Meet the innovator producing green hydrogen with seawater
Joseph Ely’s entrepreneurial journey began by creating a device for patient ventilators in hospital during Covid, to concentrate oxygen from the air, and has arrived at another device that produces green hydrogen from seawater to generate sustainable energy.
The Dorset-based innovator’s company Latent Drive is valued at £6 million and generating revenue, and is currently raising funds to scale production, with the South West Investment Fund leading the round.
Latent Drive’s latest product is called SeaStack: a seawater electrolyser that produces green hydrogen when paired with a renewable energy source, for use as a fuel feedstock or chemical.
SeaStack was demonstrated with support from Connected Places Catapult through the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative, which is led by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and funded by Innovate UK.
The hydrogen produced can be used to power maritime vessels directly or produce ammonia and methanol for a range of uses on ships or land. As well as using seawater, the device can also process wastewater and concentrated brine to create hydrogen.
Joseph explains that conventional electrolysers require ultra pure water. But because the SeaStack can process seawater, it means that water stressed nations can make hydrogen without using water from desalination plants.
Components within the device, including what are known as ‘catrodes’ – or catalysed electrodes – improve performance of the SeaStack device and dramatically reduce cost.
The company’s trial with the Catapult specifically tested new ‘hybrid bipolar plates’ within the electrodes, designed to prevent the formation of corrosive chlorine compounds when carrying out electrolysis.
“Seawater contains dangerous and difficult salts, with sodium chloride being one of the most challenging,” Joseph says. “Finding a way to split water without splitting salt is critical to making an electrolyser that can run directly on seawater, without making hypochlorite which can degrade or corrode the electrolyser components, or chlorine gas which is a safety concern with seawater electrolysis.
“SeaStack is unique in the way it splits water, and the catalysed electrodes are an important part of making the process cost effective. Ours is a very rugged electrolyser; you can put any sort of water in it, rather than just ultra purified water, which mainstream electrolysers rely on,” he adds.
Proving the technology in a port
Demonstration of SeaStack to produce green hydrogen from seawater took place in a shipyard at Portland Harbour. The trial also featured the processing of concentrated brine; an industrial by-product four times saltier than seawater. Future trials could see green hydrogen being used to power a vessel.
“Connected Places Catapult has been a massive help for Latent Drive,” says Joseph. “We demonstrated technology for SeaStack through the Hydrogen Innovation Initiative, and advanced the product from a Technology Readiness Level of four to five.
“This represents a big step,” he adds. “It takes the product from something tested in a laboratory to a system tested in the real world with a real use case, and makes it more interesting for investors and potential customers; de-risking the SeaStack system for future collaborations and larger infrastructure projects.
“The Hydrogen Innovation Initiative was one of the best programmes we have experienced, and the people involved were keen to see the project succeed.”
Latent Drive also received support from the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, which commissioned a report to allow SeaStack to be more easily piloted in test environments.
The initial ambition is to deploy multiple SeaStack units port-side inside a shipping container; producing hydrogen to refuel marine vessels.
A further output being explored involves taking the hydrogen generated from the units and turning it into a liquid fuel such as methanol or ammonia for easier storage on, and for use by, large vessels traveling long distances.
Joining his inspirational father
Joseph is the Technical Director of Latent Drive, which he joined in 2021 a year after the company was founded by his father Frazer.
“Dad was inspirational growing up, as he always chased exciting work,” says Joseph, who remembers his father inventing apparatus including a theme park amusement swing and a ‘fan descender’ designed to replicate a parachute, but using a fan instead.
Joseph studied mechanical engineering at the University of Plymouth and worked on a project to create a bicycle powered submarine; tested against other designs in a swimming pool. His dissertation covered the design of a thermoelectric energy system that captured the breath of divers to generate energy to power sensors on breathing apparatus.
He started working for a wave energy firm in Somerset where he helped design and build a bi-directional waver energy turbine; later joined a composites specialist working on aerospace applications in Oxfordshire; and spent time in electric vehicle design.
Before and during the pandemic he worked for Jaguar Land Rover doing structural analysis in the test house, and then relocated his family to the south coast and joined Latent Drive.
“As with many entrepreneurs, there was definitely an ‘in my kitchen’ period: I remember making catrodes from stainless steel at home, and using a Pyrex jug to measure out potassium hydroxide.”
Latent Drive’s work during the pandemic involved building an ‘oxygen cell’ to purify air for use by hospital ventilators, as conventional oxygen supplies were in high demand.
The devices made use of an electrolyser made from a stainless steel ‘felt’, rather than precious metals, to cut manufacturing costs. “Conventional electrodes were costing around £10,000 a square metre, which made such a device financially unfeasible. As engineers, we wondered how we could fix this.”
When the pandemic eased, the business case for producing pure oxygen reduced, and the case for electrodes made from stainless steel felt grew. This, and a large Government grant for developing catrodes led to the company’s new focus.
Middle East ambitions
Joseph has been developing plans for commercial pilots of the technology with a number of water-starved countries.
In the UK, Joseph predicts the use of electrolysis using wastewater as a feedstock in particular could help to progress hydrogen projects; held up if they cannot get a mains water connection.
“A large part of my job involves reading academic literature to get to the cutting edge of electrolysis technologies; finding out what works and building on that,” he says.
“The priority with our current funding round is to scale production, build a bigger facility and become a profitable company. We intend to scale revenues to above £1 million the second year after closing our funding round.
“Motivations change as you go through life,” adds Joseph, reflecting on what drives his desire as an innovator. “When we first started the company, I was motivated by working on exciting technology.
“But as I’ve got older, and now have a two-year-old daughter, things like the climate crisis become more real. You think about what can be done to improve people’s lives.”
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