Hylenr Technologies, a Hyderabad, India-based clean energy startup, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TakeMe2Space to develop and test Low Energy Nuclear Reactor-powered compute modules in space. Hylenr claims to have demonstrated a world-first cold fusion technology that develops clean energy. The company’s patented Low Energy Nuclear Reactor (LENR) technology provides a promising alternative for power generation. The new partnership will see Hylenr and TakeMe2Space aim to validate that technology for space.
Validating LENR technology in space
In July 2024, Hylenr announced it had demonstrated the world’s first cold fusion technology to generate clean energy. The company has received a patent from the Indian government for its LENR technology. In that demonstration, it reportedly achieved consistent 1.5 x heat amplification from 100W electrical input. The company’s LENR, or cold fusion, process works by using milligrams of hydrogen and applying small amounts of electricity to stimulate and generate excess heat through fusion. Hylenr aims to scale its energy output so it can produce 2.5 times the input energy. Now, via Hylenr and TakeMe2Space’s partnership, we could see the technology used to provide power in space.
“Validating our LENR technology in space is a crucial milestone, and TakeMe2Space’s platform and expertise provides the perfect opportunity to test our system in a real operational environment,” HYLENR Founder and CEO Siddhartha Durairajan explained in a press statement. “This could open new possibilities for long-duration missions and off-grid power solutions in space.”
Decreasing the risk profile for space missions
TakeMe2 is building what it claims to be the world’s first open access AI satellite infrastructure in low Earth orbit. The company will provide the satellite platform and subsystems required to test HYLENR’s LENR-based thermo-electric generator in space. TakeMe2Space founder Ronak Kumar Samantray added, “we are actively exploring alternative energy solutions for our in-space compute infrastructure and are excited to take this first step with HYLENR to test their technology in space. We are particularly interested in assessing how this approach can be leveraged for efficient heat management and energy reuse in our satellites.”
Hylenr’s technology can produce heat for space applications (MMRTG), steam generation for multiple applications, room heating across cold regions globally, and induction heating for domestic and industrial requirements. According to the firm, its devices can also “drastically decrease the risk profile for space missions.” In a demonstration video last year, Durairajan explained how Hylenr’s technology works- “Hydrogen cold fusion is taking place here,” he said. “Two hydrogen atoms come and generate fusion. That creates Helium3, which is still unstable and then another hydrogen atom fuses and this creates Helium4, which is stable. The release of this excess hydrogen is creating this heat.”
What is cold fusion?
It’s worth taking Hylenr’s claim regarding the world’s first clean energy generation via cold fusion technology with a pinch of salt. There is a great deal of skepticism within the scientific community when it comes to cold fusion. Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that occurs at, or near, room temperature. The first report on the process came in 1989 from electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons. Many scientists tried and failed to replicate their results. However, claims that the process is possible occasionally resurface. Early this year, Nobel laureate Prof Brian Josephson and co-authors claimed cold fusion’s time is here. In an op-ed for The Guardian, they wrote that companies can “make these reactions work quite reliably”, with the promise of “ending reliance on fossil fuels”. In a rebuttal, Dr Philip Thomas, a researcher at the University of Exeter, said cold fusion is a “pseudo-scientific fringe theory” in violation of the “laws of nature”. If Hylenr does indeed validate its technology in space, it would be a world-changing discovery.
