UK government invests £4.5m in novel biohydrogen reactor

Hydrogen innovation company Catagen has been awarded £4.9 million ($6.2 million) in funding by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to develop its novel ClimaHtech BIOHGEN Biohydrogen Reactor in Belfast.

During phase one of the project, the prototype Biohydrogen Generator was successfully tested and studied in real-world industrial settings. The funding will enable Catagen to deliver a full-scale demonstrator by 2025, commercialising the technology and ramping up production of biohydrogen.

According to Catagen, they do not use electrolysers, but rather generate green hydrogen using patented recirculating gas reactor technology. Renewable energy powers the ClimaHtech HGEN to produce green hydrogen and the company states their multi-stage thermochemical process splits water in a more energy efficient way than standard methods.

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Catagen’s biohydrogen technology uses a source of waste biomass that is readily available both in the UK and Ireland and does not displace the growing of crops for food.

Dr Andrew Woods, CEO and co-founder of Catagen, said, “This funding award allows us to move into our next phase of development for the ClimaHtech BIOHGEN system, recruiting more engineers as we accelerate our journey to clean and decarbonise the air.

"I’m also pleased to announce that working collaboratively with Joe O’Neill, CEO and his team at Belfast Harbour, we will site the first BIOHGEN system in the Harbour Estate and grow the size of Catagen’s footprint. This provides massive opportunity for the early adoption of low-carbon hydrogen to decarbonise transport or heavy industry at a focal point in Belfast, as part of Belfast Harbour’s Green Port Strategy.”

Besides biohydrogen, Catagen, a spinout business of Queen’s University, is also developing other decarbonisation technologies, with its core business being to provide emissions data to the automotive industry.