Solving the Hydrogen Storage and Transport Challenge with Natasha Kostenuk, Founder and CEO of Ayrton Energy
Jul 4, 2024
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Natasha Kostenuk, Founder of Ayrton Energy, discusses using Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers to revolutionize hydrogen storage. They cover the journey from oil industry to climate tech, advantages of LOHCs over traditional methods, and potential applications in data centers. Learn about Ayrton Energy's business model, scalability, and aspirations to make hydrogen a prevalent energy source by 2050.
Ayrton Energy's LOHC system simplifies hydrogen storage and transportation by combining it with a liquid carrier.
Natasha Kostanuk transitioned from oil and gas to climate tech, leading Ayrton Energy's innovative hydrogen solutions.
Deep dives
Innovative Storage Solution for Hydrogen Transportation
Developing a technology to store and transport hydrogen efficiently, Ayrton Energy's solution combines hydrogen with a liquid carrier, simplifying its storage and transportation. The technology addresses challenges faced in industries emitting greenhouse gases like shipping, steel, and cement production, where hydrogen usage has been restricted to production sites due to high pressure and low temperature requirements.
Career Transition and Founding Ayrton Energy
Natasha Kostanuk, the CEO, started her career in the oil and gas industry, spending almost two decades in the sector. Motivated by a shift in her company focusing less on R&D, Natasha identified her passion for new technologies and decided to venture into commercializing innovative solutions. Consulting on hydrogen projects led to the inception of Ayrton Energy, focusing on liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) for efficient hydrogen storage.
LOHC Technology and Commercial Growth
Ayrton Energy's LOHC system binds hydrogen to a carrier oil, enabling easy storage and release of hydrogen without high pressure or low temperatures. The company has progressed from lab prototyping to planning pilot projects with local gas utilities, aiming to scale storage capacity from 30 kilograms to three tons per day by 2027. Commercialization plans include licensing models with fuel cell and electrolyzer companies, as well as long-term service contracts with customers.
Vision for Hydrogen Integration and Future Growth
Ayrton Energy envisions hydrogen becoming as prevalent as diesel, with a target of 30% of energy consumption coming from hydrogen by 2050. Balancing technological challenges, team growth, and commercial expansion, the company focuses on enabling widespread adoption of hydrogen across industries, anticipating significant impact in the energy transition landscape.
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.
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.
Hardware to Save a Planet is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.
If you have an interesting hardware solution to the climate crisis and would like the opportunity to share this with our audience, please complete this Guest Application form: https://fame.so/syn
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