Eerbeek-based XINTC raises new funding from investors. The company wants to use the money to further scale up production of its electrolysers for producing green hydrogen.
XINTC develops and builds scalable and modular electrolysers aimed at producing green hydrogen. Hydrogen is green if renewable energy has been used in its production.
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gas
Electrolysis is a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. This involves dipping two electrodes into the water: a cathode and an anode. An electrical voltage between these two electrodes causes positively charged particles to move towards the cathode, while negatively charged particles move towards the anode. This allows hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to be separated.
The Netherlands has long been committed to the production and use of hydrogen. A key challenge here is the sustainable production of hydrogen. XINTC wants to contribute to this and focuses mainly on producing green hydrogen using solar and wind energy. At the same time, however, if necessary, the electrolyser can also run on regular electricity supplied through the grid, thus producing grey hydrogen.
Tuned to use solar and wind energy
XINTC's electrolyser differs from many other variants. For instance, the device is made entirely of plastic and contains no critical materials. The design of the electrolyser is also tailored to the 'dynamic nature' of solar and wind energy.
It involves a so-called 'multi-core' electrolyser. In practice, this means that several gas modules work together. The aim here is to make the conversion of electric current into hydrogen molecules as efficient and sustainable as possible.
Scalable
With its modular approach, XINTC aims to offer a solution that grows with companies. This allows parties to start relatively small and scale up their hydrogen production if demand increases. Because the company works with standardised electrolysis modules, it is possible to increase capacity incrementally; each module provides a capacity of 5 to 6 kW. Thus, hydrogen production is scalable at any time.
XINTC reports that thanks to the use of engineering plastics and an advanced assembly technique, the electrolyser is liquid- and gas-tight, increasing the safety of the unit. In addition, each electrolyser is equipped with a Module Management Control, which optimises process management and monitoring. This management module ensures that the electrolyser always performs at optimum efficiency, regardless of the workload.
Wilko van Kampen, CEO of XINTC, explains: "With a fluctuating power supply, smart software ensures that hydrogen production always takes place under the most favourable system conditions. In fact, the electrolyser 'dances' with the fluctuating power supply. Furthermore, the capacity of the electrolyser can easily be expanded by adding extra system modules. But also the gas purity, current source and output pressure can always be adjusted by adding additional system components. All parts of the XINTC electrolyser are standardised components that allow you to put together a system that exactly meets the customer's requirements; they are like LEGO blocks."
Decentralised hydrogen production
"With our systems, you produce hydrogen decentrally, unlike existing electrolysers which mostly produce hydrogen at a central location and depend on a constant energy supply for their performance," Van Kampen said.
Several parties are investing in XINTC. These include ION+2, a fund aimed at innovative entrepreneurs in the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. The resources of the ION+2 fund come from the European Union's REACT-EU programme. A consortium led by the Goeie Grutten Impactfonds is also putting money into the Eerbeek company, as well as two private investors. One of these private investors comes from Oost NL's Business Angel Network.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Image: Rony Michaud via Pixabay
