When WD HydroTech secured an Innovate UK Smart Grant in 2024, it was more than a funding award. It was an opportunity to prove that years of research, experimentation and determination could become something much bigger. Today, as we complete the programme and prepare for real-world demonstration, it is worth reflecting on how far the journey has taken us.
Before WD HydroTech had a workshop, a demonstrator, or a dedicated team, it was a small group of people working evenings and weekends around other jobs. The company's founders had already spent years developing and refining the concept behind our novel electrolyser technology. Early prototypes were built using simple materials, testing fundamental principles and challenging assumptions about how hydrogen production systems could be designed. The work was promising, but there was a limit to what could be achieved through self-funded development.
Moving from proof of concept to a commercially relevant system would require dedicated facilities, specialist equipment, engineering resource and independent validation. Like many deep-tech businesses, we faced a familiar challenge. The technology was too early for most investors, yet significant development was still needed before commercial deployment.
Innovate UK provided a bridge across that gap.
The Smart Grant programme is one of the UK's most competitive innovation funding mechanisms. Applications are assessed not only on technical innovation, but also on market opportunity, commercial viability, economic impact and the ability of the team to deliver. For WD HydroTech, securing the award represented external validation of something we had believed for several years. That there was a genuine opportunity to improve how green hydrogen is produced. The award recognised both the potential of the technology and the strength of the team behind it.
For the founders, it provided confidence that experienced external assessors could see the same opportunity that had motivated the company since its earliest days.
For the business, it unlocked the next phase of development.
One of the first changes enabled by the project was simple but significant. We moved from a garage to a dedicated engineering facility. The Advanced Manufacturing Park Technology Centre in South Yorkshire became the new home of WD HydroTech's development programme and allowed the team to focus full-time on advancing the technology.
The grant enabled the founders to commit themselves fully to the business, accelerating progress that would otherwise have taken many more years to achieve. It also allowed us to strengthen our engineering capability, establish manufacturing relationships and begin building the wider ecosystem required to bring a new energy technology to market. What had started as a promising concept was becoming a company.
The purpose of the project was straightforward. Could we take an early-stage concept and prove that it could scale? Over the course of the programme, the answer became increasingly clear.
The project successfully validated the core stack architecture, scaling from a small laboratory-scale system to a significantly larger platform while maintaining performance characteristics. Hydrogen production increased from approximately 0.3 kg per day to 9.5 kg per day, while pressure capability increased from ambient conditions to 10 bar operation. The programme also delivered improvements in manufacturability, sealing systems, balance-of-plant design and repeatability of assembly.
Perhaps most importantly, the project helped reduce technical risk.
Challenges that once existed as theoretical concerns became engineering problems that could be tested, measured and solved. That process remains at the heart of innovation.
Innovation rarely happens in isolation. Throughout the project we worked alongside manufacturing partners, technical specialists and potential end users who helped shape both the technology and our route to market. Relationships with organisations including RexRob Engineering, Northern Gas Networks, ORE Catapult and Peak Energy have helped ensure that development remains grounded in real-world requirements rather than laboratory assumptions. These collaborations have strengthened not only the technology itself, but also our understanding of how hydrogen systems will be deployed in practice.
One of the most valuable outcomes of the project was not technical. It was commercial.
When the project began, our focus was largely on improving sustainability and reducing the cost of hydrogen production. Those objectives remain central to our mission. However, through conversations with customers, infrastructure operators, utilities and industrial users, we identified another powerful driver of demand.
Energy resilience.
Today, many organisations are looking not only for ways to decarbonise, but also for ways to improve energy security, reduce dependence on external fuel supplies and make better use of locally generated renewable power. The project helped us refine our strategy around these emerging market needs and focus on distributed hydrogen production systems in the sub-500 kW market. This insight continues to shape our roadmap today.
At the start of the Innovate UK project, WD HydroTech had a proof-of-concept prototype and a belief that a different approach to hydrogen production was possible. Today, we have a validated technology platform, manufacturing partners, demonstration sites, growing commercial interest and a clear pathway towards deployment. The journey is far from complete.
But thanks to the support of Innovate UK and the dedication of our team and partners, we have transformed an idea into something tangible. From a garage prototype to a commercial demonstrator.
And this is only the beginning.
