BOULDER, Colo. June 28, 2022 – GKN Hydrogen and Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced the companies will work with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on an innovative green hydrogen storage solution. GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEGA can enable safe, long duration clean energy storage without the need for compression. At scale, this combined technology could provide resilient power in case of widespread outages. It also highlights the technologies needed to reach carbon neutrality and accelerate clean fuel initiatives.

Two HY2MEGA hydrogen storage subsystems will connect to an electrolyzer and fuel cell at the ARIES facility on NREL’s Flatirons Campus near Boulder, Colorado. The electrolyzer will use renewable sources and produce green hydrogen to be stored in the HY2MEGA. The HY2MEGA stores the hydrogen in a solid state (metal hydrides), under low pressure in a compact footprint. According to GKN Hydrogen, its one of the safest ways to store hydrogen. The fuel cell will then convert the green hydrogen to produce renewable electricity. The two HY2MEGA’s will add an additional 500 kgs of hydrogen storage on site. The three-year project is set to launch at the end of this year.

“SoCalGas will leverage the large-scale hydrogen storage capabilities of GKN Hydrogen’s HY2MEGA from this project to help accelerate the commercialization and deployment of green hydrogen projects,” said Neil Navin, vice president of clean energy innovations at SoCalGas. “Ultimately, green hydrogen generation and storage will help decarbonize the energy system while assuring stability of the electrical grid to enable even higher penetrations of renewable sources of electricity.“

“This project is exactly what the ARIES platform was designed for: demonstrate the benefits of a new technology that efficiently stores energy produced from renewable electricity,” said Katherine Hurst, group manager and research scientist at NREL. “It brings together a national laboratory, a clean energy technology developer, and a large utility to work on solutions that help decarbonize the power grid. We are looking forward to working with GKN Hydrogen and SoCalGas to advance this technology.”

“Collaborations on green hydrogen projects are essential as we tackle this climate emergency,” said Frank Wolak, President and CEO of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA). “This project will demonstrate how hydrogen storage can help reduce carbon emissions and is an innovative step towards a clean future for everyone.”

Bruno Biasiotta, Chief Executive Officer at GKN Hydrogen said, “We are really honored to be working with great organizations like NREL and SoCalGas to validate and demonstrate green hydrogen as a megawatt scale energy source. To accelerate the energy transition hydrogen cannot just be part of the discussion, it must be part of the solution. This project will demonstrate that large scale green hydrogen storage with HY2MEGA can be used to help decarbonize and accelerate the shift to cleaner fuels.”

Auburn Hills, October 15th, 2021 – GKN Hydrogen (GKN) is pleased to announce $1.7M of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office within the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office awarded to DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to add two HY2MEGA metal hydride hydrogen storage tanks to the hydrogen assets at the ARIES facility on NREL’s Flatirons Campus near Boulder, CO. GKN’s HY2MEGA storage subsystem will be connected to the megawatt-scale electrolyzer and fuel cell at the ARIES facility and validated by NREL scientists and engineers.  The performance of the HY2MEGA installation would be evaluated over a range of operational conditions and simulated use cases using the ARIES facility capabilities.  The construction schedule for adding the HY2 MEGA storage subsystem to the ARIES facility is expected to coincide with completion of the hydrogen assets in September 2022.

Peter Oberparleiter, Chief Executive Officer at GKN Powder Metallurgy, said:

„This a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with the DOE National Laboratories to validate and run megawatt scale use cases with our green, safe and compact metal hydride hydrogen storage solution.  Projects of this scale are needed to accelerate the adoption of zero emission technologies to help us all meet our future clean energy goals“

Bonn, Germany – May 4, 2021 – GKN Hydrogen’s 100% recyclable product suite has been developed and refined over the last years to become the most reliable and secure hydrogen storage solution on the market. The robust systems generate green hydrogen from fluctuating renewable energy sources, storing it compactly and safely in metal hydride over long periods of time.

When needed, the green hydrogen can be used directly or converted back into electricity and heat for a variety of applications. The scalable system design allows for maximum versatility, from emergency power backup and off-grid energy supply to residential housing, maritime transport, and large-scale industry.

Peter Oberparleiter, Chief Executive Officer at GKN Powder Metallurgy, said: „GKN Hydrogen is an incredibly exciting venture that will play a key role at the forefront of the energy transition. Using a state-of-the-art technology with far-reaching implications and extensive scope for development, we are helping to solve the issue of hydrogen storage and provide a clean energy for all that is green, safe and compact.“

With the launch of GKN Hydrogen, its second business unit to focus on innovative technologies alongside GKN Additive, GKN Powder Metallurgy is strengthening its position as a provider of leading-edge technology solutions for the future. Leveraging the
business‘ world-leading position in powder metal solutions, GKN Hydrogen is pioneering safe, emission-free green hydrogen storage to help organizations and societies around the world achieve their carbon neutrality goals today, and in the years to come.

Peter Oberparleiter continues: „We created GKN Hydrogen after consulting with colleagues from across GKN Powder Metallurgy and are proud to be seen as an enabler for a decentralized, carbon neutral energy supply infrastructure. We are very excited to introduce our new business unit to the world on May 11, 2021. Our mission is to stop climate change, for ourselves and for generations to come.“