HYREF GmbH: Grid Independent and Environment-Friendly Fuel Cell Solutions for...
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HYREF GmbH: Grid Independent and Environment-Friendly Fuel Cell Solutions for Continuous Power Applications

Klemens Höbing CEO & Co-Founder; Andrew Koob, Co-Founder, HYREF GmbHKlemens Höbing CEO & Co-Founder; Andrew Koob, Co-Founder
There are large fuel cell producers in the industry they either focus on bigger projects, that rely on existing infrastructures like natural gas grids and wires or these companies offer backup system that can produce energy only for a limited period of time (up to 72 hours). These aspects restrict organisations from reaching remote locations that require smaller and infrastructure-independent designs as well as continuous energy supply. So far many organisations have made use of diesel generators, however, they have proved to be high maintenance and lead to carbon emissions, which make them unfeasible. The generators also cannot be used in protected areas due to high noise and vibrations and require a lot of diesel. It is here that Germany based HYREF offers unique fuel cell technologies that are grid independent yet environment friendly for continuous energy production to help clients reach out to remote locations. The company’s solution is independent of infrastructural as well as climate conditions and is - free of noise and vibrations suitable to use in any environment providing lasting economic advantages and savings.

Andrew Koob, the co-founder of HYREF, explains that the company strongly stands on two main pillars. Interestingly, the company’s first pillar is that it uses methanol or biomethanol to produce hydrogen as and when required instead of utilising hydrogen directly that helps overcome challenges of storage and logistics. “With a proven life of 20,000 operation hours in a lifetime test with a realistic dynamic load profile, HYREF is now bringing its direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) system to the market. The development and validation of the DMFC system not only shows that this system is suitable for many cases, such as forklift trucks, mobile tower applications, etc., but goes well beyond economic system requirements set by customers,” says Koob.

With HYREF methanol fuel cell technology, clients can implement mobile towers or any other grid-independent application ad-hoc without having to wait for years, providing high value to its customers. The company's solution is flexible and can be applicable everywhere, even in forests and natural reserves. In addition, HYREF’s fuel cell requires minimum space requirements and can easily be moved from one location to the next. The company's technology has helped e.g. Germany's Deutsche Telecom to test a new way of providing continuous CO2 - free electricity to cell towers in a sustainable manner and reducing setup time from years to month's.

The company’s second pillar is a diesel fuel cell, which Koob claims is the world’s first and only functional diesel fuel cell. Again this variant of HYREF’s fuel cell offers all the benefits of the methanol one including higher efficiency without noise and vibrations and more. While the diesel fuel cell was originally developed for the automobile industry, this fuel cell from HYREF can be integrated into nearly any vehicle and vessel, commercial- or special vehicles, high end RV´s or marine sector. One main application however is in the defense sector. HYREF’s unique diesel fuel cell provides the required solution that addresses the challenges many OEM´s are confronted with. Typically, military vehicles have a lot of electrical needs such as sensors and antennas that increases during certain applications. However, the batteries cannot cope with these needs, and the vehicles cannot carry additional batteries due to weight issues. HYREF’s solution allows military personnel to use the diesel on board to run the fuel cell to run the electrical needs. Plus, they need not carry additional cumbersome logistics for energy supply and can easily recharge batteries to run applications for up to days as opposed to hours in case of batteries. Besides three kilowatts of electrical power, the company’s diesel fuel cell also offers seven kilowatts of thermal power, which can be used to control the temperature inside the vehicle for the comforts of soldiers and army men.

HYREF is constantly working toward providing high-quality fuel cells to clients by analysing their needs while being environment friendly. Continuing with the same spirit with an aim to provide true value add to clients with fuel cell technology, HYREF is looking forward to expanding its solutions to other countries.

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Top 10 Fuel Cell Solution Companies in Europe - 2020
HYREF GmbH

Company
HYREF GmbH

Headquarters
Herten, Germany

Management
Klemens Höbing CEO & Co-Founder; Andrew Koob, Co-Founder

Description
Germany based HYREF offers unique fuel cell technologies that are grid independent yet environment friendly for continuous energy production to help clients reach out to remote locations. The company’s solution is independent of infrastructural as well as climate conditions and is - free of noise and vibrations suitable to use in any environment providing lasting economic advantages and savings. The company's solution is flexible and can be applicable everywhere, even in forests and natural reserves. In addition, HYREF’s fuel cell requires minimum space requirements is vandalism protected and can easily be moved from one location to the next