Paul Rodden • Season: 2024 • Episode: 366
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
Episode 366, In this episode, Paul explores Ecolectro’s innovative AEM electrolyzer technology and its potential to transform green hydrogen production. With cost reductions, sustainable materials, and modular designs, Ecolectro aims to bring affordable hydrogen solutions to hard-to-decarbonize sectors, marking a major step toward carbon neutrality.
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Transcript:
A new electrolyzer technology is showing great potential in revolutionizing green hydrogen production. I’ll go over this news and give my thoughts on today’s hydrogen podcast.
So the big questions in the energy industry today are, how is hydrogen the primary driving force behind the evolution of energy? Where is capital being deployed for hydrogen projects globally, and where are the best investment opportunities for early adopters who recognize the importance hydrogen, I will address the critical issues and give you the information you need to deploy capital. Those are the questions that will unlock the potential of hydrogen, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Paul Rodden, and welcome to the hydrogen podcast
In an article in TechCrunch, Tim De Chant writes, Ecolectro stuffs hydrogen production into shipping containers to cut costs. Tim writes, For all its promise as a climate friendly fuel, hydrogen hasn’t had much luck. It lost the battle over personal transportation to battery electric vehicles, and for industrial users, it remains far more expensive than natural gas.
That’s in part because natural gas can flow through sprawling networks of pipelines. Hydrogen doesn’t, which means buyers either have to rely on fossil-derived hydrogen (and its associated pollution) or truck it in at great expense.
Like many hydrogen entrepreneurs, Gabriel Rodriguez-Calero figures the best way to rein in costs is to bring production closer to where it’s being used. His startup, Ecolectro, is making hydrogen-producing electrolyzers that fit inside a shipping container.
“We are very interested in figuring out who’s trucking in hydrogen today,” he told TechCrunch. By making the gas on site, “you’re mitigating a lot of risk around logistics of transportation, logistics of storage at the site.”
But storage is just one problem that green hydrogen is facing. Simply making the stuff isn’t cheap, either. Some electrolyzers are made with expensive materials, while others using century-old technology aren’t very efficient. More recently, though, scientists have been exploring ways of making cheaper electrolyzers more efficient.
Rodriguez-Calero was one of them. After studying battery-related technologies while getting his doctorate from Cornell University, he and Kristina Hugar co-founded Ecolectro. Typically, electrolyzers follow one of two approaches: proton-exchange membrane (PEM) or alkaline electrolysis. The former tends to be pricier but more efficient, while the latter is less efficient but cheaper. Ecolectro adopts features of each by building a membrane that can withstand the harsher conditions of alkaline electrolysis.
Most membranes used in PEM electrolysis consist of PFAS compounds, which have come under scrutiny for their persistence in the environment. Ecolectro’s found a way to skip the PFAS. It also uses nickel as a catalyst instead of iridium or platinum, which are often used in PEM electrolyzers. “You can use 1,000 times the nickel per amount of iridium you might use and still not change the cost,” Rodriguez-Calero said.
The startup has built a small 10-kilowatt electrolyzer capable of producing 5 kilograms of hydrogen per day. It’s currently being tested by Liberty Utilities in Upstate New York, where the utility is blending hydrogen into the natural gas it distributes. Ecolectro is in the process of building its first commercial scale electrolyzer, a 250-kilowatt model that can pump out 125 kg per day. Rodriguez-Calero said the bigger version will be available in the first quarter of next year.
That’s smaller than many electrolyzer projects, which tend to be measured in megawatts. But Rodriguez-Calero thinks Ecolectro’s smaller, modular electrolyzes will help wary customers jump aboard. “That size is very attractive for the people who order one truck of hydrogen per week,” he said.
Lisa Coca, partner at Toyota Ventures, thinks that Ecolectro has a shot at producing hydrogen for $1.35 per kilogram by the end of the decade. That’s close to the Department of Energy’s goal of $1 per kilogram.
To help hit its targets, Ecolectro raised a $10.6 million Series A led by the Toyota Ventures climate fund with participation from Cornell University, New Climate. Ventures, Starshot Climate, and Techstars.
Okay, so a new startup in the green hydrogen space with what really is a very novel idea about how to start generating green hydrogen closer to the utilization site. And so with that being said, let’s actually take a look at the press release covering that series a fundraising and in that press release, on November 14, Ecolectro, an emerging leader in green hydrogen technology, today announced the successful close of its $10.5M Series A funding round, led by Toyota Ventures with participation from Starshot Capital, DNX Ventures, Energy Revolution Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Banco Popular Impact Fund, and Techstars, among others. This funding brings Ecolectro’s total capital raised to $27.7M, including grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, New York State’s Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the National Science Foundation. These funds will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of Ecolectro’s groundbreaking Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolyzers, offering an affordable and scalable path to reducing carbon emissions through true green hydrogen.
