Australian electrolyser maker Hysata has launched an AI-powered manufacturing platform designed to squeeze more output from existing factory capacity, commissioning its first production line at its Port Kembla headquarters.

 

The company says HysataFab can produce up to 15 per cent more product from the same physical production line, using artificial intelligence, robotics, real-time monitoring and inline quality testing to continuously optimise manufacturing.

 

The launch comes alongside a $49 million Australian Government grant to Hysata through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) under the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Industry and Innovation and Science Minister Tim Ayres announced the funding during a visit to the site.

 

Hysata's Port Kembla facility spans 8,500 square metres and represents an investment of close to $100 million. The site will ultimately house three production lines covering electrode, membrane, and cell and stack manufacturing.

 

The electrode line is now operational, while the remaining lines are due to follow. Initial production capacity is 50MW a year on a single-shift basis, with continuous operations expected to lift capacity to 200MW annually.

 

That would make the facility the largest electrolyser manufacturing plant in the southern hemisphere, according to Hysata.

 

The company says HysataFab is designed as a repeatable manufacturing template that can be deployed elsewhere as demand grows, potentially supporting gigawatt-scale production.

 

Hysata Chief Executive Officer Paul Barrett said the company's focus was on industrial applications where hydrogen is difficult to replace.

 

“The hype around hydrogen has come out of the market, and that is healthy. We never chased it,” Barrett said. “Hydrogen does not need to compete with electrification. You use it where you need a molecule, not an electron. In steel, in fertiliser and in refining, there is no substitute for it.

 

“The world already uses more than a hundred million tonnes of hydrogen a year, nearly all of it made from fossil fuels. The challenge is not inventing a market. It is producing clean hydrogen at a price industry can afford, and cheaper renewables are opening new markets in green steel and efuels for aviation and shipping. Green hydrogen scales when the economics work, and efficiency is most of the economics.”

 

Hysata has raised more than $220 million from global investors. The government grant covers about half the Port Kembla project cost, with the remainder funded by Hysata through private capital.

 

“Hysata was built around a simple idea, which is to do more with less. Our electrolyser gets more hydrogen from every megawatt of electricity. HysataFab now gets more product from every manufacturing line.

 

“More hydrogen per megawatt. More product per line. Both compound as we grow, and both are pointed at the same thing, which is cheaper hydrogen," he said.

 

Bowen said the project would strengthen Australia's clean-energy manufacturing base while creating jobs in the Illawarra.

 

“This project is a major jobs and economic opportunity for the Illawarra and helps ensure Australia makes more of the clean-energy technology the world needs.

 

“Hysata’s electrolyser can help reduce the cost of hydrogen production and decarbonise energy-intensive sectors like steel, fertiliser and heavy transport.

 

“Making electrolysers here in Australia is a huge opportunity to strengthen our manufacturing capability, back local innovation, create skilled jobs and seize a bigger share of the global clean-energy technology market.”

 

Federal Member for Cunningham Alison Byrnes said the company represented a local pathway from university research to commercial manufacturing.

 

“Hysata is a true local success story – born from University of Wollongong research, backed by government and now delivering to customers around the globe.

 

“The Illawarra has the skills, capability and drive to help power Australia’s clean-energy future, and the Albanese Labor Government is backing local jobs, local innovation and a Future Made in the Illawarra.”

 

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the funding was aimed at helping Hysata bridge the gap between technology development and large-scale manufacturing.

 

“Turning breakthrough technology into commercial-scale manufacturing is one of the hardest steps in innovation, and it is where ARENA can make the most difference.

 

“Hysata’s efficiency changes the cost base of green hydrogen. This grant is about building the capability to manufacture it here, at scale.”

 

At the centre of HysataFab is an AI system that analyses thousands of data points from every electrode produced on the company's manufacturing line.

 

Each electrode adds to the system's understanding of the production process, allowing it to identify changes and adjust manufacturing before problems become defects.

 

Hysata says it has spent three years building a digital record of how its technology behaves across research, testing and manufacturing. That database now contains more than 57 billion process data points, with more than 100 million new data points generated each day.

 

Shaun Maris, Hysata's Principal AI Engineer, said every electrode effectively receives its own digital record.

 

“Every electrode has a digital fingerprint. We capture thousands of data points as it moves down the line, and the AI reads that in real time. It picks up drift before it turns into a defect, and closes the loop back into process control,” Maris said.

 

“Our AI agents analyse more process history each day than the entire team could in a career, running close to 10,000 analytical queries daily. This is how HysataFab learns: every component produced helps optimise the next, continuously improving quality and yield.”

 

Barrett said the value of AI would ultimately be measured by its impact on manufacturing performance.

 

“There is plenty of noise around AI,” Dr Barrett said. “What matters is whether it changes something you can measure, and at Hysata it does. Adding capacity is the easy part. Getting more out of the capacity you already have is the harder problem, and it is the one that lowers the cost.”

 

Hysata says its capillary-fed electrolyser operates at 95 per cent efficiency, consuming 41.5kWh per kilogram of hydrogen. The company says that represents around 20 per cent more hydrogen per megawatt than incumbent electrolyser technologies.

 

The manufacturing system is designed to build on that advantage.

 

Hysata's electrolyser uses fewer components and is designed to have a lower capital cost per megawatt of manufacturing capacity. The company says HysataFab extends the efficiency gains from the electrolyser itself to the production line that makes it.

 

The company has also begun moving from technology development towards commercial-scale deployment.