NGIF Industry Grants, a division of NGIF Capital Corporation, is supporting the ongoing testing and validation of Hydrogen Optimized’s high-current RuggedCell alkaline unipolar electrolyser technology. Through $300,000 in approved funding, the project will demonstrate the company’s large-scale green hydrogen production technology under solar panel, simulated wind turbine, and intermittent electrical grid conditions.
Hydrogen Optimized is a Canadian hydrogen technology company. The company seeks to become the world leader in the provision of large-scale green hydrogen production systems, and thereby assist major industries to significantly reduce their emissions.
The RuggedCell™ is designed to operate under high currents which maximize hydrogen production while maintaining a compact and robust cell structure. The company’s vision is to make large-scale green hydrogen economically feasible for industrial applications by leveraging its novel RuggedCell™ technology.
“Next-generation hydrogen technologies, including Hydrogen Optimized’s high-current water electrolyser, can enable hydrogen production for blending with natural gas and ultimately reduce the industry’s emissions profile,” said John Adams, President and CEO of NGIF Capital Corporation and Managing Partner of NGIF Cleantech Ventures. “The NGIF model offers industry validation which is key to customer creation and market commercialization for startups who are leading in the emerging hydrogen industry.”
Hydrogen Optimized’s RuggedCell™ water electrolyzers have a unique unipolar design which overcomes the historic difficulties of bipolar electrolyzers in effectively using all the available energy from intermittent electricity sources. This, in turn, makes the RuggedCell™ an ideal solution for industrial end users to decarbonize their processes using green hydrogen.
“We thank NGIF Industry Grants for providing funding support for the advancement of our innovative RuggedCell™ water electrolysis technology,” said Andrew T.B. Stuart, President and CEO of Hydrogen Optimized. “The funding will help us obtain critical data on the performance of RuggedCell™ electrolyzers in conjunction with unstable renewable electricity sources and, ultimately, to achieve our goal of driving down the cost of producing green hydrogen at scale. It will also help us support the work of Canada’s natural gas industry to reduce the emissions intensity of natural gas.”
“I am pleased to see NGIF Industry Grants supporting Hydrogen Optimized’s work in advancing green hydrogen production,” said Timothy M. Egan, President and CEO of the Canadian Gas Association and Chair of NGIF Capital Corporation, which operates NGIF Industry Grants. “The versatility of natural gas and its energy infrastructure help explain how the natural gas industry is ideally suited to lead on efforts to integrate hydrogen and intermittent renewable electricity sources in the energy system. It is exciting to see innovative Canadian startups leveraging the affordability and reliability of natural gas in order to advance the industry’s environmental performance and support Canadians’ daily energy needs into the future.”
