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A Biological Revolution in
Hydrogen Fuel Production
Principal Investigator: IBCS Team:
Dr. Pamela Silver Giacomo Centini
Harvard Medical School Michael Ellis
Dept. of Systems Biology Cedric Lucas
Yang Mao
John Wu
Autumn Yuan
December 13, 2007
Multiple Methods of Hydrogen Production
Hydrocarbon Biomass Microbial
Reformation Hydrolysis Gasification Metabolism
• Cheap • More • Cost unclear • Potentially
• Energy expensive • Energy lowest cost
intensive • Energy intensive • Least energy
• High CO2 intensive • Some CO2 intense
output • No CO2 output output • Little to no
• Non-renewable • Potentially • Renewable CO2 output
renewable • Renewable
Source: Interview with George Sverdrup, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; group research
Using Yeast to Produce Hydrogen
Biomass
Harvest and Sugar Fermentation Hydrogen
Treatment
Bioengineered
Yeast
C6H12O6 → high energy intermediate → H2
Source: Conversation with research team of PI Dr. Pamela Silver’s laboratory
Technology Current Status and IP Considerations
Current Status IP Considerations
• There are two different processes • Provisional Patent has been Filed
under study to convert sugar to H2 :
• No publication has been made,
– Direct : Converting sugar to H2 but research abstract has been
displayed at scientific conference
– Indirect: Converting sugar to
Formate, then Formate to H2
• Strong IP protection likely; no
• The current yield is 0.05% - 0.1% existing patents related to use of
yeast to convert sugar to H2
• Further development is needed in
order to achieve a reasonable yield
(15-40%) • Operating indirect process to
convert formate to H2 may require
licensing existing bacteria
Source: Conversation with research team of PI Dr. Pamela Silver’s laboratory; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO),
http://www.uspto.gov/, accessed November 2007.
Hydrogen Market Overview
Key Insights Current Producers
• Hydrogen:
– Is difficult to transport
– Is difficult to store
Others
– Requires major capital infrastructure for 24%
traditional production 36%
• Hydrogen industry highly concentrated
• Plant location is key
16%
• High barriers to entry
10%
14%
• Customer base very loyal; more concerned about
reliability than price
Source: ENEA – Idrocomb - www.krill.net/idrogeno/iacobazzi-1.pdf - Accessed November 2007
Hydrogen Market Overview (cont’d)
Current Market: $3B Potential Market 2020: up to $1.7T
Methanol; Other; 4% Space; Current Uses
10% 1% 2%
Refineries; Ammonia;
35% 50%
Future
Transportation
98%
• Current production: 50MT, $3B • Potential market if the global
• Market growth: 10-20% per year transportation will migrate from
• Current uses primarily non-energy current gas ICE vehicles to hydrogen
related: fueled vehicles is estimated at over
$1.7T in 2020
– Ammonia
– Refining
– Food production • Fuel Cells and ICE H2 Vehicles are
expected to be the main market for
• Some energy-related use:
hydrogen in the future
– Methanol
– Rocket fuel
Source Current Market Data: ITS – www.ieagreen.org.uk/h2ch2.htm - Accessed on November 2007
Source Potential Market Data: Minnesota Department of Commerce -
www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/Commerce/Hydrogen_Potential_090803021706_HydrogenReport4.pdf - Accessed in November 2007
Business Model Options
Options Pros Cons
Large-Scale • Greatest value add/capture • Most capital intensive
Facilities • Flexible outputs possible • High transportation
costs
Small-Scale • Reduces transportation • High service costs
Bioreactors costs • Difficult to upgrade
• Best serves niche markets distributed tech
• Core competency • Lower value add/capture
License • Serve growing niches
• Provide varied outputs
• Lowest capex
• Potentially faster • Tough to raise capital
Lab Spin-Off development • Less control
• Less access to Harvard
resources
Timeline
2008 2009 2010-2012
Develop Technology Prove Concept Find Partners
• The technology should • Begin lab-scale pilot • License to strategic
be developed further in production partner(s) for:
Harvard laboratories in – Further development
• Aim to generate data
order to: of operations
enabling greater value
– Reach yield, cost, capture from licensees – Taking product to
and output (e.g. cost, reliability, market reliably and
milestones scalability) with a strong brand
– Understand
• Potential targets:
possible
applications given – Entrenched
purity and pressure producers
of H2
– H2 transportation
fuel startups
Backup Slides
Description of Innovation
• Most hydrogen production efforts focused on well-
understood reaction C6H12O6 (glucose) + H2O
6CO2 + 12H2
• Focusing on alternate pathway with more favorable
economics: NAD(P)H + H+ NAD(P)+ + H2
• Two parallel development paths
– Constructing artificial metabolic pathways to generate stronger
biological reducing agents
– Constructing artificial organelles (microenvironments within cells)
in which the NAD(P)H/NAD(P)+ ratio can be made arbitrarily
high to drive the reaction to the right
• R&D will also enable more efficient modification of
metabolic pathways for production of other useful end
products, including small molecule fuels
Source: Conversation with research team of PI Dr. Pamela Silver’s laboratory
Technical Feasibility
• Stage of development: Early development/proof of concept
– Provisional patent filed covering biological compositions, systems and methods for producing
hydrogen using engineered yeast systems, or a combination of an engineered yeast system
and an engineered bacterial system.
