We are proud of a lot of things here in Hydrogen Mem-Tech. Our shiny new production facility is just one manifestation of our growth journey and the exciting future we see for our company, technology – and our people.
Pacing forward at high speed is always a good thing, especially if you are trying to make a difference in the future of energy.
With Hydrogen Mem-Tech’s clean, compact, competitive, and fully scalable hydrogen separation technology, we’re on a quest to unlock a future with substantially lower carbon emissions. We are determined to help solve the world’s energy needs by unlocking the potential of hydrogen.
Learning and growing
But a growth journey is also a learning process: What did we do to get this far, what did we learn along the way and how do we keep the pace?
In even fewer words: What’s next for Hydrogen Mem-Tech?
When reflecting upon the start-up years and subsequent scale-up phase of the company, founder and CEO Thomas Reinertsen gets visibly proud:
“I have always said that my best feature is to find great people”, he says.
“We have built a great organisation in a short time, with very adaptable people that have hit our ground running. I think it is a key success factor to recruit from a versatile mix of businesses and industries. Our employees bring with them very valuable knowledge and experience, constantly adding new perspectives, ideas and methods to our product development and manufacturing processes”.
Reinertsen gives a specific example to prove his point:
“I remember very well when we interviewed candidates for supply chain manager. In comes Magnus, with background from the fresh produce department of a grocery chain. In his case presentation, he told the story about the hardest product to move around logistically: New-picked strawberries. A very delicate and vulnerable product, with a very narrow window of logistics to keep them fresh from farm to shelf. Even the weather forecast had to be taken into consideration. It is very interesting, and rewarding, to apply this kind of experience to our world of leaf-thin palladium membranes and hydrogen separators”.
State-of-the-art production
Thanks to this constantly growing staff of versatile expertise, Hydrogen Mem-Tech has made a significant leap as a company. The growth is manifested in multiple ways: The company is ahead of schedule on the initial investment plan stemming from the previous capital raise in May 2022. Next steps are new investments and, hopefully, new milestones.
A key part of the initial investment plan was to substantially expand production capacity. Not just double or triple but multiplying the capacity by 10. This has been achieved through a brand-new manufacturing line in the refurbished factory facility at the Hydrogen Mem-Tech headquarters in Trondheim, Norway.
“We started the planning of the production line in 2021 with a clear vision for the future”, says Hydrogen Mem-Tech’s Chief Operations Officer, Hanne Martinussen.
“Throughout 2022 and 2023 we refurbished the whole production facility inside and outside and procured a lot of complex machinery. The result is a state-of-the-art production facility, 2500 square meters in total, ready to meet the high increasing demands of hydrogen”.
A tour around the facility showcases a lot of important improvements: The handling of the delicate and costly palladium membranes has its designated clean room (think high-tech laboratory and hazmat suits) and a specific robot that takes care of the membrane automation processes. Further down the line of production we find an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) that can lift 16 tons of weight, an important efficiency feature for the manufacturing process.
Stringent health and safety measures have been implemented as well, with a focus on ergonomic design, employee training, and the incorporation of advanced safety protocols.
“The production line has been designed with a keen focus on lean principles to optimize efficiency and reduce waste. We have high focus on streamlining our workflows, reduce unnecessary steps, and enhance the overall flow of production. This not only contributes to maximising capacity. It also ensures a leaner, more agile manufacturing process that adapts to changing demands with ease”, says Martinussen.
Tailor-made solutions
Most of the machinery is tailor-made or modified to fit Hydrogen Mem-Tech’s specific needs. Which is an interesting aspect of the growth journey too, according to CEO Thomas Reinertsen.
“We can hardly rely on any standard machinery. On one hand, this means we must be very patient in the development and implementation phases to get it right. On the other hand, it is a great example of the start-up spirit of our company. We must combine our own creativity and “mad professor” solutions in fruitful collaborations with our hardware partners and vendors”, he explains.
The start-up spirit is still intact in Hydrogen Mem-Tech, even though the company has entered the scale-up level. Reinertsen tells funny stories about employees making 3D prints of prototype components at home, and the time they used the kitchen oven to do some quick membrane research.
“It’s important to cultivate this inventive, playful, fast-paced, and pragmatic approach. We are a serious business working with complex technology to help save the planet, but to attract the best people, we have to offer room to use their expertise in creative ways”.
This is Hydrogen Mem-Tech
- Hydrogen Mem-Tech was founded in 2017 in Norway’s tech capital, Trondheim, coming out of years of research and development on palladium membranes in energy company Reinertsen.
- Our state-of-the-art commercial production facility was completed in 2023.
- We design and produce our compact and cost-effective palladium membrane technology for businesses globally, enabling our clients to extract clean hydrogen from natural and biogases.
- Hydrogen Mem-Tech’s hydrogen separation technology is a clean, compact, and fully scalable alternative to other hydrogen purification solutions.
- All our separators have a unique, ultra-thin palladium membrane, capable of separating ultra-pure hydrogen from all other molecules.
