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Flexergy (2023-24)

Flexergy (2023-24)
Flexergy (2023-24)

Flexergy Case Study (2023-2024)

ETP has worked with Scottish SME, Flexergy, on a few projects. Our work included helping the company access project funding and facilitating relationships with others in the hydrogen industry.

The Flexergy case study demonstrates the value of working with ETP and our member universities to help energy projects become viable and ensure products and services are created that support the energy transition to net zero.

Flexergy

Flexergy specialises in the development and manufacture of an integrated suite of products that enable high-pressure hydrogen gas to be compressed, stored, and transported more safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.

This includes static and mobile hydrogen storage tanks of different sizes (storage volumes) that can be deployed above and below ground at strategic locations (e.g., Ports).

The ETP Industry Engagement Fund

ETP’s Industry Engagement Fund (through the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Innovation Programme) supported the first two early-stage product development projects of Scottish SME Flexergy Ltd.

The ETP early-stage support opened a tremendous business opportunity and has the potential to become a game-changing technology ushering in the hydrogen age at scale.

The first £10k grant supported collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, to analyse the thermodynamic behaviour of the system. Strathclyde University established an end-to-end energy balance as well as computational unit models for the thermodynamics of the compression process and assessed the energy requirements for the proposed transfer process.

The project confirmed that Flexergy’s technology is 30-40% more energy efficient than the current state-of-the-art hydrogen compression and transfer technology.

Further Developments with Follow-On Grant

The follow-on £30k grant, for a project with the University of St. Andrews, identified ideal fluids, structural materials and engineering designs for large-scale, low-cost, ultra-efficient hydrogen compression. It provided the external validation needed to enable investors and potential collaborators to make firm commitments to create robust product designs and marketable products (protected by patents) that service the needs of the hydrogen storage and transportation markets.

Outcomes of the Flexergy Project

The Flexergy system will make it easy for hydrogen project developers to employ advanced gas handling and operations techniques.

Flexergy’s technology, when embedded into tanks and tube trailers, will result in a much smaller number of tube trailers being able to deliver a set amount of hydrogen gas. This means less capital expense, operational cost, and turnaround time (loading and unloading pressure vessels). It also means less space will be needed for tube trailer parking, and will result in fewer vehicles on the road, reducing congestion and contributing to more projects becoming viable sooner.