cryptogon.com

Founded in 2008 by renowned chemist and professor Daniel Nocera, Sun Catalytix aimed to develop an artificial form of photosynthesis to harvest hydrogen from solar energy. The implications were big. Producing hydrogen without fossil fuels on a large scale would revolutionize energy production and is considered a kind of holy grail of renewables. Currently most companies make hydrogen by splitting carbon dioxide molecules, a costly and polluting process.

For years Sun Catalytix worked on a catalyst that would use sunlight to split water molecules and harvest hydrogen. The company received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy in 2010 to help fund the research. In 2011, the company unveiled a sample device made of a solar cell, cobalt and nickel that could split water and harvest hydrogen in a fuel cell. But the company soon realized it would take many more years and a lot more investment capital to bring the technology to market. Sun Catalytix CEO Mike Decelle told MIT Technology Review last year that raising the needed capital for an untested technology like this is “a tough pitch.”

So Sun Catalytix put its “artificial leaf” development on hold and focused on so-called flow batteries that can store solar and wind energy, or provide multiple hours of backup power to buildings in the event of a power outage. The company claims it can deliver one megawatt of power for up to four to six hours using a battery roughly the size of a shipping container at a cost significantly lower than the current long-lasting batteries used in municipal power grids.