Supercharging green hydrogen

Tulika Raj, CEO and co-founder at SunGreenH2, spoke exclusively to Julian Walker, about how the company was supercharging green hydrogen production with its proprietary technology.

Tell us about SunGreenH2. What does the company do and where do you operate?

SunGreenH2 is a Singapore-based company, founded in 2020 by Tulika Raj, CEO, and Saeid Masudi Panah, CTO. Our team is growing fast and we have additional R&D and manufacturing operations in Australia. The company supercharges green hydrogen production by improving the yield, efficiency and lifespan of electrolysers, the key equipment used for splitting water to produce green hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. Our technology is based on nanoscience and electrochemistry and sits under patent.

What technologies or solutions are you developing to contribute to support clean energy adoption?

The core of SunGreenH2’s technology is our proprietary advanced-material electrodes that comprise the key components of our electrolysers. We supply key components for electrolyser cell, stacks and systems. A stack is an efficient array of electrodes and membranes arranged to maximize hydrogen production and space. More and more countries have announced policy direction towards increasing hydrogen use in the power generation, transportation and industrial sector applications, such as green steel. To meet this rapidly emerging demand for green hydrogen, we will continue to expand our OEM-based operations across key markets in 2024.

How has your approach and products evolved since you first took them to market? What influenced those changes?

Our initial electrolysers and electrodes and stacks are being sold to the overseas market and we have built a global pipeline of opportunities, mainly from big-logo energy and utilities companies. As the hydrogen market evolves our stack sizes will increase to service the large megawatt and gigawatt size projects being planned this decade. We now work with system integrators, allowing us to focus on increasing the efficiency of, and building in-market production lines for our electrolysers.

What is unique about SunGreenH2 solutions?

Our electrolysers allow for flexible power input using decades-lifespan, ultra-durable and stable electrodes inside our stacks. Unlike our competitors we have achieved high efficiency without the need for platinum group metals. In effect, our customers can halve (50%) capex, reduce opex by around 20% and eliminate the future need for them to recycle expensive, precious minerals at the end of the electrolysers’ life.

How did SunGreenH2 get involved in the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator? What opportunities has it opened up?

The expertise of the AWS leadership team, having now run three Clean Energy Accelerators, is hard to beat. AWS is a company with extensive experience in the energy sector, both as a user of energy and with a large customer base in the sector. The company has introduced many initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. Its ability to back its energy and climate programs with human and capital resources has ensured that the right people are gathered ‘in the room’ with the opportunity to have the necessary and well-prepared insightful conversations. These interactions with large national and multinational players are hard for startup companies to establish in their early years. We are also leveraging AWS’s cloud expertise and development partners in designing the remote monitoring systems for our electrolysers.

How was participating in events like COP28 impacting SunGreenH2?

Hydrogen is a well-known quantity to the energy sector. Green hydrogen brings new opportunities which are being discovered by market players and future participants in the growing hydrogen economy. SunGreenH2’s differentiated offering and vocalizing our product uniqueness requires participation at conferences and at the sharp end of technical discussions as the industry discovers the benefits of our technology. The AWS Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0 program enabled us to participate in leading conferences worldwide including at COP28 and deepened industry players’ knowledge of the commercial value that we bring. We continue to incorporate this know-how into our latest customer conversations.