(NOTE: This article was originally published on Teknovation.biz)
By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA
When you are involved in a disruptive technology that will potentially change the world, one of the greatest challenges is determining where to start.
That’s certainly the case with One Scientific Inc., a Johnson City-based clean tech start-up that has been the subject of several previous articles in teknovation.biz including this initial overview. We caught-up with Jon Barnwell, Co-Founder and Vice President, during a recent visit to Northeast Tennessee.
“One of our biggest challenges has been identifying where we fit into the evolving energy space,” he told us. “We can produce two energy carriers – hydrogen and electricity – with ultra-high efficiency.”
The question becomes what customer segment has the greatest pain and opportunity to gain? It’s a long list, and Barnwell says there is potential to serve them all.
One Scientific is commercializing multiple technologies including a 40-year old cost-effective method for generating renewable hydrogen anywhere in the world where there is access to water. Conceived and built in the 1970s by Michael Redwine, company Founder, the technology is ready for broad commercialization now that One Scientific has combined with another proprietary technology, a new hydrogen fuel cell, which will work to address previous safety concerns.
Yet, the widespread adoption of hydrogen as a mainstream energy carrier has not yet occurred, because it has been expensive to produce and convert to a useful form of energy.
Barnwell underscored that challenge by noting that there are less than 1,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road, most of which are in California. “But that’s about to change,” he says.
At the 2016 “California Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Summit,” stakeholders met to discuss unprecedented attention and activity in the use of hydrogen and fuel cells along with ongoing challenges. Honda Motors proposed that three key developments need to happen for broad consumer adoption of fuel cell vehicles.
Read the full story here.
