McCord, senior product manager for solid oxide fuel cell and electrolyzer products, and Matt Wilhoit, vice president of sales, are participating in Innovation Agora as part of the 2025 CERAWeek Conference taking place in Houston, Texas, this week.
The conference’s programs “are designed to advance new ideas, insight and solutions to the biggest challenges facing energy today and the future of energy, the environment, and climate,” according to the organizer’s website.
On March 12 at 9:00 a.m. (CST), McCord will present “FuelCell Energy's Distributed Utility-Scale Low Carbon Power and Hydrogen Solutions,” an Agora Pod.
His presentation will highlight the latest in low-carbon time-to-power distributed fuel cell solutions, as well as FuelCell Energy’s latest accomplishments in solid oxide electrolyzer technology development. This includes the testing of FuelCell Energy’s electrolyzer at Idaho National Laboratory and its joint development agreement with Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd to co-develop large-scale hydrogen production systems and technologies across Asia, New Zealand, and Australia and a detailed feasibility study of low carbon fuel production at a facility in Malaysia.
McCord will also address FuelCell Energy’s recently announced agreement to leverage coal mine methane (CMM) and natural gas for behind-the-meter data center power projects accelerating the time to revenue.
Wilhoit will lead a discussion with the Future Energy Leaders Cohort. This group, “cultivates exceptional individuals from companies, policy, academic institutions and NGOs to help empower them to meet current and future energy challenges.”
Kent McCord is FuelCell Energy’s senior product manager for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer products. Kent is a distributed energy industry professional with 24 years of experience in a broad range of roles including product development, applications engineering, product management, marketing and business development. Kent’s commercial expertise includes a variety of distributed generation technologies including fuel cells, reciprocating engines, organic Rankine cycle waste-heat-to-electricity systems, battery energy storage systems, and commercial solar solutions. Prior to his commercial focus, Kent led integrated product development teams in both fuel cell and ORC system design at United Technologies Corporation. Kent is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and holds a master’s degree in energy management from New York Institute of Technology.
Matt Wilhoit is a seasoned energy leader with 20 years of experience developing and commercializing cutting-edge technologies. Since February 2024, Matt has served as vice president of sales at FuelCell Energy where he leads commercial activities for power generation, carbon capture, and hydrogen solutions. Prior to joining FuelCell Energy, he was vice president partners & business development for Bloom Energy.
Matt began his career as a development engineer at DaimlerChrysler, and later he joined Royal Dutch Shell to commercialize their proprietary hydro-processing technology in the Americas. After holding two other progressive roles at Shell, Matt joined Siemens as senior advisor and head of strategy for the energy CEO and then vice president, digital strategy.
Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Lawrence Technological University and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.
About FuelCell Energy
FuelCell Energy, a pioneer in clean energy technology, provides efficient and sustainable power, carbon capture, and hydrogen solutions worldwide. The company’s fuel cells have been in commercial operation for more than 20 years and are able to run on various fuels including natural gas, hydrogen, and biofuel. The company’s installations have a wide variety of applications, including support of the electric grid, distributed baseload power on site for data centers, industrial operations, and major manufacturers. Founded in 1969 in Danbury, Connecticut, FuelCell Energy holds 531 patents that enable solutions for today’s energy needs. Learn more about our groundbreaking technology at fuelcellenergy.com.
Contacts:
Investor Relations:
ir@fce.com
203.205.2491
Media:
kblomquist@fce.com
203.546.5844
These startups turn fossil gas into hydrogen, without all the emissions
Finland’s Hycamite and other companies are splitting methane into solid carbon and hydrogen, a potential alternative for the troubled clean hydrogen market.
By Julian Spector
3 March 2025
Hycamite turns fossil gas into hydrogen and solid carbon at its Customer Sample Facility in Kokkola, Finland. (Hycamite)
A 67-person Finnish startup called Hycamite has just completed a facility it hopes will revolutionize production of low-carbon hydrogen.
The plant, in the industrial port city of Kokkola, on Finland’s west coast, will soon receive gas shipments from a nearby liquefied natural gas import terminal and turn the fossil fuel into hydrogen. That in itself is not novel — pretty much all of the world’s commercially produced hydrogen comes from methane, the main ingredient in natural gas. But all those legacy hydrogen producers end up with carbon dioxide as a byproduct, and they vent it into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change. Hycamite will make hydrogen without releasing CO2, using a little-known process called methane pyrolysis.
“We split the methane with the help of catalysts and heat — there’s no oxygen present in the reactor, so that there’s no CO2 emissions at all,” founder and Chairman Matti Malkamäki told Canary Media in a December interview. ?“We are now entering industrial-scale production.”
