SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HyperSolar, Inc. (OTCQB:HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, today provided a Company update from its Chief Executive Officer, Tim Young and Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Joun Lee.
“This year, our teams continued to make significant progress towards our ultimate goal of producing green, economical hydrogen at or near the point of distribution using the power of the sun and any source of water,” said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. “Auto manufacturers of hydrogen cars including Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda, as well as fuel cell companies like Plug Power, are only limited by the current hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure. With an easier, cost effective method of production that is closer to the point of distribution, hydrogen cars, trucks, and power equipment can greatly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.”
95% of all hydrogen produced for consumer and industrial applications is currently manufactured by steam reforming of natural gas, a known fossil fuel. While there have been other approaches using solar modules and electrolyzers to produce hydrogen, these processes remain very costly and inefficient. HyperSolar is developing a method using immersed water splitting solar particles that eliminate the need for connected solar cells, and electrolyzers that produce hydrogen and separate the oxygen safely in vessels containing waste or polluted water. A video demonstration can be viewed here.
Since the beginning of its endeavor, HyperSolar has overcome many of the challenges and steps necessary for successful realization of commercial Solar H2 production systems. These include:
- Discovery and development of a novel low-cost manufacturing technique to fabricate solar particles for hydrogen production with voltages greater than 1.3 Volts, as the theoretical voltage for splitting water to produce hydrogen is 1.23 Volts. These particles are made of commercially viable solar cell materials and are stabilized using patent pending proprietary nano encapsulation techniques for efficient and stable production of H2 in water, thus addressing the biggest challenge for wide scale adoption of solar H2 production units.
- Utilizing cheap and non-toxic earth abundant materials, HyperSolar developed water splitting solar nanostructured thin films to achieve a voltage of 1.6 Volts, with currents for hydrogen production exceeding 10mA/cm2.
- To protect the solar particles in corrosive waste water, HyperSolar developed a patent pending proprietary coating technology that protects and stabilizes commercially available solar cells from corrosion created by the underwater environment, allowing continuous production of hydrogen for more than hundreds of hours.
- Recently the company announced and demonstrated their latest prototype device that safely and efficiently separates hydrogen and oxygen using an integrated solar cell-membrane system. This patent-pending technology not only enables safe operation but also substantially improves the hydrogen production efficiency by preventing mixing of the hydrogen and oxygen products. HyperSolar is in the process of developing a 1ft2 patent-pending prototype device to achieve larger scale solar hydrogen production.
In order to achieve commercial scale production of hydrogen, HyperSolar needs to address and overcome the following challenges:
- Cost Barriers – The overall cost depends on the individual costs of solar particles and catalysts for hydrogen production. Currently, platinum is the most desired catalyst for hydrogen production. Although used in very small amounts, the use of platinum may pose roadblocks for wide scale adoption of this technology. To address this challenge, HyperSolar is currently accelerating development of platinum metal free catalysts that can match or surpass the activity obtained from platinum metals. Recent results have shown substantial promise in achieving this goal.
- Performance Milestones – HyperSolar’s current efforts are focused on improving the hydrogen production efficiency in amounts greater than 10%. To achieve this milestone, extensive research and development efforts on material synthesis and characterization are required. HyperSolar is accelerating the above efforts by working in parallel with the research teams at the University of Iowa and University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Commercialization Restraints - Manufacturing water-splitting solar particles and integration of cost-effective silicon solar cells into prototype devices for hydrogen production will require strategic partnership(s) with the photovoltaic industries. HyperSolar is currently in the process of forming partnerships with solar cell companies for future prototype device development.
Mr. Young concluded, “While we still have certain milestones to achieve and challenges to overcome, we are very optimistic about meeting our goals and bringing completely renewable hydrogen at scale to market.”
About HyperSolar, Inc.
HyperSolar is developing a breakthrough, low cost technology to make renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, including seawater and wastewater. Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, where carbon dioxide and other contaminants are released into the atmosphere when used, hydrogen fuel usage produces pure water as the only byproduct. By optimizing the science of water electrolysis at the nano-level, our low cost nanoparticles mimic photosynthesis to efficiently use sunlight to separate hydrogen from water, to produce environmentally friendly renewable hydrogen. Using our low cost method to produce renewable hydrogen, we intend to enable a world of distributed hydrogen production for renewable electricity and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To learn more about HyperSolar, please visit our website at www.hypersolar.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may," "intend," "expect" and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein, and while expected, there is no guarantee that we will attain the aforementioned anticipated developmental milestones. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the Company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: the impact of economic, competitive and other factors affecting the Company and its operations, markets, product, and distributor performance, the impact on the national and local economies resulting from terrorist actions, and U.S. actions subsequently; and other factors detailed in reports filed by the Company.