Sparc Technologies (ASX:SPN) is hosting an opening ‘ceremony’ for its small-scale green hydrogen plant on-site at a South Australian university campus.
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But the nanocap’s news has failed to excite, with a share price dip of -3% on Tuesday morning being recorded as the effect of one dismal parcel of shares being traded. In short, Sparc has got a liquidity problem.
That mightn’t be surprising for a hydrogen junior, and especially not after the H2 fuel thematic well and truly fell off in the early 2020s in favour of gold, uranium, and really just about anything else.
Still, tied up in Sparc’s Tuesday news are some familiar names.
Among them is iron ore heavyweight Fortescue, whose foundational chief, Andrew Forrest, originally went hard on the green hydrogen thematic for a few years before then quietly talking about it far less.
South Australian government members, Adelaide University staffers and Sparc’s JV partner reps will all be present as the company opens its first ‘pilot plant’ using photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) to produce hydrogen gas – “green” because it’s using solar, and not extracting hydrogen from hydrocarbons.
But the reality is the plant is small, it’s tied up with university research, and the only money Sparc is likely to make off PWS in the near future is in the form of R&D tax rebates.
“The plant represents a first-of-its-kind demonstration and R&D facility globally for photocatalytic water splitting and is a key step towards commercialisation of the technology,” Sparc MD Nick O’Loughlin said.
“In an environment where major challenges exist for hydrogen projects due to the high cost of power, the requirement for new solutions to unlock low-cost green hydrogen without relying on electrolysers has never been higher.”
The problem is, PWS basically re-creates photosynthesis – a slower process than what electrolysers can achieve, blasting bodies of water with power.
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