Nov 16 2016
HyperSolar, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, today released a video demonstration of its prototype successfully producing hydrogen using water from the Iowa River, an indication of the technology’s potential in real world settings.
In the video, HyperSolar Chief Technology Officer Dr. Joun Lee collects water from the Iowa River which runs just outside of the University of Iowa, the location of the Company’s institutional research and development team. The Iowa River water is very conducive to the Company’s hydrogen production process due to its agricultural waste run-off that is rich in organics.
Following collection, this water is injected into the working prototype device and exposed to natural sunlight to initiate the artificial photosynthesis process. The patent-pending device design contains HyperSolar’s proprietary hydrogen production particle, which consists of a high voltage solar cell encapsulated in a protective catalyst coating, integrated into a membrane separator. The protective coating has been demonstrated to allow hydrogen production to run for hundreds of hours in very corrosive water, without damage.
“The video demonstrates the simplicity in operation and wide applicability of the lab-scale prototype device, one that we anticipate can be scaled up for commercial utilization to produce renewable hydrogen at or near the point of distribution,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “The steps to commercialization are many, requiring both technological efficiency as well as the ability to reduce overall system costs. This video is representative of the advancements we’ve made that we believe will ultimately result in market viability for a number of applications such as consumer vehicles, utility-scale storage, material handling equipment (MHE), and more.”
HyperSolar’s research is focused on developing a completely renewable, low-cost and submersible hydrogen production particle that can split water molecules under the sun, emulating the core functions of photosynthesis. Each particle is a complete hydrogen generator that contains a novel high voltage solar cell bonded to chemical catalysts by a proprietary encapsulation coating. A video detailing the rise of hydrogen fuel technology as well as HyperSolar’s completely renewable process of hydrogen fuel production can be viewed by visiting here.