Reshaping the way we store, distribute, and use renewables with SFEERS and the hydrogen battery
1. Applicant Information
Thomas
Korn
CEO
water stuff & sun GmbH
Gutenbergstr. 3, 85716 Unterschleißheim, Munichhttps://www.waterstuffandsun.com
Germany
Teammates
Alvaro Sousa, CSO
Jonas Flädjemark, COO
Dr. Dirk Schilder, Head of Corporate Finance
2. Criteria - Applicants Responses
Which clean technology categories does your innovation cover?
Energy Storage, Green Hydrogen
Please select the category you’re submitting your application for
New Idea, New Product, New Solution
Please select the phase of your innovation:
Development
3. Questionnaire - Applicants Responses
Proposal/ Submission Title
Reshaping the way we store, distribute, and use renewables with SFEERS and the hydrogen battery
Problem Statement
Renewable energy can already be produced more cost-efficiently than energy from fossil fuels. However, one of the unresolved challenges of the energy transition is how to store renewable energy and transport it directly and efficiently to the consumer. Especially since renewable energy cannot be produced well in a uniformly distributed manner in terms of location and time. Electrical energy can only be stored in the form of batteries, but the main discussion neglects the limited availability of power grids and scarce resources for battery production - and the battery industry lacks a clear path to large-scale economic recycling.
The best clean energy carrier for storing and distributing renewables is hydrogen.
Yet, the complexity of the hydrogen value chain has resulted in the failure to create a sufficient, marketable hydrogen infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure has been a barrier to the decarbonization of mobile applications.
Which do you think are the innovative factors of your idea?
The hydrogen battery will provide a holistic solution to the challenge of storing and transporting renewable energy: it is a 2-in-1 storage technology that combines the safe and easy distribution of hydrogen with its integration into various mobile and stationary applications in a very cost-efficient way for the first time.
Our technology is characterized through several innovative factors, which lead to a simplification of the hydrogen infrastructure:
The unique shape, size, and functionality of the tennis ball sized hydrogen cells of the battery, the SFEERS, enable a higher energy density, less material usage as well as a higher safety factor than conventional hydrogen storage systems due to the fragmentation of the energy into thousands small units.
At the heart of each SFEER is a micro valve system integrated into the carbon fiber shell containing the world’s smallest pressure regulator, that regulates hydrogen flow like a conventional valve, but at a much lower cost and weight.
Which benefits would your idea bring to the industry?
The hydrogen battery fundamentally simplifies the entire hydrogen value chain: centralized battery charging stations, use of existing 40-foot container logistics, and uncomplicated hydrogen battery swapping stations for trucks, for example, eliminate the need for multiple compression or conversion steps and different storage means used between energy production and hydrogen use. Due to the relatively low infrastructure investment, the hydrogen battery system can be scaled up quickly with low asset intensity.
At the same time, the technology has several advantages directly in the application: More hydrogen can be stored compared to conventional high-pressure hydrogen containers which results in a higher range. Fragmenting the hydrogen into many small units multiplies the safety functions and makes the hydrogen battery far safer than current models on the market.
Compared to a lithium-ion battery, it is 95% lighter with up to 30 times lower costs, carrying the same amount of energy.
To which challenges does your idea provide a solution to?
The above-mentioned complexity of the hydrogen value chain and the resulting lack of infrastructure has prevented the decarbonization of mobile applications.
The H2 battery can help shape the market ramp-up of hydrogen (applications), e.g., through rapid scaling with low infrastructure investment. Large parts of the economy benefit from low energy prices, especially in mobility.
The light weight and the flexibility of the SFEERS enable a highly modular system, so that the hydrogen battery can thus be used for a variety of applications. The batteries are simply swapped, not charged, and therefore will be able to provide almost instant energy supply. Energy intensive applications can be decarbonized.
The storage and use of renewable energy will be fundamentally easier and less expensive than today’s approaches, making green hydrogen finally competitive with fossil fuels.
4. Supporting attachments and links