Hycamite’s Customer Sample Facility in Kokkola can produce 5.5 tons of clean hydrogen per day, or 2,000 tons per year, Malkamäki said. Instead of creating carbon dioxide as an inconvenient gaseous byproduct, pyrolysis yields solid carbon. Hycamite uses catalysts developed over 20 years by professor Ulla Lassi at the University of Oulu, which transform the methane into ?“carbon nanofibers with graphitic areas.” This solid carbon can be processed further to produce graphite that Malkamäki plans to sell to battery manufacturers and other high-tech industries.
Hycamite's founder and chairman, Matti Malkamäki. (Hycamite)
Hycamite closed a $45 million Series A investment in January to fund operations at the hydrogen plant. But it’s just one of a growing cluster of climatetech startups betting that the dual revenue stream of hydrogen and useful carbon products gives them an edge in the nascent marketplace for clean hydrogen, a much-hyped, little-produced wonder fuel for solving tricky climate problems.
Low-carbon hydrogen theoretically could clean up emissions-heavy activities like long-distance trucking, shipping, steel making, and refining — if anyone can manage to make it, at volume, at prices that compete with the dirty stuff that’s already available. In the U.S., some hydrogen producers and fossil fuel majors have talked about retrofitting carbon-capture machinery onto existing hydrogen plants, but nobody’s built a full-scale ?“blue hydrogen” operation so far. Renewables developers have evangelized ?“green hydrogen,” which is made by running clean electricity through water to isolate hydrogen, but they need electrolyzers and the production of clean electrons to get considerably cheaper. Until then, they’ll depend heavily on government policy support.
Now President Donald Trump is treating Joe Biden’s suite of clean energy policies like a piñata, and it’s hard to tell if incentives for producing green hydrogen will even survive. That’s already scaring off investors from large, capital-intensive green hydrogen projects. But the up-and-coming pyrolysis crew could find a niche: Their projects are smaller and nimbler, and they consume natural gas, one sector that Trump has ordered his government to encourage.
Turning gas into clean energy gold
Methane pyrolysis entrepreneurs like Malkamäki are heeding the call of fundamental chemistry.
“Thermodynamically, it’s far more energy-favorable to split methane than to split water,” said Raivat Singhania, a materials scientist who scrutinizes hydrogen startups at Third Derivative, a clean energy deep-tech incubator. Water’s chemical bonds hold together more fiercely than methane. That means companies trying to make clean hydrogen by splitting water need huge amounts of electricity to overcome the strength of its bonds; sourcing that electricity creates a daunting cost and a logistical hurdle.
Not only does methane-splitting require less energy, it can be done with a simpler plant design than water electrolysis, using fewer moving parts or fragile pieces of equipment, Singhania noted. This analysis informed Third Derivative’s investment in Aurora Hydrogen, which breaks methane using microwaves.
Those thermodynamic advantages come with tradeoffs. Namely, would-be methane pyrolyzers need a ready source of methane, which in practical terms means a pipe delivering fossil gas. That inevitably entails some level of upstream emissions.
Methane pyrolyzers also need to be located where gas is abundant. It’d be hard to scale up in places like Europe, post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or Massachusetts when winter rolls around. But supply is ample across much of the U.S., which is producing more fossil gas than any country ever. Hycamite is building its commercial test facility in its home base of Finland, but the company is looking to the U.S. to deploy its technology, Malkamäki said.
Right after taking office in January, Trump responded to world records in U.S. fossil fuel production by declaring an ?“energy emergency” and ordering his administration to clear the way for even more fossil fuel extraction.
It’s not clear whether the fossil fuel industry can or wishes to increase production dramatically; in market-based systems, excess supply tends to deflate prices. Whether production stays at current record highs or pushes further skyward, the U.S. will have plenty of gas to go around, and methane pyrolysis companies could generate the kind of new demand that the industry desperately needs. Moreover, they would be using American fossil fuel abundance to create materials useful for the transition to clean energy.
For that to happen, though, pyrolysis startups need to break through early technical demonstrations and start producing at scale.
Out of the lab and into the fray
Hycamite is not the only company chasing the pyrolysis dream.
Biden’s clean hydrogen tax credits are officially decided — for now
Koloma raises $50M more in quest to find natural hydrogen underground
One year in, US clean hydrogen hubs face questions — and have few answers
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The American startup Monolith is arguably furthest along in the quest to turn laboratory science into industrial-scale production. It uses high-heat pyrolysis to produce hydrogen and a dark powdery substance called carbon black, an additive used in tire and rubber manufacturing.
Monolith received a conditional $1 billion loan from the Department of Energy in late 2021 to build out its facility in Nebraska, which would deliver clean hydrogen to decarbonize fertilizer production. Monolith had to run a gauntlet to prove to DOE’s Loan Programs Office that it deserved such a loan. It has the rare distinction among pyrolysis startups of having actually sold its carbon products: Goodyear makes a tire for electric vehicles using Monolith’s carbon black.
