Capstone Shifts Strategy to Hydrogen Turbines

 Capstone Green Energy Corp. outlined its organic hydrogen product development goals on Monday.The Van Nuys microturbine and clean energy products manufacturer recently released its first commercially available hydrogen-based combined heat and power turbine, which can safely run on a 10 percent hydrogen and 90 percent natural gas mix. The company is working on getting that up to 30 percent hydrogen and 70 percent natural gas by March of next year, it said in a release.

Don Ayers, senior director of engineering and quality at Capstone Green Energy, said in a statement that natural gas utilities around the world are looking at blending hydrogen into pipelines not just to fuel power plants or industrial processes, but also to serve homes and businesses.

“While early-stage tests are keeping hydrogen concentrations below 20 percent, several utilities hope to carry 100 percent hydrogen in future years as part of the emphasis on finding green replacements for fuel supplies as well as electricity,” Ayers said in the statement.

Capstone also said that it would pursue additional funding opportunities announced by the Department of Energy, state agencies, utilities, and with its industry and academia alliances.This funding would augment internal research and provide money to accelerate development efforts to commercialize the company’s patented hydrogen fuel injector and hydrogen combustion technology as an efficient, reliable, safe and carbon-free power generation solution, Capstone said in its release.

Shares of Capstone (CGRN) closed Monday up 5 cents, or a fraction of a percent, to $8.41 on the Nasdaq, on a day when that market closed up nearly 1 percent.