The hydrogen dwarf went out into the world from the Czech Republic. He’s doing well against the Goliaths – Seznam Zpravy

Leancat, the hydrogen startup of Jablotron owner Dalibor Dědek, entered foreign markets some time ago by offering test stations for fuel cells. A year ago, it expanded exports with its own electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen. The demand for them is growing, but the founder of Lenacat, Vladimír Matolín, is preparing another new project: he wants to build a hydrogen distribution network.

Leancat was created in 2016, when Professor Matolín from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University acquired Dědek as an investor who would help bring the results of academic research to the market.

The main goal was to monetize Matolín’s patent for an economical catalyst for fuel cells. This has not been successful yet, but the company started production of test systems, to which it added electrolysers last year. Thanks to this, it is growing, even if it is not yet bringing stunning profits.

“In recent years, Leancat has been operating with a positive zero, we invest most of the funds in further development,” adds Matolín. Since last year, Leancat has doubled its workforce to 30 people, mostly highly qualified process engineers, programmers and developers.

In addition to the original premises in the Jablotron Office Park in Prague’s Holešovice, part of the activities were moved to the premises of the former Bižuterie business, which Jablotron owns in Jablonec nad Nisou.

Production of hydrogen equipment for Leancat is provided by the Interkov factory in Benešov nad Ploučnicí in Děčínsk. “We have no ambition to build our own factory, it is better to entrust the production to people who have experience in this,” says the head of Leancat, who left the university last year and devotes himself fully to business.

“We devoted many years to the development of test stations, today we are among the manufacturers of the most sophisticated systems. We are among the most expensive on the market, yet our export turnover is growing and we sell to important customers. The test system was ordered from us, for example, by the British National Metrology Institute or the university in Chemnitz, Germany. Now, for example, we have a customer from the USA who wants to integrate our stations into his robotic line for the production of fuel cells,” explains Matolín.

Leancat specializes in systems for testing smaller cells up to 50 kilowatts. “We do not yet cover the segment of large cells for trains, buses or trucks. The development of a station for testing a 150-kilowatt cell, for example, will cost a lot of money. We would like to go down this path as well, but it still takes time,” adds Matolín.

At first, Leancat test units were sold to research facilities and universities. Interest is now starting to pick up from the nascent hydrogen industry. Today, manufacturing companies purchase about four-fifths of Leancat’s test stations sold, mostly for their research and development departments.

This year, Leancat will reach 50 to 60 million crowns in sales of test stations, and further growth is expected next year.

“We manage to defeat even the world’s largest supplier of Greenlight in tenders. We cannot talk about them as competitors, they are Goliath, we are a dwarf against them. But we often win in direct clashes,” Matolín boasts. Canada’s Greenlight has been offering systems for testing batteries, energy storage or fuel cells since the early 1990s and is a global leader in this specific field.

As the hydrogen industry takes off, the demand for electrolysers also begins to rise. The first commercial hydrogen production plant in our country was recently launched at its solar power plant in Napajedlí by Solar Global, and other projects are in the pipeline.

“From the October questionnaire survey on planned electrolytic hydrogen production projects, it emerged that more than six companies are already at the final investment decision stage. The largest project has a size of 30 megawatts, most projects aim for hundreds of kilowatts or units of megawatts,” says Czech Hydrogen Technology Platform analyst Jan Sochor.

In the Czech Republic, Leancat is the only one that produces electrolyzers. Similar to the test stations, they are currently focused on smaller devices with an output of up to five kW, which can, however, be scaled to larger units. “In modular systems, we cover the range up to roughly 50 kW, but we aim for 500 kW to one megawatt,” says Matolín. Leancat’s modular electrolyzers are about 67 percent efficient.

Leancat started selling its electrolyzers at the end of last year, and has so far delivered around five dozen of them to customers. This year’s sales from their sale will be roughly ten million. However, according to Matolín, sales are growing exponentially, the company has negotiated deals for tens to hundreds of additional pieces, and its boss expects a relatively quick increase in sales to one hundred million a year. So far, Leancat has sold the most electrolyzers to the USA, the Netherlands, Canada and Germany, and a few to China as well.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by the end of this year, electrolyzers with a combined output of about three gigawatts will be installed around the world, roughly four times more than last year. “The good news is that Europe is currently responsible for around 30 percent of global production capacity,” says Jan Sochor.

The leading manufacturers of electrolyzers include major industrial players: the American companies Cummins and Plug Power, the German companies Bosch, thyssenkrupp nucera and Siemens Energy, the Belgian John Cockerill and the Norwegian NEL Hydrogen.

“European manufacturers are already warning today that the European market can be overwhelmed by cheaper electrolyzers, especially alkaline ones, from China. And this despite their significantly worse properties, especially in terms of efficiency and durability. Europe is trying not to end up with electrolyzers in the same way as with batteries or photovoltaic panels, i.e. so that the majority of global production capacity does not move to China,” adds Sochor.

According to him, the trend is to increase the power of electrolyzers, the sold devices are on the order of one hundred megawatts. “Today, it is relatively difficult to find smaller 10- or 100-kilowatt electrolyzers. They are mostly sold in megawatt units, the supply of smaller electrolyzers is not interesting for established international companies. At the same time, many companies around the world first want to touch hydrogen and only then proceed to its industrial production. Leancat’s tactic is interesting precisely because it fills a space where larger manufacturers no longer want to supply,” explains Sochor.

There are also small kilowatt electrolysers on the market today, for example from the German company Enapter. “However, it offers AEM (Anion Exchange Membrane) technology, while Leancat, according to our information, specializes in a slightly different PEM technology, which is more expensive, but more established and should last longer,” adds the hydrogen technology expert.

Professor Matolín has one more business plan. At the end of the year, he wants to quit as head of Leancat, his son and minority partner Jakub will take over the management of the company. On the one hand, Matolín senior wants to focus more on development in Leancat than dealing with clients, and on the other hand, he is founding a new company, HDISYS, focused on the distribution of hydrogen.

According to Jan Sochor, distribution is one of the biggest obstacles to the developing green hydrogen market. “A functional gas pipeline transportation system is not expected until around 2030. And the conversion of part of today’s distribution system to pure hydrogen is more likely only in the course of the next decade,” he said.

Today, hydrogen is thus transported by special conveyors for steel pressurized gas cylinders, so-called trailers. According to Sochor, however, this will pay off at a maximum distance of 200 kilometers. The operators of the planned hydrogen refueling stations for vehicles will mainly need to transport hydrogen in relatively small volumes. It is precisely this service that HDISYS targets.

Matolín wants manufacturers to store hydrogen in containers with composite bottles, which are lighter than steel bottles and can withstand greater pressure. “There would then be no need to build a special hydrogen storage facility for the electrolyzer at, for example, a solar power plant. The hydrogen would be pumped directly into containers in which it would be transported to the customer and which would be easier to handle. We could manufacture hydrogen containers ourselves and either arrange their transport ourselves or sell and rent them to customers,” says Matolín.

The birth of the hydrogen industry and the energy industry are still driven by subsidies, without which projects for the production of green hydrogen and industrial applications are still unthinkable. Leancat does not receive public support for production, but its customers’ projects usually rely on it. Until now, Matolín has not ruled out interest in subsidy support for the starting HDISYS project.