HySiLabs: the alternative hydrogen supply
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Everyone (or almost everyone) knows that as a source of low carbon energy, hydrogen has great potential in cities of the future. And yet, its use is still very limited. The issue: its gaseous form, which makes it difficult to transport and store. Far from being content with this inevitability, Vincent Lome and Pierre-Emmanuel Casanova were just university students when they made a discovery that will help lift this barrier: by carrying hydrogen with a liquid vector, we can deploy it more easily (and over long distances!), we avoid the dangers of gas and we get rid of high pressure storage bottles. Thus, after 10 years of R&D, they create HySiLabs, a disruptive technology that fully meets the challenges of the energy transition.
"Winning an EDF Pulse award is getting recognition from a great leading group of the energy sector and marvelous prospects for the future."
Pierre-Emmanuel Casanova - President of HySiLabs
It is this major innovation that the Grand Jury wished to award during the 5th edition of the EDF Pulse Awards in 2018. HySiLabs, winner in the “Smart City” category, marks a turning point for hydrogen to take off. Combined with a fuel cell, it could serve as an environmentally friendly “fuel” for electric vehicles and bicycles, or provide heat and electricity to eco-neighbourhoods in the cities of tomorrow. And this is not just a dream: following a fundraising earning 2 million euros in May 2018, the HySiLabs process should soon be industrialized and marketed to major players in energy and mobility. In short, a liquid affair that is quite solid to develop green energies!
This Landes-based team combines its collective expertise in emergency medicine, software architecture, IoT and electronics to achieve a common goal: to treat victims more quickly using new technologies.
4 questions to HySiLabs
My business partner Vincent and I are passionate about innovation and the energies of tomorrow. During a scientific collaboration Vincent had the opportunity to collaborate with a research team that had accidentally discovered a new liquid used to transport hydrogen. Convinced that this breakthrough technology would play a major role in the deployment of more environmentally friendly solutions, we decided to create HySiLabs to bring this liquid hydrogen carrier breakthrough technology to the market. 
To overcome the last remaining technological barriers and strengthen our team, we plan to recruit 8 people in 2018, and we have just completed a 2 million euro fund-raising round! It is now up to us to revolutionise the world of hydrogen transportation and, more generally, the development of green energies. 
We travelled all over Europe and even Asia in search of partners, on such a small budget that we stayed in local people’s homes to save money and pay for entry to various trade fairs - a unique and enriching experience! 
Hydrogen is now seen as a key element in the energy transition, but its use remains limited due to its specific storage and transportation requirements and needs. HySiLabs's innovative solution completely overcomes this problem by means of to its liquid carrier loaded with H2. This innovation has considerable advantages in terms of safety and efficiency for the deployment of hydrogen solutions in the cities of the future. These unique features make HySiLabs a key stakeholder in the Smart City by facilitating the adoption of low-carbon solutions and thus helping to reduce CO2 emissions linked to transport and industry by 70 mt per year.