HyperSolar Inc (OTCMKTS:HYSR) Hoping For A Comeback

Shares of HyperSolar Inc (OTCMKTS:HYSR) have been beaten up for the past few months and just registered fresh new 52-week lows. This comes as many investors remain focused on dilution and the company's financials and in spite of positive news coming out of HyperSolar. Penny stock investors are now asking if the company can turn things around and get its shares moving higher again.HyperSolar describes itself as "developing a breakthrough, low cost technology to make renewable hydrogen using sunlight and any source of water, including seawater and wastewater. Unlike hydrocarbon fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, where carbon dioxide and other contaminants are released into the atmosphere when used, hydrogen fuel usage produces pure water as the only byproduct. By optimizing the science of water electrolysis at the nano-level, our low cost nanoparticles mimic photosynthesis to efficiently use sunlight to separate hydrogen from water, to produce environmentally friendly renewable hydrogen. Using our low cost method to produce renewable hydrogen, we intend to enable a world of distributed hydrogen production for renewable electricity and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles."The recent news was that HYSR and its team at the University of Iowa have made considerable progress so far this year. The team has developed novel wet-chemical synthetic routes for manufacturing solar hydrogen production cells whose proposed manufacturing process is simple, low-cost and offers benefits over existing hydrogen production technologies. HyperSolar has also developed a proprietary coating, made of inexpensive earth abundant materials, that protects the solar cells from corrosion during the hydrogen generation process. This coating was demonstrated to be very stable in hydrogen production using sunlight and seawater as the feedstock. Additionally, the team developed a novel low cost photocatalyst made of tin, cobalt and sulfur. This catalyst was demonstrated to produce hydrogen in amounts comparable to that of conventional expensive platinum based catalysts.The next step is demonstrating HyperSolar's capabilities on a larger scale. The team is currently developing methods for integrating the earth abundant catalyst on top of its high efficiency multi-junction solar cell units, thus anticipating photovoltages greater than 1.6 V and current densities exceeding 8 mA/cm2. Should the Company accomplish this goal, it will then build prototypes of one square foot with demonstrable solar-to-hydrogen energy efficiency of 10% or higher, and stable operation exceeding 1,000 hours with a projected system cost of less than $5 per kg for distributed solar hydrogen.In January, HyperSolar announced that it recently developed an inexpensive photocatalyst that will improve overall performance. Test results indicate that this low cost catalyst will reduce overall voltage requirements, significantly increase photocurrents, improve hydrogen production efficiency, and further reduce the cost of the company's hydrogen production process. Having recently surpassed the 1.5 Volt threshold needed to produce hydrogen in commercially viable real world applications, the company has turned its attention to increasing photocurrent and production efficiency that it believes will drive down overall system costs.

In December 2015, the University of Iowa led by Dr. Syed Mubeen Hussaini identified a sulfide-based photocatalyst comprised of an earth abundant, non-toxic cheap material that it believed would rival platinum, a well-known catalyst material. The preliminary data following a series of laboratory tests indicates success in meeting these objectives. The ramifications of this breakthrough are significant, particularly the solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. Historically, the key commercial barrier to renewable-produced (solar and wind) hydrogen fuel has been the expense of various system components. HyperSolar believes the initial successes of utilizing this earth abundant photocatalyst clearly demonstrates its potential to compete with platinum, therefore significant reducing overall system cost.

Currently trading with a market cap of just $5.9 million, HYSR is plagued by weak financials and dilution. The company has just $94k in cash and current assets, zero revenues, and over $10 million in liabilities. In terms of dilution, $1 million of its liabilities are in the form of convertible notes. Last year, HYSR issued 34 million shares at $.00175 per share and on January 22, issued another 17.4 million shares at the same price. In order to turn things around, HYSR needs to deliver some fresh news to get the market excited again. If not, shares could continue trending lower as investors with cheap shares rush to lock in profits. We will be updating Insider Financial as soon as we know more. For continuing coverage on HYSR, sign up for our free newsletter today and get our next hot stock pick!Disclosure: We have no position in HYSR and have not been compensated for this article.