– Systems have yielded maximum hydrogen conversion yield of 0.1%; target is 40%
• Technical roadmap
– Research milestones
Source: Conversation with research team of PI Dr. Pamela Silver’s laboratory
Technical Feasibility (cont’d)
– Recommended additional milestones
• Purity of hydrogen
• Production capacity: 1 kg/day; 100 kg/day; demonstration of
scalability to 10,000 kg/day
• Production cost $10/kg; $5/kg; $2/kg
– Risks
• Modification of cell pathways could cause unintended
consequences that inhibit conversion efficiency yield or hydrogen
purity
• Labor intensity and process variability could make system non-
competitive with traditional modes of hydrogen production
• Upstream biomass conversion needed for process input could make
process uneconomical or output too variable in quality
• Hydrogen production through advanced materials/direct catalysis or
other production methods could render this process uneconomical
The Current IP Status and Freedom to Operate
Related Prior Art Freedom to Operate
• From Sugar to Formate: • From Sugar to Formate:
existing patent covers process for formate will not infringe the existing patent
production by bacteria (5879915) covering process for formate production
by bacteria (5879915), since yeast is
• From Formate to H2: going to be used instead of bacteria
public knowledge exists, process for
anaerobic production of hydrogen using a • From Formate to H2:
delta-proteobacterium was patented
(5834264) back in 1998 could infringe the existing patent
covering process for anaerobic
production of hydrogen (5834264) only
• Other related prior art:
if the specific delta-proteobacterium(
existing patent covers process for ATCC 55738) is going to be used, but,
hydrogen production using hydrogenase-
regular ways of converting formate to
containing oxygenic photosynthetic
organisms (6989252, 4442211) H2 are less economical, as claimed in
the mentioned patent
Recommendation: Inventors should engineer new strains of bacteria to make the
conversion of Formate to H2 more efficient and bypass the existing patent, or consider
licensing the patent mentioned instead
Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), http://www.uspto.gov/, accessed November 2007.
Hydrogen Market Overview
Electrolysis,
Production Method 4%
Coal, 18%
• The current distribution in the production of Hydrogen is driven
by mainly economic reasons over environmental considerations
• Currently renewable electrolysis is not economically competitive
with other form of hydrogen production
• Other forms of hydrogen production from fermentation to
photobiological water splitting are under investigation Natural Gas,
48% Oil, 30%
Air
Products,
24% Competitors
Others, 36%
• The hydrogen production is highly concentrated with the four biggest
competitors supplying more than two thirds of the hydrogen worldwide
• The main player must compete on a global scale, even if certain plant
locations are necessary to serve key clients
• Most of hydrogen producers are highly differentiated in their
Paraxair, production
16%
BOC, 10% Air Liquide,
14%
Key Insight
• Hydrogen is currently not a viable option for many possible future uses because:
– It is difficult to transport : There is no infrastructure available that can be converted to transporting
hydrogen as it need specific pressure and temperature requirements
– It is very difficult to store : The very small size of the hydrogen molecule make impossible given the
current technology to avoid its evaporation from the thank
• Entering the hydrogen market is very difficult:
– The industry is highly concentrated
– There are high capital requirements
– The customer base tends to be very loyal and more concerned about reliability than price, as
hydrogen is a key input but is usually not a significant portion of the cost structure
Source Current Market Data: ITS – www.ieagreen.org.uk/h2ch2.htm - Accessed on November 2007
Hydrogen Market Development
Other Space
• Current production of hydrogen in Methanol
2004 globally was over 50MTwith
overall revenue of >$3B
• The industry has been growing on
average in the last years between
10% and 20% p.a.
