HyperSolar Announces Breakthrough Towards Commercially Viable Solar-to-Hydrogen Efficiency

HyperSolar, Inc. The developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, today announced that it recently was able to improve the photocurrents achievable from its proprietary nanostructured solar cell materials for hydrogen ("H2") production by approximately one hundred percent (100%).

The amount of hydrogen production is directly related to the amount of photocurrents generated from the solar cell materials. This breakthrough constitutes an important milestone in the Company's effort to split water molecules for the production of renewable hydrogen fuel.

HyperSolar has previously shown that it could reliably achieve photovoltages exceeding 1.5 Volts, the widely accepted voltage needed for splitting water using sunlight as the sole energy input. With the photovoltage challenge solved, HyperSolar focused its recent efforts on improving the photocurrent. It is now able to achieve a current density of 5 mA cm-2, or two-thirds of the value needed to achieve the Company's commercialization goal of 10% solar-to-H2 efficiency. By effectively doubling the photocurrents of its solar cell materials, the Company is progressing towards a system that may potentially be very economical in a real-world environment for hydrogen production to meet increased market demand. Further development efforts will focus on increasing the long-term stability of the cells within these reactor environments.

"By optimizing the photocurrents used to produce voltage levels needed to effectively split water molecules, using only earth abundant materials, we are edging closer to our goal of low-cost green hydrogen for commercial use," said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. "Our scientific teams, now led by new CTO, Dr. Joun Lee, has continued to drive the milestones and breakthroughs that we believe will represent one of the few, if not the only viable source, for completely renewable and affordable solar hydrogen fuel production."

HyperSolar's research is centered on developing a low-cost and submersible hydrogen production particle that can split water molecules under the sun, emulating the core functions of photosynthesis. Each particle is a complete hydrogen generator that contains a novel high voltage solar cell bonded to chemical catalysts by a proprietary encapsulation coating. A video detailing the rise of hydrogen fuel technology as well as HyperSolar's completely renewable process of hydrogen fuel production can be viewed by visiting here.