Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies co-founder Taras Wankewycz has an interesting proposition - he wants people to ‘hack’ his company’s technology.
In simpler terms, he wants to challenge entrepreneurs to take apart his company’s products, which were on display at last month’s Clean Energy Expo Asia 2011 in Singapore, and adapt them for their own uses - an approach called open source innovation. A well-known example of this approach is the way smartphone makers encourage phone users to develop their own phone applications and share them within a user network.
To make it easy for people, the company sells a kit on its website, called the ‘Open source application development kit’ which contains fuel cell components in addition to an Arduino Uno electronics board.
Arduino micro-controller boards are one of the most widely used electronics control devices that people can use to build their own electronics innovations. Software for the boards is available to download for free, and fans of the system have uploaded over 45,000 YouTube videos with information and instructions for different uses.
In a recent interview with Eco-Business, chief marketing officer Mr Wankewycz said this initiative is one of the ways the company is creating a vibrant fuel cell industry.
A French national, Mr Wankewycz worked in business development, research and marketing across Europe and the United States before coming to Asia to work at Eastman Chemical in China. There, he met one of his Horizon co-founders, George Gu.
Horizon’s founders decided to take advantage of the relatively low costs of setting up a business in Asia, and started the company in 2003 with its R&D centre in western Singapore’s Pandan Loop and its manufacturing centre in China.
The company is already leading the industry with its innovative approach to doing business. The firm says that its sales have surpassed its target for the greatest number of fuel cells sold within the industry.
Currently, its offerings include a range of portable chargers, fuel cell packs and fuel cell generators for household and industrial use. The firm also makes a series of science kits that teach children about different renewable energy technologies.
Horizon’s products can all be charged or fuelled using readily-available sources. In the case of the industrial back-up generators - sold as a cheaper, more reliable alternative to diesel generators for low power purposes - the system uses compressed hydrogen tanks that are widely available for industrial uses. Other products, such as an emergency power supply, use refillable cartridges that – unlike batteries – do not lose power when stored on a shelf.
Now with five divisions spread across Asia and, more recently, San Francisco, Horizon has turned its Singapore location into a specialised research and development (R&D) centre for aerospace technology. Fuel cell power packs, charged using portable chemical cartridges, perform three times better than lithium batteries for running the unmanned aerial vehicles used by the military, noted Mr Wankewycz.
The firm’s innovative approach all started with a toy car.
Horizon crafted its business strategy from a run-of-the-mill investor meeting, for which they had built a toy-size model car to demonstrate the technology.
By miniaturising its products, the firm discovered it could create awareness and critical mass for the technology without many of the pitfalls that befall larger projects. Horizon’s products are designed to be used conveniently and safely – since they do not require hydrogen to be transported in its explosive, gaseous form – from day one. By getting the products into everyday use, through hobby shops for instance, Horizon increased public exposure to the technology.
Larger projects, such as fuel cell passenger cars, have so far failed to break into the market, he explained, because there was no affordable, readily available hydrogen fuel supply. The scale of infrastructure needed to support fuel cell vehicles – which would be on par with the current system of petrol stations – cannot be done with government support, he added.
The toy car that Horizon developed to demonstrate the technology of its larger cousins, by contrast, could be quickly displayed on the shelves of stores that sold science kits and model cars, and without the need for an additional fuel source. The car, which comes with a miniature solar panel to charge the fuel cell, is now sold on Amazon.
Its success led it to be named a Time Magazine ‘Best Invention’ in 2006, and it went on to become one of the best-selling fuel cell products on the market, said Mr Wankewycz.
But inventing new products with only 150 employees globally is hard to do, so Horizon’s founders are looking for new ways to innovate.
In addition to the open source innovation it plans to foster, the firm has partnered with independent companies in 25 countries around the world, which now have access to its brand and core technologies. These companies develop the market for Horizon fuel cells for distribution within their own countries, help identify new uses for the technology and create new partnerships.
Mr Wankewycz said that some of those companies undertake R&D to create their own Horizon products, which they can then market through Horizon’s global network.
To succeed in the marketplace, fuel cell products have to perform better and provide cheaper energy than the alternatives, said Mr Wankewycz, who added that the company’s marketing strategy did not focus on the environmental benefits of fuel cells.
He believes that Horizon has nearly solved the cost issue.
Within the next year, Horizon will launch its home countertop refuelling station, which will use electricity to extract hydrogen from water to refuel its fuel cell cartridges. Called ‘Hydrostiks’, the cartridges absorb hydrogen into a metal filling that can be safely transported and contains no hazardous chemicals. For powering personal electronic devices, which is done through a portable charger equipped with USB ports, one Hydrostik holds the energy equivalent of 10 batteries.
Horizon expects to sell millions once the product is officially launched. Initially, the product will be sold in Australia, the Czech Republic and the US, as well as on Amazon.
This version has an electrical plug, but eventually, he said, he hoped to cut the cord and have it run using electricity generated on site through renewable sources. The company plans to develop larger versions to refuel cars in garages, and also for industrial uses.
Mr Wankewycz considers the home power generation a ‘game changer’. “For every commercial hydrogen station that gets built, Horizon can equip hundreds of thousands of homes with hydrogen stations,” he said.
To make hydrogen fuel cell power completely emissions-free, however, the industry will need new innovations in fuel sources.
Horizon’s industrial fuel cell generators require canisters of compressed hydrogen that is usually derived from natural gas, a fossil fuel that, while cleaner and more widely available than oil, still produces greenhouse gas emissions. The water-based fuel cell charging systems do not need natural gas, but they do require electricity which, unless derived from a renewable energy source such as solar or wind, will have a carbon footprint.
Horizon is actively seeking out new partnerships that might lead to carbon-free energy sources.
Earlier this year, technology firm Pilus Energy announced a partnership with Horizon to explore using biogas generated from waste and wastewater to produce hydrogen for fuel cells.
Mr Wankewycz said that this announcement was “only a sign of things to come” and that other innovators will join Horizon to develop additional green hydrogen options, including hydrogen produced as a by-product of artificial photosynthesis.
Some of those innovators may come from the next generation of scientists that Horizon is helping to train. The firm uses its science kits in partnership with multimedia companies to run educational programmes in a growing number of communities around the world. The education programmes, along with national science competitions, are part of a Horizon outreach campaign aimed at helping young scientists understand how different energy technologies fit together.
Mr Wankewycz said that Horizon has a mission to be a world leader in clean technology innovation and education. “Our generation has a limited time to make an impact (on reducing climate change). We need to get the younger generation moving on clean energy technology,” he said.
Horizon’s open attitude towards sharing its technology stands out in a sector notable for problems with intellectual property and competitors copying technology.
But Mr Wankewycz said he is not worried about competitors. He noted that Horizon has established a cost-competitive business model and added that he welcomes competition because he wants to encourage take-up of the technology.
“If we make it easy for people to create fuel cell products, undoubtedly some of them will,” he noted.