• Currently most of the hydrogen
produced is used for non energetic
uses or indirect energetic uses Refineries
Ammonia
Current Future
• Ammonia: • Fuel Cells:
Used in the agricultural sector as a fertilizer, The main use expected in the future for
has seen a rapid growth in recent years due to hydrogen, is related to private transportation
growing use of fertilizers with fuel cells vehicles
• Refinery: • ICE Vehicles:
Hydrogen is used to enhance performance of Hydrogen can also be used as propellant for
petroleum products by removing organic sulfur regular ICE when mixed with natural gases
from crude oil, helping refineries to meet Clean • Power Storage:
Act requirements Another important use for hydrogen is related
• Methanol: to the energy storage. This has been proven
Used in industrial and chemical applications, very effective especially with wind turbines,
methanol use has been growing recently due where supply peaks tend not to match demand
to its use in the private transportation sector peaks
• Food:
Margarine and butter market have been
growing very slowly in the last ten years
• Space:
Hydrogen is the main propellant for
spacecrafts
Source Current Market Data: ITS – www.ieagreen.org.uk/h2ch2.htm - Accessed on November 2007
Source Potential Market Data: Minnesota Department of Commerce -
www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/Commerce/Hydrogen_Potential_090803021706_HydrogenReport4.pdf - Accessed in November 2007
Cost Comparison
Hydrogen Production Costs • To be cost-competitive with
$/kg dominant production
$8.00
methods, H2 production
$7.00
through yeast must be at
$6.00
$2/kg or less
$5.00 • Current estimates of
$4.00 hydrogen through other
$3.00 biological processes project
$2.00 costs of $7.50/kg
$1.00
$0.00
Gas Nuclear Wind Concentrator PV Flat-Plate
reformation electrolysis electrolysis PV Electrolysis While some of the difference
electrolysis
may be made up by carbon
credits, significant
progress must be made on
demonstrating much lower
costs through scalable,
reliable technology
Chart data source: “Generating Hydrogen through Water Electrolysis Using Concentrator Photovoltaics.”
R. McConnell and J. Thompson. NREL Conference Paper. January 2005.
Source for other biological process cost: “Updated Cost Analysis of Photobiological Hydrogen Production from Chlamydomonas
reinhardtii Green Algae.” Wade Amos. NREL. January 2004. Average of costs presented on page 26 excluding highest and lowest outliers.
Summary of Potential Business Models
Business
Model Option Reasons to choose this model Pros Cons
Small scale • If system is most efficient and reliable at small scale • Eliminates feedstock • Service and
on-site • If H2 demand grows among fragmented customer base, and hydrogen price risk maintenance costs
distributed preferably with feedstock access • Serves growing niche could be high
production • If process costs near or above traditionally produced hydrogen, markets unlikely to be • Potential to be
but with other advantages valued by customers (e.g., carbon served by larger squeezed by system
credits) distributors manufacturer and
feedstock supplier
Large scale • If process is most efficient and reliable at large scale • Highest potential to add • Incurs both upstream
centralized • If process is cost competitive with traditionally produced and capture value (feedstock) and
production: hydrogen • Could enable flexible downstream (hydrogen)
Develop and • If mass market demand grows production of various price and market risk
operate outputs • Longest development
production timeline
facilities
Develop • If R&D is yielding multiple technologies that could be licensed • Closest to existing • Lower value add; lower
technology to numerous bio-chemical/biofuel producers (i.e. beyond researcher core potential to capture
and license to hydrogen) competencies value
existing
producers • If projected costs of facility construction outweigh projected • Shortest development
profitability pipeline
• Lightest asset and
capital intensity
Recommended option... but only after technology has been further developed in the lab
Potential Business Models
• Option 1: Small scale on-site distributed hydrogen production
– Manufacture and distribute modules that could be installed onsite at point-of-demand to produce 100-5,000
kg H2/day Revenue:
• Service and maintenance contracts
• System (sale or) lease
• Biomass input (optional)
– Costs:
• Capex
– System R&D
• Opex
– System manufacture
– Continuing system R&D
– Service and maintenance staff
– Biomass (optional)
– Reasons to choose this model
• If system is most efficient and highly reliable at small scale
• If demand for hydrogen grows among fragmented customer base, preferably with access to feedstock
• If process costs near or above traditionally produced hydrogen, but with other advantages valued by
customers (e.g., carbon credits, access to reliable onsite hydrogen production, “greenness” of
process)
– Pros
• Eliminates feedstock and hydrogen price risk
• Serves growing niche markets unlikely to be served by larger distributors
– Cons
• Service and maintenance costs could be high, especially with geographically dispersed customers
• Potential to be squeezed by system manufacturer (assuming outsourced) and feedstock supplier
– Complementary assets/technologies
• Manufacturer (assuming outsourcing of system construction). Not highly specialized; straightforward
contracting.
