HYSKY's H2Hub Summit 2025 – Recap: Wing-in-Ground (WIG), Solid-State H2, and Atmospheric H2 Production
- HYSKY Society
- Apr 1
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 22
The 2025 H2Hub Summit was phenomenal! We opened with a high-energy welcome and a dose of optimism. If you missed his event, you'll definitely want to access the slides and recordings HERE to learn about solid-state hydrogen, hydrogen out of thin air, and Wing-in-Ground (WIG) effect flying ships. We had it all!
Welcome Remarks – Danielle McLean, CEO, HYSKY Society
Danielle McLean, CEO and Founder of HYSKY Society, kicked off the summit with warmth and clarity. She welcomed attendees from around the globe, emphasized the interactive nature of the event, and underscored HYSKY’s mission: to decarbonize aviation with hydrogen.
Danielle outlined the day’s structure and content—federal policy updates, Department of Defense hydrogen investments, technical innovations, and exciting giveaways courtesy of title sponsor Leybold. She also highlighted HYSKY's role as a connector between hydrogen producers and aircraft developers, launching “HYSKY Connect,” a new directory for the hydrogen aviation ecosystem.
Speakers
Keynote Presentation – Paul Browning, Senior Advisor, Hygreen Energy
Paul Browning, Senior Advisor at Hygreen Energy, opened the summit with a talk on how the Trump Administration may impact green hydrogen in 2025. He explained that while there’s a lot of political uncertainty, it helps to understand why Republicans are acting the way they are. One major issue is spending—many in the GOP want to roll back what they see as excessive climate funding pushed out by the Biden Administration, especially just before leaving office.
Paul walked the audience through 45V, a tax credit that gives up to $3 per kilogram of clean hydrogen produced. It’s meant to help green hydrogen compete with fossil fuels. But early guidance from the Biden Administration added extra rules, called the “three pillars,” that made some projects too complicated or expensive. The three pillars are:
Additionality—you have to use new renewable energy
Deliverability—the power must come from near the hydrogen site
Temporal Matching—the electricity and hydrogen must be produced at the same time
These rules slowed down investment and created what Paul called a “green hydrogen winter.”
Now, with a new administration in place, Paul warned that legal uncertainty could continue as executive orders and slow court battles drag things out. Still, he’s optimistic that 45V will survive, possibly with tweaks to favor blue hydrogen. He encouraged developers to spend this waiting period getting their offtake agreements lined up so they’re ready when clarity returns—likely within 2 to 8 months.
Mike Hirschberg, Director of Strategy at the Vertical Flight Society
Mike Hirschberg, Director of Strategy at the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), shared how hydrogen is a game changer for vertical flight. He explained that battery-electric VTOL aircraft have range and payload limitations, but hydrogen-electric systems—especially when combined with batteries—can drastically extend range and endurance.
VFS, founded in 1943, supports education and research in advanced air mobility and vertical flight, including hydrogen aviation. Mike highlighted how hydrogen offers about 100 times more energy per weight than batteries, making it ideal for longer missions. He showed how Joby Aviation’s hydrogen-powered demonstrator flew 561 miles—almost four times farther than its battery version.
Mike also introduced the H2eVTOL Council and H2 Aero initiative, which VFS and HYSKY co-founded to advance hydrogen aviation. He emphasized the need for standards, infrastructure, and funding, and invited attendees to upcoming events including the H2 Aero Symposium in Long Beach.
Raffaele Nicholas Russo, former H2 lead at Joby Aviation, & CEO at Otter Stone
Raffaele Nicholas Russo, formerly with Joby Aviation, unveiled his new company Otter Stone and its flagship product H2Nomos—a compliance software platform built to streamline hydrogen infrastructure permitting. Drawing from his hands-on experience leading Joby’s hydrogen VTOL project and building liquid hydrogen facilities, Raffaele explained the vast complexity of permitting even small hydrogen R&D operations. He walked through the dense regulatory landscape, especially NFPA 2 and its hundreds of cross-referenced codes, noting the burden this places on developers, fire marshals, and facility operators alike.
