Ithaca company banks on greener hydrogen production process

ITHACA, N.Y. — With help from a $720,000 award from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Ecolectro, Inc., hopes to develop a cleaner, greener way of making hydrogen. Hydrogen doesn’t exist readily as a free gas but rather bonded to other elements like oxygen. It’s important because it’s used in any number of industrial processes from petroleum refining, steel production, and the manufacturing of fertilizer.

“Hydrogen is probably the biggest market no one has ever heard about,” Gabriel Rodriguez-Calero co-founder and CEO of Ecolectro tells CNYBJ. Since it’s used in so many industrial processes, the demand is great and the hydrogen has to be produced somehow. Most commonly, it’s produced using steam from natural gas. “It’s very carbon intensive,” Rodriguez-Calero says. Ecolectro, on the other hand, has found a way to extract hydrogen from water by zapping the water with electricity to split it into its hydrogen and oxygen components. The company will use the NYSERDA funding to refine that process, Rodriguez-Calero says, by developing membranes for those electrolyzers that use polymers that have rigid backbones, high thermal properties, and mechanical strength to improve their performance and durability. The key, he says, is making those components with common metals like nickel or stainless steel instead of precious metals like iridium or platinum. That makes the process free of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, which are long-lasting chemicals that break down very slowly. Those changes are what will make Ecolectro’s process cleaner, greener, and cost effective, and that’s the key to selling green, he says. Hydrogen is such a critical component to our society, he notes, and the way to incentivize companies to support a greener method is to make it cost effective. Most businesses want to support greener initiatives, Rodriguez-Calero notes, but often can’t justify them if those initiatives cost significantly more than traditional, less green, alternatives. “We’re making it more efficient, and we’re scaling it up,” he says. While just at the beginning stages of the project, Ecolectro does have a pilot program in place with several customers, Rodriguez-Calero says, and is building its first commercial demonstration unit. The goal is to empower customers to make hydrogen on site, which would further reduce the use of and dependence on fossil fuels since the gas wouldn’t have to be transported. “It allows states and the U.S. to fulfill the mission of energy independence,” he adds. The NYSERDA funding is part of $1.2 million awarded to four initiatives to research clean hydrogen electroylzers. The projects were selected through NYSERDA’s Advanced Fuels and Thermal Energy Research Program. Other awardees include Orion Polymer Corp., in Cohoes; Bettergy Corp., in Peekskill; and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy. Headquartered at 61 Brown Road in Ithaca, Ecolectro currently employs 30 people. Rodriguez-Calero co-founded the company with Kristina Hugar, Ph.D., who serves as chief science officer.