• Distributor of pretreated biomass or supplier of other technology for onsite biomass pretreatment.
Specialized; likely requires partnership.
Potential Business Models (cont’d)
• Option 2: Large scale centralized hydrogen production: develop and operate production
facilities
– Revenue
• Hydrogen sale to distributors or direct to customers
– Costs
• Capex
• Process development
• Facility construction
• Opex
• Facility operation
• Feedstock
• Biomass
– Reasons to choose this model
• If process is highly efficient at large scale
• If process is cost competitive with traditionally produced hydrogen
• If mass market demand grows
– Pros
• Highest value add; highest potential to capture value
• Could enable flexible production of various outputs
– Cons
• Incurs both upstream (feedstock) and downstream (hydrogen) price risk
• Longest development timeline
– Complementary assets/technologies
• Provider of biomass pretreatment technology. Specialized; likely requires
partnership.
• Facility constructor. Not highly specialized; straightforward contracting.
• Hydrogen distributor. Somewhat specialized.
Potential Business Models (cont’d)
• Option 3: Large scale centralized hydrogen and other biofuel production: Develop technology
and license to existing producers
– Revenue
• License fees from sale to hydrogen producers or biomass processors
– Costs
• Capex
• Technology R&D
• Opex
• Ongoing R&D
• Small overhead staff
– Reasons to choose this model
• If R&D is yielding multiple technologies that could be licensed to numerous bio-
chemical/biofuel producers (potentially beyond hydrogen)
• If projected costs of facility construction outweigh projected profitability
– Pros
• Closest to existing researcher core competencies
• Shortest development pipeline
• Lightest asset and capital intensity
– Cons
• Least value add; lowest potential to capture value
– Complementary assets/technologies
• Knowledge of developments in related technologies. Specialized; requires research
partnerships.
Interview Notes
Dr. George Sverdrup
Technology Manager — Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• NREL has a couple of projects on bio-based hydrogen production
• Further resources on development of hydrogen technology and infrastructure
– See Posture Plan on DOE Hydrogen project page; describes different strategies for the national
program.
– See also multi-year RD&D plan – covers multiple pathways (search on “hydrogen multi-year plan”)
– Could call Pin Ching Maness – leads bacterial projects at NREL – 303 384 6114 ... she might
have opinion on how yeast stacks up to bacterial
• Gasification of biomass for hydrogen
– Thought to be applicable to centralized production (e.g., 50K kg/year of H2), but not small distributed
production
– With technical advances, could get H2 production below $2.50/kg
– Most biomass gasification research has been directed towards syngas combustion for power... 2-3
projects country-wide on gasification for hydrogen production.
– Seen as more near-term, but only when we it becomes necessary to produce hydrogen
centrally and distribute (years off)
• Bacterial fermentation
– Feedstock cost very high; hard to meet $2-3/kg cost. Largely driven by feedstock costs.
– If could get organisms that could process cellulose, that might get around this cost.
– So, NREL looking at different cocktails of bacteria.
– More directed at distributed rather than centralized production.
– One big issue: fermentation processes create multiple byproducts; molar yield of hydrogen
nowhere close to theoretical maximum
Interview Notes
Dr. George Sverdrup (CONT’D)
Technology Manager — Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• How concerned about storage and distribution issues?
– Quite; DOE focusing an entire effort on delivery and storage.
– Looking at pipeline, compressed storage, by road, liquification over the road. Cost of distributing may
overwhelm production.
– Seems likely that these will be overcome. Local, distributed generation would cut down
transportation costs greatly... but still need storage and compression technologies.
