Latent Drive Wins Prestigious AFID Green Hydrogen Award at IRENA Innovation Week
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Market potential for SeaStack seawater-to-hydrogen electrolyser recognised by Alliance for Industry Decarbonisation (AFID) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
16 June 2025: Latent Drive, developer of ground-breaking technologies to produce abundant and affordable green hydrogen at source, has won the green hydrogen innovation award at the AFID technology innovation showcase during IRENA’s 2025 innovation week in Bonn, Germany (11-13 June).
Latent Drive’s direct seawater-to-hydrogen electrolyser, SeaStack, was selected from a global pool of more than 30 applicants by co-organisers AFID and the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC). The award was presented by Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany, Permanent Representative of the UAE to IRENA, and was accepted on Latent Drive’s behalf by Luca Corradi, Chief Technology Officer of NZTC.
SeaStack is the world’s first commercial direct seawater-to-hydrogen electrolyser stack, optimised for installation offshore. It has a wide operating range to capture more wind energy at low cost, and is designed to produce green hydrogen direct from seawater for less than $2/kg. SeaStack is optimised for use on harbour walls, offshore wind turbines, and floating platforms to make best use of energy supplies and refuelling sites.
Frazer Ely, CEO and Founder of Latent Drive said: “Huge credit to our team for securing this highly prestigious and competitive AFID Green Hydrogen innovation award at IRENA’s Innovation week in Bonn. This award recognises innovative new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions from hard-to-abate industries which currently rely on fossil fuels. Our SeaStack electrolyser, and associated Catrode technology, are making green hydrogen cost-competitive with fossil fuels. They are poised to revolutionise clean hydrogen production, location and economics – without expensive desalination or rare metals – in a global market projected to be worth $642 billion by 2030[1].”
The green hydrogen innovation category was one of three – alongside circularity and bioenergy – that showcase scalable, high technology readiness (TRL) industrial decarbonisation solutions, and the collaboration required to accelerate a net-zero future.
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[1] Deloitte: Green hydrogen – Energizing the path to net zero
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Contacts
For media enquiries, imagery, or to arrange a briefing, please contact:
Justin Heath
Resonates
+44 1635 898698
Commercial enquiries:
Anna Studley
Latent Drive
+44 1305 896968
About Latent Drive
Based on the former Winfrith nuclear site on southwest England’s Jurassic coast, and supported by government and private funding, Latent Drive is developing cutting-edge electrolyser technologies to replace fossil fuels – with a mission to make green hydrogen abundant and affordable. This is essential to decarbonise industry, provide energy storage and secure energy supplies.
Latent Drive has developed SeaStack, enabling green hydrogen production at the source of energy. SeaStack is the world’s first commercial direct seawater-to-hydrogen electrolyser stack, optimised for installation offshore. With a wide operating range, it is able to capture more renewable energy at lower cost and can produce green hydrogen directly from seawater for less than $2/kg.
A key component of SeaStack is Latent Drive’s innovative Catrodes. These superior catalysed electrodes do not contain rare and expensive platinum group metals (PGMs), as required in conventional electrolysers. Latent Drive uses ordinary stainless-steel to make Catrodes, which combine both catalyst and electrode as one homogeneous part, without additional ingredients. Furthermore, Catrodes aren’t just a laboratory concept, they are commercially available via an established distributor network – with hundreds already supplied worldwide.
About the Alliance for Industry Decarbonisation
The Alliance for Industry Decarbonization (AFID) aims to decarbonise industrial value chains and accelerate net-zero ambitions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. The Alliance’s members and partners, consisting of private and public organisations and stakeholders operating in energy-intensive sectors, commit to collaborate toward the common vision of a green future. The members believe in the power of partnerships based on honest dialogue and concrete actions. IRENA coordinates and facilitates the activities of the Alliance based on its vast experience in hosting multi-stakeholder platforms.
www.allianceforindustrydecarbonization.org
About the International Renewable Energy Agency
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is a lead global intergovernmental agency for energy transformation that serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, supports countries in their energy transitions, and provides state of the art data and analyses on technology, innovation, policy, finance and investment. IRENA drives the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, and energy security, for economic and social resilience and prosperity and a climate-proof future.
IRENA Innovation Week 2025 (11-13 June) convened leaders, experts, industry representatives, academics, youth and policy makers to discuss cutting-edge innovations that can accelerate the global energy transition and promote sustainable development through renewables and digitalisation technologies. The event focused on two key streams: innovation in infrastructure for tripling renewables and renewable-based xolutions for sustainable development.
