Solar Panels Can Produce Green Hydrogen Without Electrolysis

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The global green hydrogen industry has been wading through a series of setbacks in recent months. Nevertheless, deals continue to be made and R&D continues apace, with the aim of knocking natural gas off the hydrogen supply chain. In the latest news on the research end, the US startup SunHydrogen has just reached another milestone for its nanoparticle-enabled solar modules, which can produce green hydrogen in one step without the need for expensive electrolysis systems.

Green Hydrogen Without Electrolysis

If the combination of green hydrogen and solar panels calls to mind the groundbreaking “artificial leaf” work of  Harvard Professor Daniel Nocera, that’s correct. Also known as a “bionic leaf,” the artificial leaf pathway deploys a photoelectrochemical reaction that mimics the natural photosynthetic process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy.

The photoelectrochemical reaction eliminates the need for extraneous energy inputs, potentially leading to an economical hydrogen production system. That’s a contrast with water electrolysis, which has emerged as the preferred method for generating hydrogen from renewable resources. Electrolysis systems deploy an electrical current that jolts hydrogen gas from water, with the electricity preferably coming from renewable resources (see more electrolysis background here).

Considering that photosynthesis evolved over many millions of years ago, the task of artificially replicating the process within a decade or two is a rather ambitious one, doubly so if the aim is to arrive at cost-competitive conclusion. So, it’s no surprise to see much of the activity still circulating at the laboratory and demonstration level.

Next Steps For Solar Panels That Produce Green Hydrogen

Still, signs of momentum are beginning to emerge. The photoelectrochemical avenue first crossed the CleanTechnica radar around 2011. The firm HyperSolar cropped up shortly after, in 2012. CleanTechnica took note of the firm again in 2020, after a name change to SunHydrogen and much water under the R&D bridge.

The 2020 news involved the renewal of a research partnership with the University of Iowa, along with an increase in staff and budget. “The expanded R&D team will focus on the development efforts needed to expedite the commercialization of its game-changing nanoparticle technology approach to renewable hydrogen,” SunHydrogen explained, referring to itself.

The heart of SunHydrogen’s technology consists of nanoparticles that it calls “Photoelectrosynthetically Active Heterostructures,” or PAH for short, which are activated directly by energy from the sun to split hydrogen gas from water.

“Each PAH nanoparticle is a microscopic machine, composed of multiple layers enabling the solar electrolysis reaction to take place. It’s a process similar to what happens inside a plant cell during photosynthesis,” the company explains. The only byproduct is oxygen, the same as produced by a plant.

Last summer, the activity stepped up a notch when SunHydrogen announced a joint development agreement with the Honda R&D Co. branch of Honda to bring hydrogen-producing solar panels to market. “Working in collaboration with SunHydrogen, Honda R&D Co. will use its industry-leading manufacturing and design capabilities to jointly develop an installation-ready hydrogen panel for safe and efficient hydrogen production and collection,” SunHydrogen explained in a press statement on July 7.

Later that same month, SunHydrogen announced the next steps in its collaboration with the German firm CTF Solar, enabling SunHydrogen to incorporate its new green hydrogen technology onto the mature platform of CTF’s solar modules, with the aim of accelerating the shift from lab to market.

Picking Off The Low-Hanging Fruit

SunHydrogen launched with an initial focus on producing green hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. That has proved to be a tough nut for green hydrogen stakeholders to crack, and in recent years SunHydrogen has turned its attention to the more welcoming field of industrial decarbonization. However, the company still has hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks on its checklist, and it has spotted a ripe opportunity in Texas.

In September, SunHydrogen announced that it has joined the Texas Hydrogen Alliance. The move follows the award of a new $70 million grant for Texas from the Federal Highway Administration earlier this year, aimed at supporting a network of hydrogen fuel stations for medium and heavy-duty trucks that will eventually extend through Texas into Southern California. The new grant will cover up to five hydrogen fuel stations linking Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.

“The Company intends to install its green hydrogen panel arrays at and near roadside refueling sites along major trucking routes with abundant land and sun, lowering the high costs and hydrogen losses associated with typical long-distance transport,” SunHydrogen explained, anticipating an opportunity.

Whether or not enough fuel cell trucks are in action to keep SunHydrogen’s roadside solar panels busy remains to be seen. The uptake on both battery electric trucks and fuel cell electric trucks in the US has been slow so far. One high-profile entry in the heavy duty battery electric truck field is Tesla, which has fallen short of delivery expectations. On the fuel cell side, the US truck startup Nikola has also been struggling for a toehold.

Solar Hydrogen Panels Are Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

If the transportation field doesn’t pan out, the industrial decarbonization field still beckons. With that in mind, on October 24 the SunHydrogen reported progress on its work with CTF. The company chieved a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 10.8% for an initial batch of 100cm² solar modules, which it characterized as an industry-leading rate in the photoelectrochemical field.

That brings us up to the latest news, in which the company scaled up its solar-to-hydrogen technology and successfully demonstrated it on a 1m² solar panel. The test was conducted outdoors in subfreezing temperatures at SunHydrogen laboratory in Iowa. Having passed that milestone, the next step will be 25 square meters and up.

Whether its green hydrogen technology is applied to transportation fuels or industrial activities, SunHydrogen emphasizes that the panels are an off-grid solution. That’s an important consideration for utility-scale applications, which can get hung up in long delays waiting for permission to connect to a grid.

The company also takes note of scalability. The panels can generate green hydrogen in small or large arrays, located at or near the point of use. That can help reduce distribution and storage costs, both of which have recently been outed as significant contributors to the stubbornly high cost of green hydrogen.

Earlier this year, for example, researchers at Harvard University concluded that the deployment of green hydrogen will be limited to ammonia production and other niche cases unless the costs can be reduced, including storage and distribution costs as well as the cost of electrolysis.

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Image: A US startup is producing green hydrogen from solar panels that deploy billions of specialized nanoparticles activated by sunlight, with scaleup anticipated by 2026 (courtesy of SunHydrogen).