• How confident in evolution of market towards transportation?
– Quite
– Hydrogen has great promise to meet transportation needs
– H2 will probably be used in other markets before transportation gets going: backup power generation
for telecommunications; stationary uses (natural gas reformation for fuel cell use now)
– Many companies are investing now in hydrogen products, but given cash burn rate, question of how
many will last
Interview Notes
Mr. William Baade
Market Expert — Hydrogen and Bioengineered Organism
Air Products
Key Points:
• Before you will be able to get to the market you need to pass four steps:
– Prove the process
– Pilot Plant
– Commercial Demo
– Acquire the Market
• The issue with natural processes to obtain H2 is the pressure.
– Most of applications use H2 at a pressure of 800psi.
– From gasification H2 comes out at 400psi, making it very easy to bring it to 800psi
– If you have to start form atmosphere pressure the process is long and very expensive in term
of energy needed, as it needs many steps due to the small dimension of the H2 molecule
– Some uses for low pressure H2 are related to food and steel processing, but those are very
small markets
– To get in the Ammonia and Ethanol market you need to take the H2 at high pressures
• The production costs with the standard process at 800psi are :
– 3$ per 1000 cubic foots that is approximately 1.2$ per Kg
– On that you have to add 1-3$ per 1000 cubic foots of capital expenses (depending on the size
and efficiency of the plant)
– Liquid H2 goes at 10-15$ per Kg
– A world class plant produce 100 Millions Cubic Foots per day
Interview Notes
Mr. Jerald A. Cole
Chief Technology Officer
Hydrogen Ventures
• Overall Market:
– It is very difficult to estimate the overall size of H2 market, because the captive H2 market (e.g. refinery) is
approximately 8-10 times larger.
– It is very difficult to get into the market for a couple reasons: 1) dominant players are willing to sell H2 for loss,
since most of their users purchase a package of gases; 2) H2 users are concerning about the quality of H2 and
reluctant to switch to unfamiliar suppliers.
• Fuel Cell market is emerging.
– A couple of niche markets which fuel cell is getting into: 1) Jadoo Power Systems, based in Folsom, Calif., has
developed hydrogen fuel cells for portable, professional video cameras that it claims are cheaper and last
longer than conventional batteries. 2) H2 Fuel Cell is an attracting energy source for luxury vacation homes
located in remote area (45,000 of them are built last year, rich people are looking for all different ways to power
up these vacation homes, solar cells is another option for them).
– Still people are waiting for a major breakthrough in Fuel Cell technique to reduce the cost.
– H2 used for Fuel Cell needs to meet five 9 standard, thus very expensive.
• Other growing H2 market:
– H2 combustion engines (e.g. BMW is testing hydrogen combustion 7-series.).
Interview Notes
Mr. John Trbovich
Principal
OnPoint Technologies
• Market Insight
- “future” uses of H2 will probably not develop into a viable market for at least 10 to 15 years
- fuel cell is at this point the most likely use of H2 in energy generation.
- major technical hurdles in H2 transportation, storage, and fuel cell must be overcome before the full potential of
H2 can be realized
• Investment Insight
– their venture fund has funded projects out of the university before, and they all share the following
characteristics:
– Technology/process is usually at its earliest stage
– The team that developed the technology is a major factor in considering whether to fund it or not
– With regard to this particular technology, the bottom line is whether we can make a case for the industrial use
of hydrogen generated through this technology for the period of time before other “future” uses of H2 develops
Interview Notes
Dr. Andrew Murray
Professor
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
• Technological Insight
- there are significant technical hurdles yet to be overcome in the full development of the technology according to
the plan outlined by the Silvers group.
- metabolic engineering is an emerging field with many uncertainties; therefore, the developmental timeline given
by the Silvers’ group should be taken with a grain of salt.
- scalability of the process needs to be experimentally demonstrated
- it would be worthwhile to consider how much scientific resources (i.e number of graduate students, amount of
funding etc.) the Silvers group intend to devote to the further development of this technology. In light the of the
significant technical hurdles that they must overcome, full time engagement of at least a few graduate students
and/or post-docs are necessary.
• Bottom Line
– The technical feasibility of the process is in no way guaranteed and therefore monitoring of the progress of the
development team is of crucial importance if money is to be invested.
