GeoPura

GeoPura has secured £36m (US$43m) of investment to support the roll out of its containerised hydrogen power units (HPU)

GEOPURA has secured £36m (US$43m) of investment from big players in industry, manufacturing and finance to support the roll out of its containerised hydrogen power units (HPU), the firm said.  

The investors, led by GM Ventures, and Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, with participation from Siemens Energy Ventures, and SWEN CP through its fund SWEN Impact Fund for Transition 2, will also act as strategic partners for GeoPura as it scales its hydrogen power generation technology. 

GeoPura’s HPUs are built on industrial hydrogen fuel cells, and provide 250 KW electrical output, and 216 KWh battery storage. The firm commercially supplies hydrogen by the ‘litre dge’ which stands for litre diesel generator equivalent. In practice, GeoPura says, 1 litre (dge) hydrogen produces about 2.75 KWh of electricity - the same as 1 litre of diesel in a diesel generator. “This will equate to about 168 grams of hydrogen i.e. 1 kg of hydrogen consumed by the HPU is equivalent to about 6 litres of diesel consumed by a diesel generator,” the firm explains. 

As the HPUs are packaged within a standard 20 ft shipping container, they can be delivered to almost any location providing easy access to emissions-free electricity. They are currently used for temporary, supplementary, off-grid and backup power, where heavy polluting diesel generators have traditionally been used. But the firm plans to push the use of hydrogen into other hard-to-decarbonise areas such as EV charging.  

GeoPura also aim to use the HPUs as supplementary grid power, as economies strive to reach net zero targets. The UK government has set its own target to hit 10 GW of low carbon hydrogen capacity by the end of this decade. However, at present there remains limited commercial technologies able to capitalise on this demand, GeoPura said. The firm added the investment would help it deploy a fleet of over 3,600 HPUs by 2033, which along with providing clean, low-cost reliable power, would also avoid more than 6m t of CO2 emissions during their operational  lifetime. 

The HPUs use hydrogen produced by electrolysers at GeoPura hubs in Nottingham and Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.  According to the firm, their electrolysers have the capability “to convert four litres of water into the hydrogen fuel equivalent of a litre of petrol every minute of every day”. 

Along with increasing the production of green hydrogen fuel, GeoPura plans on using its multimillion pound investment to mass manufacturer HPUs alongside partner Siemens Energy, as well as boost sustainability skills in the North East and throughout the UK. 

“Green hydrogen is too often seen as a technology that will happen in the future, but GeoPura and our partners are delivering a commercially viable technology, today. The world can’t afford to wait a decade for green fuels to scale – we must act now,” Andrew Cunningham, CEO of GeoPura, said. 

“This investment allows us to build on our installed base of HPUs and hydrogen production infrastructure to stimulate the green hydrogen economy, and then expand the use of clean fuels into other hard-to-decarbonise areas of our energy system.”