Former Chief Scientist joins "era-defining" Australian hydrogen company

Electrolyser startup Hysata has announced former Australian Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel as chair of the company’s Global Advisory Council.

Finkel was Chief Scientist for five years until the end of 2020, with current Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley his replacement, and has a background including a PhD in electrical engineering, in entrepreneurship, and as a neuroscientist.

“Green hydrogen fills the gaps where electricity falls short,” said Finkel in a statement on Monday, adding that the gas could be used in transport “to power trains and trucks and long-distance aeroplanes, or it could be as a chemical to replace metallurgical coal in steelmaking and fertiliser production.”

“The challenge is to minimise the waste when using precious renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen.”

The former Chief Scientist helped develop a National Hydrogen Strategy for the previous federal government, and served as Special Adviser to it on Low Emissions Technology.

Finkel joins Hysata during an eventful year for the University of Wollongong spinout. In March its team published a paper in Nature Communications showing its capillary-fed electrolysis cells “delivering 95 percent overall system efficiency”.

According to the company – which recently closed an oversubscribed $42.5 million Series A round – it is “on a clear pathway” to commercialisation and gigawatt-scale output by 2025.

Finkel is tasked with hand-picking “a team of international experts in science, technology and policy to make up the remaining council positions” on the advisory council, which will help guide Hysata’s strategy for delivering its technology globally into various industry sectors.

“We have been making tremendous progress on our technology, building our team and interacting with hundreds of major customers globally,” said Hysata’s CEO, Paul Barrett.

“The next phase of work involves scaling up our technology and deployment into pilot projects as we ready the company to get to commercial scale. We look forward to working with Dr Finkel to deliver our era-defining electrolyser technology.”

Picture: supplied

Further reading

HYDROGEN STARTUP ANTICIPATES 30 NEW HIRES OVER NEXT 12 MONTHS

ELECTROLYSER MANUFACTURER HYSATA CLOSES $42.5 MILLION SERIES A ROUND

ALAN FINKEL: HOW A LATE-NIGHT PHONECALL IN 2016 TRIGGERED ‘INCREDIBLE PROGRESS’ ON CLEAN ENERGY