Otter Stone’s software is designed to automate the permitting process, helping companies navigate design, code compliance, and operational approvals. The tool digitizes regulatory requirements, identifies applicable codes, and checks them automatically based on user-defined facility details. It also supports modular or mobile infrastructure scenarios by toggling requirements specific to mobile refueling or construction. Raffaele emphasized that while the software will include AI, it prioritizes precision and reliability over black-box automation—blending deterministic logic with model-driven assistance for interpretive support.
Beyond compliance, H2Nomos aims to facilitate anonymized knowledge-sharing between users, allowing insights and risk assessment practices to inform industry-wide progress. The vision is a platform that accelerates safe deployment of hydrogen projects by giving stakeholders—engineers, planners, and regulators—a shared source of truth. Raffaele invited anyone working on hydrogen infrastructure, especially those currently navigating NFPA 2, to reach out for a product demo or to collaborate on refining the tool.
Rick Harlow & Lanson Jones, CEO & CIO, DIU-Backed NovaSpark Energy
NovaSpark Energy presented a breakthrough in mobile, on-demand hydrogen production: atmospheric hydrogen generation. Their technology extracts water from the air—even in low-humidity environments—and uses advanced electrolysis to create hydrogen fuel on-site, without needing external water infrastructure. Originally built for military resilience and stealth operations, the system is ruggedized, vibration-resistant, and designed for mobility—capable of moving and restarting multiple times daily. It also compresses hydrogen up to 700 bar and supports auxiliary uses like clean drinking water and backup power.
The team, led by CEO Rick Harlow and strategist Lanson Jones, emphasized disaster recovery as a key market alongside military and commercial applications. Their units have already been deployed in joint exercises with the U.S. Marines and the Department of Defense, and are now cleared for procurement through the 791 purchasing co-op. The machines offer a “Swiss Army knife” of capabilities: water generation, air compression, power generation, and modular hydrogen production, all adaptable to field conditions with solar, wind, and wave energy integration.
NovaSpark’s vision goes far beyond defense. Their units offer huge potential for resilient civilian infrastructure—powering drones, replacing diesel backup generators, and enabling off-grid hydrogen hubs. With electrolysis systems scalable from 50 to 1,000 kg/day and zero rare earth materials, the company is entering scaled production through a new joint venture. They are also exploring nanographene membrane tech to boost efficiency by over 20%. Their modular, mobile, and sustainable approach is a game-changer for hydrogen adoption in energy, defense, and disaster response.
John Griesbacher & Dominik Weigl, Co-Founder & Investor Relations, Odonata's 30-Hr Hydrogen Drone
Odonata Aero is pioneering the next generation of hydrogen-powered drones with their modular long-endurance platform, Odonata Pantala. Based in Munich, Germany, the startup transitioned from eVTOLs to drones in response to shifting market demand and regulatory challenges in electric vertical aviation. Their drone features a high-efficiency lifting-cruise design with liquid hydrogen propulsion, offering up to 33 hours of endurance in surveillance mode or the ability to carry 100 pounds of cargo for 10 hours.
What sets Odonata apart is their modular hydrogen system. The drone can swap cargo and tank modules depending on mission needs—enabling a single platform to serve both cargo delivery and aerial surveillance. With a 26-foot wingspan and a cruise speed of 65 knots, the drone is designed for efficiency, operating under 330 pounds MTOW to avoid heavier regulatory burdens. Their use cases include wildfire detection, border security, offshore wind maintenance, and express delivery, supported by LOIs and growing industry interest.
Co-founders John Grace Barker and Dominic Weigel highlighted their hybrid business model: selling the aircraft as well as offering drone-as-a-service operations. They are currently fundraising to build prototypes, open to pre-sales, and planning an autonomous ecosystem where drones refuel from renewable-powered hydrogen hubs. Odonata is clearly positioning itself at the forefront of sustainable unmanned aviation.
Chris McWhinney, CEO, Millennium Reign Energy
Chris McWhinney, CEO of Millennium Reign Energy, has built a scalable, off-grid hydrogen infrastructure model from the ground up. With over 20 years of experience in hydrogen production and system design, he’s developed patented alkaline electrolyzers, purification systems, and turnkey fueling stations—all manufactured in-house in Dayton, Ohio. His modular fueling appliances are plug-and-play, require no permitting, and support a dynamic approach to matching hydrogen supply with real-world demand.
