Hydrogen’s revolutionary electrolyser transforms seawater into green hydrogen

21 Feb 2023

Evolve Hydrogen has innovated groundbreaking water electrolysis technology that produces green hydrogen directly from seawater. In 2010, Brian Gilman, a Creative Director in New York, decided to explore water electrolysis. “I was born with a serious case of asthma that over the years had scarred a great deal of my lung capacity due to air quality,” he explained. At the time, Gilman was interested in the oxygen-producing part of water electrolysis.

Spencer Teplin, Gilman’s long-time friend, developed a fleet of biodiesel cars fuelled with waste vegetable oil sourced from local restaurants. Together, they discussed the benefits of clean energy and oxygen output produced by water electrolysis. Gilman and Teplin formed Gilman Industries LLC in 2011, after a colleague in the electrolyser industry thought their ideas warranted merit.

In October 2011, after generating many iterations, Gilman and Teplin created their first polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyser based on traditional design. They quickly realised this water electrolysis technology was expensive, hard to get working, and hard to maintain, needing perfect pressures and deionised water.

Their friend, Dr Katsuhiko Hirose, said: “The common electrolyser is built more like a house and less like an appliance.”

Gilman and Teplin returned to the drawing board and designed a new electrolyser based on three principles.

The first step was to use common waters, such as tap, wastewater, and most importantly, seawater, which has exponentially more micro-siemens than deionised water.

Next, instead of using exotic metals like platinum and iridium, Gilman and Teplin used electro-conductive polymers to reduce fouling and oxidation. Their research led them to a unique polymer with longevity, that replaced platinum electrodes and outlived them by 13 times. They had their polymer manufacturer tailor a version for their electrolyser.

Gilman recalled: “Rudimentary tests impressed us by its ability to electrolyse multiple water sources without fouling. We used a similar polymer for our separation technology. We found it was reclaimable and recyclable. Because polymer can be altered, any innovations can use the same injection moulds.”

The final principle is that most of Evolve™ is injection mouldable; producing a unit from molding to assembly, in only two hours. In contrast to CNC-produced metallic PEM electrolysers, the cost to produce Evolve decreases with every generation and doesn’t appear to have a floor to how economically it can be produced.

Gilman explained: “We are producing a lightweight inexpensive rust-less electrolyser that can be manufactured quickly, placed in environments common electrolysers dare not tread, prefers hard water, and that you can turn on, walk away, and forget about for months, like any respectable appliance. Naturally, we trademarked this electrolyser Evolve.”

This unique approach culminated in patenting Evolve (Patent