Fully clean and green system for hydrogen production, additionally co-generating oxygen, electricity, and heat.
SoHHytec’s product, the Arb system, is based on our proprietary artificial photosynthesis technology, which is mimicking trees.
Our patented product ‘Arb’ comprises of a solar parabolic dish (i.e. a sunlight concentrator) which concentrates the sunlight onto our pioneering photo-electrochemical device (sitting at the focal spot) which uses the incoming photons to split the water into highly pure hydrogen and oxygen, and generating heat at the same time.
Arb is a fully automated system requiring minimal to no maintenance and has a lifetime of 25 years (thanks to our proprietary system controller). Arb can be operated with fully solar energy and additionally with off-peak hour grid electricity to have 24-hour continuous production.
SoHHytec’s Arbs are deployed as a garden/forest of artificial trees and offer world’s best cost-effectiveness, highest output per acre of land and best co-generation potential.
Arb uses only solar energy and water as the input to produce Hydrogen, Oxygen, Electricity, and Heat all of which are utilized (or stored) in a completely non-polluting way. Arb saves ~15 tons of CO2 emission per ton of produced H2. Arb’s hydrogen has no fossil fuel price dependency.
Arb has solar to hydrogen efficiency of ~25% (double than competing commercial solution of photovoltaic + electrolyzer systems), solar to electricity efficiency of ~36% (double than existing conventional solar panels), and overall system efficiency (accounting also for heat) of ~80% making it highly lucrative in varying application fields.
Arb is designed to be modular. And Arb / multiple Arbs based farms can be deployed to cater to the needs of a small industry and even for very large industries or commercial/residential complexes.
Arb is conveniently installed at the location of fuel or power usage i.e. at/nearby the customers’ site of utilization. Hence, it does not require costly, polluting, and lossy transport of fuel or power over long distances.
Arb produces Hydrogen and Oxygen with a purity of >99.99% and its output gases are suitable for direct utilization in ultrapure processes (e.g. fuel cell and medical purposes). This helps get rid of additional purification equipment and costs that are inherent in fossil fuel-based hydrogen.
Arb cogenerates fuel (hydrogen & oxygen) and power (electricity & heat) and the ratio between the fuel and electricity is freely tunable as per the needs of the customer while always co-producing heat. Arb can be operated both with sunlight (during the day) and any kind of additional electricity production (during the night or cloudy periods) providing continuous and reliable production. This allows Arb to also act as a Power-to-Gas system during the night hence allowing smart-stabilisation of the grid.
Arb incorporates SoHHytec’s patented system controller which alleviates the negative effects of solar intermittency on the system and increases the durability and lifetime of the system. Arb has 25+ years of life with none to minimal maintenance required.
Arb stores solar energy in the form of high energy density fuel i.e. compressed Hydrogen (and oxygen) gas in cylinders, which lasts for weeks-to-months without any leakage (unlike batteries) and has no polluting waste.
Arb is a fully automated system. Once we program it as per the customers' needs, it requires no user intervention. It has an automated periodic cleaning system that can harvest rainwater to periodically clean the Arb’s reflectors. Arb can operate under a variety of weather conditions including low irradiation conditions, high wind conditions, hot or cold weathers, snow or desert conditions etc.
Based on the cutting-edge concentration technology found in the Arb, the Electrical Arb focuses only on electricity and heat co-generation.
Like the ARB, the Electrical Arb boasts remarkable efficiency above 36% and minimal land usage, providing a more cost-effective approach to pure electricity generation.
This solution can be deployed as a stand-alone solution for securing the provision of electricity and heat but can also be integrated with any other solution from our portfolio.
SoHHytec is developing a Reversible Arb. Leveraging on the inherent advantages of the Arb, the Reversible Arb adds the possibility of two-way generation.
The Reversible Arb can work as the original Arb generating solar Hydrogen when required but then it can also use this Hydrogen for Electricity generation directly on site, without extra components or cost.
This development is the result of an ongoing collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
No. We do not provide single Arb, but always develop a Garden/Farm of multiple Arbs.
No, our technology is not based on a Thermal approach like thermochemical water splitting. We produce Hydrogen through our own developed and patented Photoelectrochemical process.
You would need roughly 9 kg of water per every kg of hydrogen produced.
A 9-meter Arb can produce up to 10 kg of hydrogen per day, a 13-meter Arb up to 20 kg of hydrogen per day whereas a 25-meter Arb can produce up to 80 kg of hydrogen per day.
Arb is designed to be modular. And Arb / multiple Arbs based farms can be deployed to cater to the needs of a small industry and even for very large industries/residential complexes.
Yes, the Arb can use any source of electricity available.
The Arb only blocks 10% of the land for its operation. The remaining 90% is completely free and safe to co-utilize in other activities.
The minimum surface for installing a single arb is around 65 m². Commercial projects usually have land requirements in the range of acres/hectares (which fully depends on the needs and local operational needs of customer).
They are not blinding at all. During operation, no glare or reflection will be generated from the concentrators.
Our system follows the applicable local regulations for Hydrogen-generating systems as well as all engineering good practices to ensure a safe and reliable installation.
