Norwegian high-tech electrolyser company Hystar (www.hystar.com) has today signed their first commercial contract, with Polish energy giant Polenergia (www.polenergia.pl/en), to deliver a 5MW electrolyser as part of Polenergia’s H2HubNS project. Located at Polenergia’s Nowa Sarzyna Cogeneration Plant in Poland, the project includes a green hydrogen plant of the quality needed for fuel cell vehicles, along with two refueling stations and associated infrastructure. The landmark agreement between the two companies will be delivered in 2024 and includes a long-term maintenance contract.
Oslo-based Hystar is the high-tech electrolyser company with the world’s safest and most efficient PEM electrolysers for producing green hydrogen, due to a patented design consisting of a membrane that is 90% thinner than any competitor. This means they can produce up to 150% more green hydrogen than conventional designs, or run at 10% lower costs compared to currently available models. Today’s announcement is the first step in Hystar’s plans to rapidly deploy its electrolysers globally.
This comes after Hystar announced a $26 mn series B funding round in January 2023, with investors including Japanese industrials Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Steel, to scale up to full commercialisation (www.reuters.com/article/norway-hystar-mitsubishi/norwegian-hydrogen-firm-hystar-gets-funding-from-mitsubishi-nippon-steel-idINL8N33U3TN).
Since then, Hystar has also opened its state of the art Innovation Centre in Høvik, Norway, to further enhance its technological advantages. It consists of in-house R&D facilities, laboratories and will encompass much of Hystar’s work in optimising their fully automated electrolyser manufacturing processes.
In May 2023 Johnson Matthey, a global leader in sustainable technologies, announced it had signed a three-year supply agreement with Hystar for membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), a key performance-defining component for electrolysers. (www.reuters.com/world/uk/johnson-matthey-ties-up-with-hystar-boost-green-hydrogen-output-2023-05-22).
Later this year, leading industry names Yara Clean Ammonia and Equinor will take part in Hystar’s field project, HyPilot. Yara will test for the production of green ammonia while Equinor will test for variable production loads of green hydrogen that replicate offshore wind conditions (www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/fertiliser-maker-yara-joins-norways-hystar-green-ammonia-trial-2022-09-28).