Research

AqSorption is the dedicated research arm of the AqGas Group which designs and delivers services within green hydrogen production and the fast-growing, wider hydrogen industry. Since 2013 AqSorption has been pushing innovation within renewables from bespoke designs for CHP units to deploying graphene membranes as isotopic sieves within the fusion industry. Currently our scientists and engineers are advancing the knowledge landscape for: ultra-high pressure alkaline electrolysis, stacks with regenerating catalyst cycling and gaseous product energy recovery in electrolysers.

Flow-through Concept

The cathodes and anodes that make up the electrodes of an electrolytic stack form hydrogen gas and oxygen gas respectively on their surfaces from ions when electricity splits water. These gas products are typically separated using a membrane or diaphragm where only either hydrogen or oxygen ions are able to pass through. AqSorption has developed and patented its own manufactured porous electrodes where the gases form on the electrodes’ surfaces then enter the electrodes and are collected at the rear of each electrode - so are inherently separated without needing membranes.

The porous electrodes are still able to benefit from all the sector’s material advances in efficiency such as catalyst improvements. Without membranes there are additional considerable advantages:

a negligible minimum load is needed compared with typically a 25% of maximum needed at all times to prevent gas crossover

the electrolyser can deal with intermittency of power supply and so is suitable for direct links to renewable sources

The system is suitable for high and ultra-high pressure operation and is being designed to make redundant the need for downstream compression

Fusion

The UKAEA has engaged AqSorption since 2021 to explore the potential for better separation of isotopes that are needed by the fusion sector, specifically using electrolysis and graphene membranes. During this twice-extended and ongoing research project there had been exciting glimpses of highly effective separation achieved and now the technique is reliably repeatable.

The result is there is a significant benefit conferred to tritium and deuterium handling and isolating systems to incorporating AqSorption’s systems which are grounded in AqSorption’s deep knowledge of flow-through electrolysis along with its project partnership with the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester.

Ultra-high Pressure Electrolysis

The most significant outstanding challenge in global hydrogen adoption is gas compression according to many experts including The Carbon Trust. At the moment the vast majority of use cases of hydrogen demand that it be delivered at pressures far over the 20 to 35 bar that the highest performing electrolysers can output. Pipeline injection must be over 80 bar, static storage and large cylinders are typically at 350bar and increasingly customers are asking for 750bar and above.

AqSorption’s design uses no membrane or diaphragm and has large strong electrodes that can be very effectively sealed. This has allowed production of high pressure stacks and separators where hydrogen and oxygen outputted is initially at 100bar and soon to be 500bar. AqSorption has engaged the MtC to realise this concept and the 100bar stack is undergoing performance and safety testing to be ready for a 2025 product release.

Ammonia

Hydrogen gas can be recovered from ammonia via decomposition or through high-temperature, high-pressure cracking. AqSorption’s research team is examining the decomposition of ammonia via low-cost, low-pressure, low temperature electrolysis using its proprietary flow-through technology.

An alternative energy vector to gaseous or liquified hydrogen is ammonia and particularly green ammonia produced at scale using dedicated renewables. The usage and distribution of ammonia is a long-established global industry and many new port installations are being built to accept this shipped in ammonia.

It is anticipated AqSorption’s DECOM™ technology will provide a highly efficient way of splitting out high purity hydrogen gas on-demand from green ammonia. The implications are potentially ground-breaking with the new designs of ammonia-fired combustion energy requiring a blend of gaseous hydrogen and that now being within our grasp with simply ammonia being the fuel source.

Transport and also static storage of ammonia is far simpler and cheaper than with hydrogen or liquified hydrogen. An on-demand, efficient conversion of ammonia to pure hydrogen for fuel-cell use cases allows true flexibility even in the hardest to decarbonise uses and with energy production, storage and peak demand management.

Energy Recovery

AqSorption has already developed on a number of efficiency improvements in green hydrogen production and is engaged by the Net Zero Technology Centre to explore energy recovery techniques from the gaseous products of electrolysis.