How Ayrton Energy is Solving the Hydrogen Storage and Transport Challenge

Welcome to this special episode of Hardware to Save a Planet. Joining us today is Natasha Kostenuk, Founder and CEO of Ayrton Energy, a company with the solution to overcome the traditional Hydrogen storage and transportation challenges with their Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) invention. 

Join us as we discuss the importance of hydrogen as an energy source for decarbonizing global industries. Natasha walks us through her journey from the oil and gas industry to the climate tech space. We delve into Ayrton Energy’s innovative solution using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) to overcome storage and transportation challenges in the hydrogen industry and the advantages over traditional storage methods. We also touch on Ayrton Energy’s business model, scalability, and potential applications in data centers.

About Natasha

Natasha is a Professional Engineer with 20+ years of experience in the energy service industry. In addition to founding Ayrton, she worked as a strategic advisor for two technology companies, from Bootstrap to $40M+ evaluation. She has built her career around bridging technology and business, working in the early stages of many new technologies.

She is self-motivated and has experience in diverse roles involving growing businesses, entrepreneurial ventures, technical sales, project management, and operations. Natasha is adept at fostering strong relationships with customers, peers, vendors, and industry partners. She continuously strives to be a leader who motivates and builds confidence through coaching and mentorship.

Key takeaways

• 10:41 – How hydrogen can bridge the gap in energy demand: Natasha explains how she is not a founder who insists everything must move to hydrogen; we need a balance of energy sources, including electrification and hydrogen. Electrification faces challenges due to inadequate infrastructure, requiring billions of dollars in infrastructure and energy generation upgrades. Upgrading densely populated areas is particularly difficult and expensive. While some upgrades are happening, they will only meet some energy needs, creating a gap. Hydrogen can help fill this gap, while supporting Hydrogen adoption goals in countries like Canada, the US, and parts of Europe

• 12:53 – Challenges in storing and transporting hydrogen: Hydrogen, in its natural state, has a low density and doesn’t compress well, requiring high pressure or cryogenic liquefaction for transportation. Typically stored between 200-700 bar pressure, it achieves a density of 20-40 kg/m³ at 300-700 bar, which is relatively low. Liquefying hydrogen increases density to about 70 kg/m³ but requires cooling to near absolute zero, consuming significant energy and causing a 1% daily boil-off loss—both compressed and liquefied hydrogen need specialized storage and transportation equipment, which is expensive and involves safety concerns. Hydrogen’s interaction with metals can cause embrittlement, necessitating special materials to prevent leaks and ensure safety.

• 15:18 – A closer look at liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs): Natasha explains that hydrogen is chemically added to carrier oil for storage and transportation and then removed at the point of use. The carrier oil in the system is then recycled repeatedly. Unlike traditional thermocatalysis, which uses high pressure and temperatures (350-400°C) to store and release hydrogen, we employ electrochemical reactors at low temperatures (60-80°C). This process releases pure hydrogen without needing further purification and allows for continuous reuse of the carrier oil. Instead of developing a special molecule, the solution uses a mixture of readily available commodity products, avoiding the scaling barriers of specialty chemistry. She mentions that the system scales similarly to fuel cells and electrolyzers, potentially reaching megawatt or gigawatt sizes.