6.23.23

A Greener Way

It’s the simplest and most abundant element in the universe — the ideal energy carrier. But challenges remain with employing HYDROGEN as a fuel.

No, Jules Verne didn’t call it “green hydrogen” (GH₂), but in his 1875 science fiction novel The Mysterious Island he was quite prescient in his narrative of five castaways who use scientific and technological know-how to survive on their island world – and look ahead to the day when hydrogen might furnish their great-grandchildren with ”an inexhaustible source of heat and light.“ And, yes, it’s a bit of a stretch, but Bill James ’01 finds himself on a similar adventure.

As president and COO at AquaHydrex — which was formed in 2012 by True North Venture Partners, an operational investing firm launched in 2011 with the big-picture purpose of helping achieve a clean, sustainable energy-use future — James is scouting a greener way forward to power our world. “We’re on a mission,” he says, “to help the planet achieve decarbonization by converting zero carbon electricity to the ideal zero carbon molecule: GREEN HYDROGEN.”

In simple terms, he explains, green hydrogen is hydrogen gas generated by renewable forms of energy, such as solar and wind, through the chemical process of water electrolysis. This process of employing electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen takes place in a unit called an electrolyzer. Hindered by high initial production costs and an underdeveloped market, green hydrogen makes up a microscopic fraction of the global energy mix today, but Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2050 that number will be up to 25 percent and have a market segment worth $10 trillion.

James is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and holds an executive MBA from Wichita State. Three months ago, he made the successful leap to AquaHydrex and the burgeoning renewable energy industry from an outstanding career in the aerospace industry working for such companies as, most recently, Sierra Space, as well as Boom Supersonic, MD Helicopters, Beechcraft and Airbus.

“AquaHydrex reached out — just out of the blue,” says James, who was senior vice president and general manager of Sierra Space’s space transportation sector when True North founder and AquaHydrex board chair Mike Ahearn talked with him about joining the company. “I hadn’t thought about changing industries, much less changing jobs,” James says. “But when I spoke with Mike, his heart for green energy, renewable energies, and how he framed for me the changes AquaHydrex has the potential to make, it just made sense and stimulated a new sense of curiosity in me. So, if there’s an opportunity to help Mike grow this company and establish it as one of the premier alkaline electrolyzer companies on the planet, why not?”

It was in 2013 that AquaHydrex started focusing on developing a more efficient form of alkaline electrolyzer. In 2015 the company opened a facility in Colorado to further its work, with proof-of-concept reached in 2018 and at-scale prototypes validated with board approval to move on to commercialization in 2021. “It’s stimulating stepping into a new startup with new technologies that are going to contribute really big things in the form of energy creation and distribution,” James says, adding that “late 2025” is AquaHydrex’s projected go-to-market date.

Overall, the major cost of producing green hydrogen is associated with the energy input. But with the development of new composites, which a whole cadre of Wichita State researchers have had a hand in, wind and solar energy costs have been reduced drastically in the past decade — again, thanks in part to the specialized R&D efforts of WSU faculty and their students, including Wei Wei, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a principal investigator in the development of perovskite photovoltaics for SOLAR power plants, and Janet Twomey, associate dean for graduate studies, research and faculty success, and Michael Overcash, Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Chair and Professor in Sustainable Materials and Energy Systems. Twomey and Overcash are key investigators in WIND energy.
In addition, Wichita State’s renewable energy lab was named for Evergy in 2020 in recognition of the energy company’s funding and support of various renewable energy programs at the university.

AquaHydrex’s own innovative contributions to lowering costs and increasing the efficiency of green hydrogen production have to do with a streamlined, more mobile and modular electrolyzer design. “You could think of it as process intensification,” James says. “We’ve scaled everything down. You could take our product to the site of a cement or steel company, for example, and install the system and make your own hydrogen there. The system stays on site, and maintenance — coming in and changing out the cells and updating the electrolytes — happens just once every eight or 10 years.”

Looking ahead, like Verne’s five island castaways did one day on their mysterious island, James says, “My wife and I enjoy the beauty and the reward of having children and grandchildren. What I want more than anything for them is the fortune of a healthy planet and a thriving population.”