“This has earned us the interest and support of American companies who wish to see our solution develop in their country,” rejoices Olivier Le Strat, director and co-founder of the young innovative company H2Gremm, based in a relay workshop in Edern. since 2019.
The prize won on December 3 at the “Monaco Prize for innovation in renewable hydrogen and transportation” for the “best applicable and multi-sector technology” opens up prospects for the Cornish start-up, which could represent up to 20% of its order book. “Two American companies, major players in the hydrogen market currently being structured, pulled us by the sleeve,” smiles Olivier Le Strat, without saying more about their identity. “However, I observe that there is a much stronger dynamic on hydrogen across the Atlantic than in France,” comments the director of H2Gremm. “We have quotes in the pipeline. An immediate need for one or two of our devices. And then in the longer term, for the second quarter of 2025.”
40 units by 2025 and an export horizon
Including the opening of this new export market, the Cornish leader sets the 2025 production target at 40 systems. “We want to position ourselves internationally. »
Our solution saves transportation cost
Notably because H2Gremm claims a production cost of kilo hydrogen that is significantly lower than that practiced on the market. “Our solution saves transportation costs.” The start-up’s secret weapon is in particular its know-how to compress the volumes of hydrogen produced from electricity using an electrochemical process.
Industrial development: 2,600 m2 in Guélen
So to embark on a phase of industrial production, Olivier Le Strat and his twenty employees will leave the 500 m2 of the relay workshop for a new building of 2,600 m2, located on a plot of 8,000 m2 in the extended area of the Guélen (behind Stef). Moving scheduled for the first part of 2026, if all goes well.
In 2023, H2gremm raised funds of 7 million euros. Olivier Le Strat joined forces with Breton industrialist Alain Glon and Alain Rocheux, engineer and co-founder of the start-up.
What H2Gremm invented
The Cornish start-up is developing a hydrogen production station allowing almost total energy autonomy for homes and small businesses. The device – the size of a large fridge – transforms electricity into hydrogen by catalysis, compresses the volume of hydrogen, stores and redistributes the fuel which can be used to produce electricity again. This is the principle of the fuel cell that H2Gremm obviously plans to adapt to land vehicles.
