Hydrogen, a fuel that is environmentally friendly when used, could one day completely replace fossil fuels. Enapter, a startup in Germany, believes it has the solution to make this energy source accessible to everyone.
Green solutions will only be adopted by people if they’re affordable, says Vaitea Cowan, co-founder of the firm.
Enapter has already used its solution in over 100 projects in 33 countries. The system converts green energy into clean hydrogen.
The hydrogen generators developed by Enapter won the Earthshot Prize, founded by Britain’s Prince William and awarded for contributions to improving the environment, in one of five categories.
The Enapter solution uses less water (2.4 liters) than it takes to clean the toilet to power a home for several days. The system produces 1 kg of hydrogen from 53.4 kWh.
The technology is based on an electrolyzer, a device in which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The gas is then compressed for storage in a tank. For now, the price of such a device from Enapter is €3,333/kW, but it will drop to €550/kW in 2025.
Enapter has set itself an ambitious goal for the future. The company wants to produce 10% of the world’s hydrogen by 20250.
More and more hydrogen-based energy solutions are emerging. A team of researchers at KU Leuven University in Belgium has developed panels that use solar energy to produce hydrogen. Scientists have been working for 10 years on the technology, which will soon debut on the market through a startup called Solhyd.
At the same time, Rolls-Royce and easyJet have successfully tested the first hydrogen-powered turboprop airplane.
So far, the uptake of hydrogen has been held back by the fact that production of the gas, which emits no CO2 when used as a fuel, is polluting.
