SunHydrogen, the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable H₂ using sunlight and water, announced that the company’s industrial partner, COTEC, has completed setup of a new laboratory space solely for the development of SunHydrogen’s manufacturing process.

SunHydrogen’s CEO Tim Young recently made a strategic visit to COTEC’s Changwon facility to view firsthand the progress at the newly-established laboratory dedicated to SunHydrogen’s technology. COTEC is poised to begin replicating SunHydrogen’s nanoparticle-based technology employing advanced industrial electroplating processes in this state-of-the-art facility. Meticulously set up by COTEC’s team, the laboratory is fully equipped with the necessary equipment, chemicals, and characterization techniques to accelerate SunHydrogen’s manufacturing process.

Within one of SunHydrogen’s H₂ generators, billions of patented photoelectrosynthetically active heterostructure (PAH) nanoparticles per square centimeter split apart water to generate hydrogen and oxygen. These PAH nanoparticles are composed of multiple layers of solar cells. The high-voltage, high-light absorbing properties of the solar cells enable the company to make them ultrathin and with significantly fewer materials, lowering costs and raising efficiency. Together, SunHydrogen and COTEC will explore the development and implementation of electroplating solutions to translate SunHydrogen’s existing PAH architecture and process to manufacturing scale while maintaining low cost and high efficiency.

The company expects its initial exploration with COTEC to be completed by December 31, 2023. Following this phase, SunHydrogen’s next step is to produce 1 m² H₂ panels to be utilized in multiple pilot projects showcasing the world’s first-ever nanoparticle-based green H₂ production at commercial scale.