Millennium Reign is launching Emerald H2, a membership-driven hydrogen car network beginning in Dayton and eventually expanding coast to coast. For every seven vehicle sign-ups in a given area, a station is deployed. Cars come with two years of free fuel, and as demand grows, stations scale up and relocate. The vision is to create a Transcontinental Hydrogen Highway from New York to LA—without relying on government subsidies. Chris's system is already in place in 37 global installations and supports aviation, drones, AI data centers, and heavy-duty transport.
His bold yet practical approach could make hydrogen mobility a reality for the general public—starting with used fuel cell vehicles and growing through community demand. By focusing on affordability, flexibility, and decentralized infrastructure, Chris is proving that hydrogen fueling can be economically sustainable from day one.
Serge Markoff, CEO, SeaCheetah's Wing-in Ground (WIG) Effect Flying Ship
Sea Cheetah Corporation is redefining what’s possible in maritime mobility with its cutting-edge hydrogen-powered Wing-in-Ground Effect (WIG) vessels. These ultra-fast, zero-emission craft are engineered for coastal and island transport, reaching speeds up to 155 mph while carrying up to 20 passengers with a 500-mile range. What sets Sea Cheetah apart isn’t just performance—it’s their complete ecosystem approach: decentralized hydrogen production, refueling hubs, and amphibious vessel designs that eliminate traditional port infrastructure. Their technology is built for scalability, sustainability, and speed.
In partnership with HYSKY Society, Sea Cheetah is helping lead a hydrogen revolution that spans land, air, and sea. Both organizations share a vision of a hydrogen-powered world, and the partnership was formally unveiled at the H2Hub Summit, where CEO Serge Markoff showcased Sea Cheetah’s real-world applications of clean hydrogen mobility. Their collaboration demonstrates how aviation and maritime industries can work in lockstep to deliver practical, commercially viable hydrogen-powered solutions today—not years from now.
Together, Sea Cheetah and HYSKY are not waiting for the hydrogen economy to arrive—they’re building it. With global demand for clean transport rising and over 40% of the population living in coastal regions, Sea Cheetah’s scalable hydrogen fleet and fueling infrastructure are set to make a massive impact. As a proud HYSKY Partner, Sea Cheetah stands as proof that the future of transportation is not only zero-emission—it’s already in motion.
Edward Boyle – Chief Strategy Officer – Stellar Aircraft's Solid State Hydrogen eVTOL
Edward Boyle unveiled Stellar Aircraft’s pioneering hydrogen-electric vertical takeoff and landing (H2eVTOL) jet—the first in the world to feature solid state hydrogen. Speaking on behalf of CEO Alexey Popov, Boyle detailed how their solid state hydrogen innovation offers up to quadruple the energy density of traditional storage methods. This breakthrough could revolutionize hydrogen aviation, addressing critical limitations in range, safety, and mission flexibility.
The presentation explored Stellar’s hybrid propulsion architecture, combining hydrogen fuel cells with batteries to achieve vertical takeoff, long-range cruise, and real-time recharging. Boyle emphasized how this approach overcomes FAA certification hurdles and creates viable solutions for both commercial and military eVTOL missions. Solid state hydrogen technology, developed in partnership with Yale, UConn, and others, also opens applications in ground transport, AI data centers, airports, and off-grid power generation.
Boyle concluded with Stellar’s readiness to license its proprietary solid state hydrogen system to partners across industries, from aviation to automotive. As he noted, “Hydrogen isn’t just the future—it’s here now.” For anyone building the hydrogen mobility ecosystem, Stellar’s high-density, durable, and scalable hydrogen storage platform represents a critical enabling technology.
Conclusion of HYSKY's 2025 H2Hub Summit
The 2025 H2Hub Summit made one thing clear: the hydrogen revolution is not a distant dream—it’s already happening. From sea-skimming vessels to solid state propulsion, atmospheric electrolysis to autonomous drones, every speaker showcased real-world solutions that are pushing the hydrogen economy forward. HYSKY Society remains committed to uniting the pioneers of this movement, bridging gaps between innovators, infrastructure, and impact. As we look ahead to next year’s summit, the momentum continues—and so does our mission to decarbonize transportation across land, air, and sea.
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