Clean Power Hydrogen (CPH2) expects its first 1MW commercial unit to be installed at a Northern Ireland Water (NIW) site before October this year.

The company said it expects engineering firm Lagan MEICA and consultancy Arup to sign off on factory acceptance testing (FAT) of its first MFE220 unit in April before the unit is shipped to Northern Ireland.

It will mark the first commercial deployment of CPH2’s hydrogen production technology, which unlike alkaline and PEM systems, operates without a physical membrane to separate hydrogen and oxygen.

Instead, it uses fluid dynamics or buoyancy to keep the gases separate, which CPH2 says offers advantages in durability, flexibility, and maintenance.

Once FAT is complete, the electrolyser will undergo repeated site acceptance tests at NIW’s site in Q3, triggering the company’s first commercial revenues.

It follows a pilot 0.5MW unit being installed at NIW’s facility in Belfast.

CPH2 also has contracts to supply three other units to New Zealand-based liquid hydrogen technology firm Fabrum, and Lisheen H2 Energy Park, which also holds a license to manufacture 2GW-worth of the units in Ireland.