It has been a massive year for the manufacturing startup Hysata, a deep tech company that is commercialising breakthrough Australian hydrogen electrolyser technology in support of the emerging Green Hydrogen production industry.
In August last year, the company raised a $42.5 million Series A funding round led by Virescent Ventures on behalf of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and in October announced the appointment of former Australian Government Chief Scientist Alan Finkel as Chair of its global advisory council.
And in January this year, the company was selected as one of the successful grant recipients for the HyGATE Initiative, a joint program backed the by the Australian and German governments to help accelerate the scale production of Green Hydrogen.
In this episode of the Commercial Disco podcast, Hysata chief executive officer Paul Barrett discusses the “disruptive improvement” of the company’s electrolysers, and the push to build manufacturing capacity for the company’s electrolyser technology.
Mr Barrett says Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be a global leader in green hydrogen, and that Hysata has the specific opportunity to become a global supplier of electrolysers to that industry.
In the process, he says, the commercialisation of the Hysata technology – which was spun out of Wollongong University – would enhance the nation’s sovereign manufacturing capabilities, create high-value, high skill jobs, and help position Australia as a green hydrogen powerhouse.
“This really is the decade that Australia needs to affirm its position globally as that green energy superpower,” Mr Barrett told the Commercial Disco podcast.
“We’ve got the natural resources, abundant wind and solar resources – some of the best in the world – and we’ve got a lot of the raw materials that we mine and export that [are] used to make electrolyzers.
“So, this is essentially Australia’s race to lose. There’s lots of countries going after Green Hydrogen, but none are as blessed with the resources that we are.
“It really comes down to companies like ours, and government – the Australian Government – to really capture the public’s imagination and get this industry to scale, so that Australia doesn’t get left behind.
“We’ve got to raise our game as a nation to really make sure we capture the value, and the employment, and the export dollars that this industry can bring.”
The company is currently working to build its first pilot production line to demonstrate manufacturing the technology at a meaningful scale and will then get its electrolysers into the hands of customers.
The Hysata capillary fed electrolyser operates at 95 per cent system efficiency (41.5 kWh/kg), compared to the incumbent technology that typically operates at 75 per cent or less.
That is a “giant leap” in performance and cost, Mr Barrett says, turning the economics of green hydrogen production on its head.
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