The global green hydrogen market, valued at over $7B in 2023, is projected to grow at an annual rate of 41.6% over the next decade. Despite this rapid growth, the nascent hydrogen industry still faces significant cost and logistical challenges. A major barrier is the reliance on Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, which require iridium—an extremely rare and expensive metal that has seen prices rise by over 700% in the last decade. Additionally, PEM electrolyzers typically utilize PFAS, the “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, infertility, and ozone depletion, that are facing severe restrictions in the US, EU, Japan, and other jurisdictions. These challenges are further compounded by the high costs of shipping and storing hydrogen, which can account for up to half the total delivered price.
Ecolectro, founded by Cornell PhD chemists Dr. Kristina M. Hugar and Dr. Gabriel G. Rodríguez-Calero, has developed a breakthrough AEM electrolyzer. At the core of this technology is a proprietary membrane chemistry that eliminates the need for rare earth materials like iridium and harmful chemicals such as PFAS, instead utilizing readily available, recyclable and eco-friendly materials. This membrane is highly durable, operating efficiently in high-temperature and alkaline conditions, and achieves over 70% efficiency (<47.5 kWh/kg) in typical operating environments, significantly outperforming comparable PEM and alkaline systems.
Additionally, Ecolectro's AEM electrolyzers provide reliable performance even with variable energy inputs, making them ideal for integration with solar, wind, and other intermittent renewable energy sources, as well as for industries where continuous hydrogen production is not always needed.
Ecolectro's fully integrated, plug-and-play electrolyzers are designed with flexibility in mind to meet specific customer needs. Their modular design allows customers to adopt hydrogen without large upfront investments, and expand their system requirements over time.
By enabling on-site hydrogen production, Ecolectro significantly lowers the overall cost of hydrogen by eliminating the need for expensive transportation and storage infrastructure. This also reduces environmental impacts by cutting carbon emissions from transport trucks and preventing hydrogen losses that typically occur during storage and handling. Customers who adopt Ecolectro's electrolyzers to produce their own hydrogen are also eligible to receive federal and state green hydrogen tax credits, further enhancing the economic appeal of the solution.
"Hydrogen is key to decarbonizing heavy industry and other hard-to-abate sectors, but cost-prohibitive barriers have delayed its widespread adoption," said Dr. Rodríguez-Calero, Co-Founder and CEO of Ecolectro. "With our innovative AEM technology, we're breaking down those barriers today—not years from now. Thanks to our investors, including Toyota Ventures, we're well-positioned to bring affordable green hydrogen to market at scale next year."
This past summer, Ecolectro launched its first commercial deployment with Liberty New York Gas in Massena, New York, deploying a 10 kW electrolyzer pilot program to produce hydrogen that was blended with natural gas to heat commercial buildings, with each kilogram of hydrogen abating at least 5.5 kg of CO2 emissions that would have been produced if natural gas were used exclusively. Based on Liberty's actual costs for water and electricity, as well as Ecolectro's at-scale manufacturing estimates, Liberty was able to produce green hydrogen for under $2.50/kg—well below the U.S. Department of Energy's 2030 target of $3/kg. The application of federal and state tax credits, combined with additional manufacturing synergies, is expected to drive this cost well below $1 per kilogram in the near term. Given the success of the program, Liberty has elected to increase the scale of their pilot deployment to 1 MW, laying the groundwork for future large-scale projects.
"Ecolectro has developed a world-class AEM and electrolyzer stack that has the potential to drive the cost of green hydrogen down to $1.35/kg by 2030," said Lisa Coca, Climate Fund partner at Toyota Ventures and Ecolectro Board Member. "Affordable green hydrogen is a promising path to achieving carbon neutrality, and this funding marks a critical inflection point in providing the potential for abundant, versatile and inexpensive sources of green power."
The Series A funding will accelerate the development of Ecolectro's commercial-class 250-500 kW and 1-5 MW electrolyzers, with prototypes set to begin testing with industry partners early next year and commercial availability expected by late 2025. These groundbreaking systems are especially relevant for hard-to-decarbonize industries such as chemical refining, transportation, steel, and aviation, providing a scalable and affordable path to reducing carbon emissions through true green hydrogen.
Okay, so just a quick look at Ecolectro and the AEM electrolyzers that they're developing. And I really do see a very promising future for the technology, including the cost reductions, sustainability and flexibility in operations that they provide. And if they really can make these as durable and efficient as PEM or alkaline systems, and they're able to commercially scale up this technology, this really does seem like a perfect solution, where smaller on site systems are needed to efficiently produce hydrogen for industrial use or transportation or grid balancing.
All right, that's it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it. If you could leave a good review on whatever platform it is that you listen to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, YouTube, whatever it is, that would be a tremendous help to the show. And as always, if you ever have any feedback, you're welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com. So until next time, keep your eyes up and honor one another. Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more. I'd appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
