PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp. (NEO:MOVE.AQN, OTC:MOTNF), which is focused on installing hydrogen production and dispensing fueling infrastructure in the US together, has provided an update on its activities and those of its subsidiary PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp.
In conjunction with the efforts of its technology partner T2M Global to validate PowerTap’s Gen3 Modular Hydrogen Production and Dispensing Units (MHPDU) technology and provide final engineering toward deployment of the units, the company said it is exploring implementing digital twins for each MHPDU deployment “to considerably enhance remote monitoring and testing capabilities further advancing PowerTap at the leading edge of hydrogen fuel station technology”.
In a statement, PowerTap said digital twin implementation, as a part of a company-wide digitization/automation strategy, will enable it to completely automate the remote monitoring of each unit deployment during station operation and enhance the ability to rapidly respond in real-time to operational irregularities.
It also provides the company the ability to speed deployment of future design improvements and iterations of PowerTap on-site hydrogen production units as it deploys across North America and beyond.
READ: PowerTap Hydrogen Capital reveals positive developments for its Gen3 onsite blue hydrogen technology
The company highlighted an article by CNBC, published on March 3, 2023, which referenced a comment in a company press release dated February 13, 2023, by PowerTap’s USA subsidiary CEO, Salim Rahemtulla, regarding the company’s use of renewable natural gas (RNG) in its production of carbon neutral to carbon negative hydrogen.
“The environmental groups say that using fossil fuels to power an electrolyzer to make hydrogen is actually much worse for the climate than today’s method of using natural gas in a steam methane reformer (SMR) process,” CNBC wrote.
In today’s press release, PowerTap explained that 95% to 99% of hydrogen is currently produced using steam methane reformation, although this does not include the capture of CO2, at large production plants and transported via heavy-duty trucks, which is costly and has a high carbon intensity (carbon intensity relative to hydrogen production is total carbon emissions per unit of hydrogen produced).
The PowerTap Gen3 MHPDU, on the other hand, is on-site hydrogen production with CO2 capture and avoids the heavy-duty transport component, which eliminates the carbon intensity and is considerably less costly, the company said.
In today's statement, Rahemtulla noted: “This perspective drives home PowerTap’s assertion that its hydrogen production method is superior to green hydrogen (using electrolysis) produced in California using electricity from the electricity grid, due to a lack of a green electricity grid across most of the USA and high electricity costs. This perspective also further solidifies the importance of PowerTap’s Gen3 onsite blue hydrogen SMR-based technology, especially due to its use of low to negative carbon intensity (CI) RNG feedstock to produce H2 and its avoidance of high CI transport of H2.”
Update to Sponsorship Agreement
On May 27, 2021, PowerTap announced that it had entered into a sponsorship agreement with Steinbrenner Racing LLC and DeFrancesco Motorsports Inc as a primary sponsor on the No. 29 INDYCAR entry piloted by Devlin DeFrancesco, until December 31, 2023.
As consideration for being a primary sponsor the company agreed to pay a sponsorship fee equal to US$2 million per year during the three year term.
The sponsorship fee is payable in common shares in the capital of the company. The parties to the sponsorship agreement have agreed to issuing a further 20,000,000 common shares of PowerTap Hydrogen Capital at a deemed price of $0.10 per common share in the name of DeFrancesco Motorsports and 10,000,000 common share purchase warrants in the name of DeFrancesco Motorsports, each warrant exercisable for a period of up to one year from the date of grant to purchase one additional common share in the capital of the company at an exercise price of $0.10 per common share.
The sponsorship shares and warrants are subject to the statutory four-month and one-day hold period.
PowerTap is commercializing its third-generation blue hydrogen product that will focus on the refueling needs of the automotive and long-haul trucking markets that lack hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com