Naturgy and ITC are collaborating to validate a new electrolysis technology in the production of green hydrogen

Naturgy and the Canary Islands Institute of Technology (ITC), a public R&D&I centre of the Canary Islands Government, will share their knowledge and experience to validate the performance of an innovative electrolysis technology for the production of green hydrogen.

The objective of this collaboration is to install and test an experimental prototype of a 2 kW electrolyser to test the design of the equipment for this new technology and compare the results obtained with those of current commercial systems.

This project is expected to offer advantages in terms of efficiency and cost reduction in the production of green hydrogen, due to the reduced need to use scarce, exhaustible materials, such as noble metals. In addition, it is a technology that is easily adaptable to the variability of renewable energies, allowing for great flexibility and rapid response.

This technology, called ‘Anion Exchange Membrane’ (AEM), was developed by the Singaporean start-up Sungreen, with which Naturgy has been collaborating since September 2022. As part of Naturgy’s collaboration with Sungreen and the ITC, a second pilot phase is expected to start in early 2025 with a 50 kW electrolyser in Gran Canaria, which will be optimised based on the improvements and results obtained with the 2 kW equipment currently being tested. Both organisations have established a long-term collaboration, through which they plan to install a second test programme early next year with a higher-capacity electrolyser.

Jesús Chapado stressed that “this project is the company’s commitment to facilitating the arrival of green hydrogen and promoting its development at lower costs. We hope that this new technology will provide greater flexibility, self-regulation and self-efficiency in the production of this new energy vector.”

For his part, Gonzalo Piernavieja, director of R&D&I at the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, said that “the testing of cutting-edge technologies for the production of green hydrogen is part of our commitment to accelerate the effective integration of renewable energy sources into the energy model.” “We collaborate with international energy companies to explore and validate solutions aimed at achieving a decarbonized economy, positioning ourselves as a benchmark in the use of green hydrogen as a raw material for the manufacture of CO2-neutral fuels,” he said.