However, Monolith did not finalize the loan before the Trump administration came to office and froze new disbursements for clean energy. The company was running short on cash while struggling to get its high-heat process to work reliably around the clock, per a Wall Street Journal article published in September. Monolith secured additional financing from its investors just before that story published.
Several other startups want to boost their revenues by turning methane into higher-value forms of carbon than carbon black, a relatively inexpensive commodity — if they can achieve the quality and consistency necessary to sell into those specialized and demanding markets.
A group of Cambridge University scientists founded Levidian in 2012 to create reliable, large-scale production of graphene, a carbon-based supermaterial discovered in Manchester, England, in 2004. After another eight years of research and development under the moniker Cambridge Nanosystems, the company was acquired and brought to market by a British entrepreneur.
Levidian eschews the catalysts, heat, and pressure that other startups use to split methane. Instead, the team ended up building a nozzle that sucks in methane gas, then uses electricity to generate microwave energy, which in turn creates a cold plasma torch that shaves carbon atoms from hydrogen atoms.
This yields hydrogen and graphene, which can be used in semiconductors, electronics, and batteries. Levidian can sell graphene for hundreds of dollars per kilogram, far more than carbon black, CEO John Hartley told Canary Media in January. Indeed, the company will host its first graphene auction on March 24. To install its technology, though, Levidian has focused on customers who want to clean up their fossil gas emissions.
“It’s really an onsite carbon-capture unit at its core: It catches carbon, makes hydrogen, and decarbonizes methane gas,” Hartley said. The first customers include Worthy Farm, which hosts the Glastonbury music festival; a wastewater treatment plant in Manchester; and the Habshan gas processing facility in Abu Dhabi.
U.S.-based Etch builds on research by founder Jonah Erlebacher, a materials science professor at Johns Hopkins University. The startup splits methane with what it describes as a recyclable catalyst that contains no rare minerals; it produces graphite and other forms of carbon.
The Etch team is wrapping up commissioning for its first ?“commercial-scale pilot” in Baltimore, a spokesperson told Canary Media. Last fall, the startup brought in a new CEO with commercial chops: Katie Ellet previously served as president of hydrogen energy and mobility for North America at Air Liquide, one of the few companies actually producing low-carbon hydrogen at scale, and a key player in six of the seven hydrogen hubs funded by the Department of Energy.
Steps toward scale in uncertain times
All these companies need to hit their stride just as the clean hydrogen market has entered a period of tumult.
The Biden administration hoped to jump-start a clean hydrogen economy with two major policies: A suite of billion-dollar grants to seven ?“hydrogen hubs” strategically chosen around the country, which are intended to link up production with entities that could use the fuel to clean up transportation and heavy industry, and a production tax credit to effectively lower the market price of hydrogen produced using low-carbon methods.
Now, the Trump administration has frozen payments on clean energy grants and loans. Prospective hydrogen producers had been waiting breathlessly for the final IRS guidance on the 45V tax credit; now that the lawyers have finally produced that guidance, the nascent hydrogen industry has to plead with the new administration to preserve those credits as it overhauls federal spending this year.
Given this swirling uncertainty, pyrolysis startups can take some solace in the fact that their business is not entirely dependent on the vagaries of hydrogen policy. At least they can sell carbon materials, which have clear value and established buyers who use the stuff in a non-theoretical way.
I asked Malkamäki if Hycamite identifies as a carbon company that also makes hydrogen or a hydrogen company that also makes carbon. He pointed out that the company name itself is a mashup of ?“Hy-” for hydrogen and ?“ca-” for carbon (and the -mite is a reference to a fanciful super-fuel that Donald Duck invented in a vintage comic strip). The revenues from the carbon products are ?“elementary for us to be profitable,” he said. ?“A couple of investors have said to us that hydrogen makes you sexy, carbon makes you money.”
That’s not to suggest breaking into the battery supply chain will be easy. It requires passing rigorous, multi-year testing by the battery makers that might buy Hycamite’s carbon products. But this kind of revenue can bolster a young business as it rides out the storm in Washington.
Honeywell releases hydrogen leak detection sensor
Posted February 26, 2025 by Nicole Willing & filed under Newswire, The Tech.
Honeywell has released a new safety sensor, the Hydrogen Leak Detector (HLD), which is specifically engineered for hydrogen-powered systems including automotive.
“Although there have been advancements in hydrogen fuel cell technology, maintaining operational safety remains an utmost concern,” the company said. “Historical incidents involving hydrogen leaks have highlighted substantial safety risks, underscoring the necessity for dependable hydrogen detection technologies.”
Using hydrogen gas poses safety risks as it is colorless, odorless, highly flammable and rapidly diffused. Without adequate monitoring, leaks can easily be undetected, resulting in fires, explosions and operational hazards.
The HLD sensor uses Honeywell’s compensation algorithm to detect hydrogen leaks in different applications. It uses thermal conductivity detection (TCD) technology to identify hydrogen leakage at levels as low as 50 ppm.
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