Clyde Hydrogen Systems, a Scottish startup, has achieved what it calls a “critical technical breakthrough” in its decoupled electrolysis process, alongside launching its latest funding round designed to speed up the commercialisation of its technology.
The Glasgow-headquartered business – a spin-out from the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry – has announced the successful production of hydrogen at pressures exceeding 100 bar using its catalytic hydrogen generator. The company says its proprietary technology “has the potential to unlock more efficient, high-pressure hydrogen production, paving the way for widespread adoption of renewable hydrogen.”
Clyde Hydrogen’s decoupled water electrolysis process allows hydrogen and oxygen to be produced in separate places and at different times and rates. The decoupled process comprises electrochemical reductors, which protonate, “reduce”, a mediator solution, and the catalytic hydrogen generator which releases the hydrogen from the solution at pressure.
According to Clyde Hydrogen, existing electrolysers face challenges in a number of areas, including: managing variable/intermittent renewable energy sources; complexity and high costs; and the need for mechanical compression to produce high pressure hydrogen.
Clyde Hydrogen says its decoupled electrolysis process offers significant improvements in a number of areas, including:
- safety – no possibility of hydrogen and oxygen mixing;
- compatibility with low quality, intermittent, renewable power – resulting in higher availability;
- high pressure hydrogen production, without mechanical compression;
- simplified design – easier to scale-up; and
- reduced costs – CAPEX and OPEX.
The company asserts that its successful demonstration of hydrogen production at over 100 bar represents a significant technical validation of its technology.
Clyde Hydrogen says it is “on track to deliver a fully integrated pilot system by late 2025,” and following this, the company plans to scale up to a commercial demonstrator, with the first market-ready product targeted for release by 2027.
Launching a seed funding round
Backed by pre-seed funding from Zinc, University of Glasgow and grants from the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Innovation Scheme (HIS) and the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), Clyde Hydrogen says it is “now ready to accelerate its growth” and is launching a new funding round aimed at attracting up to £5 million of new investment. The funds will enable the company to refine its production process, develop a production-ready system by 2026, and expand its team.
