Lifeline for Yorkshire-based Clean Power Hydrogen as it eyes deal with Irish renewables firm Hidrigin
Yorkshire-based Clean Power Hydrogen has entered into an agreement which could see the firm sell its manufacturing rights to Irish renewable energy company Hidrigin.
It comes after Clean Power Hydrogen recently suspend the trading of its shares and shut down manufacturing at its Doncaster site following an incident involving one of its electrolysers – the technology used to produce clean hydrogen.
Hidrigin is also set to offer a £750,000 loan to Clean Power Hydrogen, contingent on the Yorkshire firm being able to raise £3m in share value.
The agreement could see Hidrigin, through its engineering partner Jones Engineering, serve as the “exclusive manufacturing partner” for Clean Power Hydrogen in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Richart Scott, chief executive officer elect at Clean Power Hydrogen, said: "Hidrigin and their engineering partners, Jones Engineering, are the right Manufacturing Partners for our unique high purity hydrogen technology. We're delighted they will be bringing this low-cost modular solution to market in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland and the UK".
It comes after Clean Power Hydrogen announced earlier this week that it was undertaking a “significant cost reduction programme” as it fights to recover from the incident at its site.
The company announced at the end of last month that equipment at its site had suffered “significant damage” following the incident, which was caused when a hydrogen-oxygen mixture "ignited" during an automated depressurisation of the system, causing what the company described as a “loss of containment”.
The company subsequently announced that it would not continue its manufacturing activities, instead switching its business model to focus on research and development and licensing.
Clean Power Hydrogen said its investigations had established that key parts of its technology – its proprietary membrane-free stack and associated separators – were not the cause of last month’s incident.
Eric Whelan, chief executive officer of Hidrigin, said: “Hidrigin acknowledges the recent failure at final testing of the technology by CPH2 but continues to believe in the global potential for this new category of electrolyser and are investing to bring it to market.”