– Significant investment should not be made until more data is provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the
technology as proposed.
Interview Notes
Wal van Lierop – 16 November 2007
President & CEO
Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Vancouver, Canada
Hydrogen market overview
• Key take-away: hydrogen market for industrial uses is EXTREMELY TOUGH to enter. Market leaders such as
Air Products and Praxair control the market, therefore even if a start-up company were to come up with a new
process for cheaper hydrogen production, the major industrial clients (e.g. refineries) would still rely on leaders
such as Air Products and Praxair.
Indeed, not only is hydrogen a limited cost item for these industrial customers, BUT hydrogen is critical to their
operations so they would prefer paying a little more but being able to rely on a stable, well-established
company for their hydrogen supply and not on a brand new start-up.
• Industrial use is typically good for on-site hydrogen production: steel used in automotive industry for instance,
undergoes heat treatment in annealing furnaces that use hydrogen. BUT same problem as described above
regarding the difficulty of penetrating the market.
• Industrial customers care about low cost hydrogen solutions BUT reliability is also a number one concern
• Critical aspect for hydrogen start-up is great management team for execution in the industrial space
• Hydrogen fuel for vehicles will not happen within a 7-year timeframe so need to find alternative niches for
hydrogen generation companies
• Would not invest in hydrogen companies whose only competency is to produce hydrogen, needs another asset
(e.g. ethanol play, service to oil & gas industry) to be an attractive investment opportunity at this point in time
Interview Notes
Wal van Lierop – 16 November 2007 (continued)
President & CEO
Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Vancouver, Canada
Views on biological processes for hydrogen generation
• Problems of dealing with biomass as feedstock: availability and variations in quality of feedstock, and variations
in quality of hydrogen gas being produced
• Could be niche markets for small-scale on-site hydrogen production using biomass: for instance, stand-by
power generation systems using fuel cells with a biomass source nearby
• Could partner with Wal-Mart that started experimenting with fuel cells for indoor forklifts – could couple that with
hydrogen from biomass, HOWEVER Wal-Mart would probably not pay anything for it and would only consider it
as a free experiment
• Hydrogen production cost needs to be at or less than $2 per kg, otherwise there is no way to compete (e.g.
electrolysis to generate hydrogen is too expensive)
Interview Notes
Mark Murphy
Vice President Finance
Praxair Asia, Inc.
• H2 production
- It calls itself supplemental provider to petroleum refinery, which is the major revenue source.
- Method: Steaming reforming.
- Transportation: large production unit with pipeline network on site.
- Capacity of a plant: 100 million standard cubic feet per day, while the refinery consumes 2-500 million
standard cubic feet per day.
- The price is influenced by the cost of feedstock, which is natural gas.
- Small electrolysis unit to produce hydrogen.
- The hydrogen produced this way normally is packaged in high-pressure cylinder.
- This segment is highly fragmented and has a lot of small providers.
• H2 market
– Grows considerably in general mainly because the US and Europe have tighter regulations on refinery, the US
market especially due to its high sulfur crude.
• Price
– The market price will determine how to build production, storage place and distribution.
Interview Notes
Barry Stevens
President
National Hydrogen Fund
• Cost
- Capital investment and development cost.
- Feedstock: biomass. What if any of these cost goes up by 2 to 3 fold.
- Energy demand: heat? Electricity?
- Emission: How to capture H2? Carbon waste?
- How long will it take to put into mass production? 4 stages to go (proof of principle, proof of performance, true
demonstration and mass production).
- Acceptable cost is $1.5-2 dollar per equivalent gallon of gas energy.
• Market
- H2 as energy source is a very attractive market and will happen eventually if the government is more concerned about
environment.
- The H2 market for energy use is estimated to be 70 million billion BTU and the power need will increase by 66% in
2025. Right now only 6.2 million are produced by renewable energy. The markets he is looking at are infrastructure
(grid-connected power source) and transportation (vehicles). There are enormous breakthroughs in technologies
related to these markets, but the costs are still relatively high comparing to coal. However, H2 is able to substitute
fossil energy source if there is a strong pressure from the top to adopt it.
• Business/Operations
– When he looks at a business opportunity, he also looks at the team (inventors if they are to commercialize the
technology.) apart from the technology itself.
– The price of a product is normally charged at 3 times its production cost.
– It always at least takes 3 years for a technology from idea to mass production.
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