Solhyd, a KU Leuven spinoff, is refining its know-how to achieve megawatt-scale manufacturing of hydrogen-producing photo voltaic panels with a €6 million ($6.5 million) funding from a consortium of Flemish buyers.
After years of fine-tuning its solar-hydrogen panel know-how, Solhyd has spun off from KU Leuven in Belgium and is trying to apply its potential in market-oriented, pilot tasks and additional develop its manufacturing capabilities.
The newly established firm has raised seed capital from a bunch of entrepreneurs lively in Flanders, which have dedicated to injecting as much as €6 million into the corporate over the subsequent few years. The primary tranche of €2 million was placed on the desk on Thursday.
“We now have obtained a whole lot of curiosity from buyers from all corners of the world,” Jan Rongé, CEO of Solhyd, informed pv journal. “We’ll now give attention to establishing a community of companions, suppliers and system integrators and prepare for megawatt-scale manufacturing by 2026.”
The Solhyd know-how combines an everyday PV panel and a proprietary hydrogen-producing layer that are linked through gasoline tubes. Electrical energy produced by the highest layer photo voltaic panel is utilized by catalysts to separate water molecules extracted straight from the air utilizing a membrane. The system is alleged to provide 250 liters of hydrogen per day, at a peak effectivity of 15%.
“The typical actual life effectivity we’re concentrating on is 12% and upwards,” Rongé mentioned.
Solhyd hydrogen panels are suitable with most business PV modules, that are straight plugged into the hydrogen-producing system.
“At this level, we desire to go along with mono PERC panels, however we’re additionally very a lot trying ahead to perovskite-silicon tandems, which we anticipate to be an important step in our personal improvement,” Rongé mentioned. “Nonetheless, in the long term, it is smart to accomplice up with sure PV suppliers to optimize the technological synergies akin to dimensions and working voltage.”
To date, the know-how has been examined in varied climates and demonstrated that it may be deployed nearly wherever on this planet.
“The figuring out components is the solar. The hydrogen output straight is determined by the photo voltaic enter,” Rongé mentioned. “Our panels can retailer humidity, so when you’ve got a couple of dry days, that shouldn’t be an issue. The system has some resilience in that respect.”
The know-how has additionally been examined in Africa, the place it confirmed even higher outcomes than in Belgium.
“A Belgium summer time night time is drier and shorter than most African nights,” Rongé mentioned. “It is just in the course of the dessert that our panel would have an issue to work effectively,” he mentioned. “In northwestern Europe situations, one module can produce round 6 kg of hydrogen per yr, however in additional sunny areas you’ll be able to simply go to 12 kg per yr.”
A 1,000 square-meter roof would then produce 2 tons to 4 tons of hydrogen per yr. A smaller roof with 20 hydrogen panels would produce 120 kg to 240 kg per yr, which is 4 MWh to eight MWh of hydrogen vitality.
Most just lately, Solhyd completed a batch of 10 panels to be deployed at a testing mission in Belgium.
“There may be nonetheless a whole lot of handbook work concerned and we’re studying which steps we’d like and high quality management measures to facilitate and pace up the manufacturing course of,” Rongé mentioned.
Solhyd’s purpose is to ship a plug-and-play resolution which can be primarily utilized in industries such because the metal and chemical trade to make their operations extra sustainable.
“Making hydrogen at your personal premises with a modular know-how like ours may even be fascinating for SMEs,” Rongé mentioned. “They’ve a extremely arduous time discovering reasonably priced hydrogen or discovering inexperienced hydrogen in any respect, as a result of transporting hydrogen is kind of costly particularly for individuals who are usually not positioned at ports.”
He mentioned they frequently assess the protection qualities of the know-how internally and with exterior consultants to judge potential dangers. He famous that Solhyd panels generate hydrogen at a low stress of 300 mbar to 500 mbar, much like gasoline distribution grid stress.
“We now have designed our hydrogen panels to work at a really low stress bacause it’s value optimum and safer. They include nearly no hydrogen in any respect or much less one gram per panel so meaning the chance may be very restricted,” Ronge mentioned. “The chance solely begins once you wish to acquire and retailer the hydrogen at a central location.”
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