Interview with Verdagy, how their electrolysis technology will help decarbonize energy intensive industries.
Verdagy is innovating water electrolysis technology for the very large-scale production of green hydrogen. Verdagy is creating an entirely new category of high-performance cells, electrolyzers and plants. Verdagy’s industry leading solutions achieve both the lowest upfront capital costs and the lowest unit economics for production.
The Verdagy team has been together creating solutions for the chemical industry where it built a great deal of experience in technologies such as EDC and PO production. It was there where the founder came up with the concept of using an anion exchange membrane (AEM) in combination with a very large aspect ratio cell that could dissipate heat and remove gas at the same time, while keeping the membrane itself intact; thus, high performance cells that significantly lower capex costs. In February 2022, TDK Corporation subsidiary TDK Ventures Inc. announced its investment in Verdagy.
Marty Neese, CEO of Verdagy is deeply committed to addressing climate change. He has spent the last fifteen years in the clean energy industry working to make solar and now hydrogen the lowest cost, most economic and sustainable choice globally. He is a passionate advocate for the transition to a sustainable, circular economy with a goal of eliminating the concept of waste. Marty is also the co-founder of Nuvosil A.S. an Oslo and Silicon Valley based company and serves on the Boards of Ballard, a PEM fuel cell company, the Ellen Macarthur Foundation USA Board of Trustees, and Renu Robotics.
What is genuinely innovative about Verdagy’s technology?
Verdagy has a very large aspect ratio cell using an AEM that allows running at high levels of current density, while cutting capex, and our technology also enables to reduce opex costs.
What are the main challenges you’re working on now?
Scale. We have successfully demonstrated the operation of a cell with 3200 cm2 demo cell measuring over one meter in height. The commercial cell is 9x wider and measures 28,500 cm2 of active area. This scale and height will play an important role in circulatory effects, gas management, and heat dissipation at full scale but for which our technology is ready.
The goal is to have a 20MW electrolyzer with 2 substacks of 10MW each.
How do you feel about your latest funding round led by TDK Ventures?
We are very pleased with our latest funding round where we raised $25 million. TDK Ventures and Khosla have a great deal of experience and an extensive network of corporations where our use case resonates; a few examples would be Shell, Orbia, BHP, and one Fortune 100 company that works on energy infrastructure and is looking at distribution of hydrogen in the natural gas pipeline system in the US.
Would you focus on some particular location to deploy your technology?
Our focus markets would be the US, Europe, and Australia. We are looking at energy intensive industrial applications that could significantly decarbonize their emissions by using hydrogen produced from our electrolyzers.
What is the price target for hydrogen produced with your technology?
We are targeting an entry point below 2 USD/kg of hydrogen and further taking advantage of the economies of scale of both low-cost renewables and our electrolyzers to lower cost further.
Where do you see Verdagy’s technology in 3-5 years?
Within 5 years, we expect our technology to be deployed in 200MW plants made up of 10 electrolyzers per plant.
In the same period, we expect to accelerate bankability by picking up the right partners to work with as more financing vehicles become available.
For more info about Verdagy visit their website – https://verdagy.com/
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
Copyright © Hydrogen Central. All Rights Reserved.