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A Deep Dive into the Origin of NanoSUN and Its Journey to Success

A Deep Dive into the Origin of NanoSUN and Its Journey to Success
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Published on
13/05/2021

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A deep dive into the origin of NanoSUN and its journey to success

NanoSUN

It takes a lot of thought, guts and drive to set up a business. There are many unknowns involved in becoming an entrepreneur and there’s no guarantee your idea will succeed. So why take the risk in building a venture start up like NanoSUN? Noel Leeson and Graham Hodgson, founders of NanoSUN, tell us why they took the leap and delve into the origin of the company and its mission to provide innovative, convenient, safe and low cost hydrogen fuelling solutions.

It was from two experts within the industrial gases and hydrogen fuel-cell industries, with a keen interest in the effects of climate change and reducing the impact of carbon emissions, that the initial concept of NanoSUN was born.

In a search for answers to fuel cell customers’ demands for hydrogen fuel at the right quality, pressure and price relevant to their applications, NanoSUN’s co-founders, Graham Hodgson, Chief Technical Officer and Noel Leeson, Executive Director, began a journey to fill the gap between hydrogen suppliers and end users within the transportation sector to ultimately facilitate hydrogen as a leading fuel.

‘Noel and I have always had an interest in clean energy and we both believe that finding ways to reduce climate change is a very worthwhile cause,’ says Graham Hodgson. ‘We both have long histories in the industrial gas industry, with specific experience in hydrogen supply and we know that hydrogen fuel is becoming a significant element in replacing fossil fuels to reduce tailpipe CO2 emissions and air pollution within the world of transportation.’

NanoSUN

Noel Leeson adds ‘after both working in the fuel cell industry for some time, we could see that the fuel needs of end users were not being adequately addressed by the hydrogen supply industry in terms of storage, distribution, dispensing and cost. We quickly realised that to accelerate the use of hydrogen, we needed to develop hydrogen supply solutions that customers were actually asking for.’

Armed with their philosophy to be customer and end user led, Graham and Noel established NanoSUN and decided that their mission to rapidly increase the use of zero emission fuel cells would be driven by enabling a low-cost hydrogen infrastructure. To do this NanoSUN would build a team of industry professionals, expert scientists and graduate engineers to develop innovative technology for low-cost fuel storage, fuel conditioning and mobile refuelling.

The founders are building NanoSUN to provide the crucial connection missing between hydrogen suppliers and fuel cell users to speed up the ambition of hydrogen becoming the energy source of the future.

Noel tells us, ‘NanoSUN started out working with suppliers of small scale mobile equipment, such as light towers and small power generators. Over three years we were led by customers that needed refuelling solutions for hydrogen drones and hydrogen bicycles. It soon became apparent however, that there was a growing demand for refuelling solutions for heavy-duty vehicles.’

In terms of reducing global warming, improving local air quality and creating economic activity and growth while also making a respectable financial return for NanoSUN’s investors and backers, it was decided that moving forward, refuelling products for vehicle fleets needed to be a priority focus and the innovative mobile Pioneer Hydrogen Refuelling Station (HRS) was born.

Pioneer Hydrogen Refuelling Station

A fully mobile, self-contained and automated hydrogen-refuelling station. The Pioneer HRS offers an affordable way of delivering and dispensing transportation-grade hydrogen fuel directly to the point of use.

‘Throughout the development of the mobile Pioneer HRS project, I saw first hand how our dedicated team embodied our company ethos and embraced our values of Fun, Accountability, Stretch and Team (F.A.S.T.), to create a cutting edge product that we are extremely proud of.’ Graham comments.

F.A.S.T captures both how the company operates and the values it lives by every day of the week:

Fun – Changing the world is about doing hard things and solving the most challenging problems, but it is an exciting journey. We have fun along the way.

Accountability – We do what we say? We hold ourselves and each other accountable. We are rigorous in our work, courageous in our decisions & safety is in our DNA!

Stretch – We push ourselves and encourage others to be the best we can be, because that’s what it takes to change the world!

Team - We play as a team; We are open and honest. We share successes and failures because that’s how we learn.

Graham further adds, ‘the completion of the Pioneer project marked a significant milestone for NanoSUN and the team. To see the results of the team’s collective drive, enthusiastic attitude and hard work confirmed to Noel and I that NanoSUN was a chance worth taking.’

NanoSUN is already seeing a growing demand for its Pioneer Hydrogen Refuelling Station across the UK and Europe, and with a number of different deployments already scheduled throughout 2021, it’s clear that NanoSUN is on an exciting journey towards continued growth and success.

Find out more about the Pioneer or contact us at info@nanosun.co.uk

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