ArcelorMittal announced that its XCarbTM innovation fund has made a US$5 million investment in H2Pro, bringing the fund’s total investment commitments to US$180 million since its launch in March 2021.
Temasek, Horizons Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Yara are among the other investors in H2Pro’s US$75 million Series B funding round.
H2Pro is working on a game-changing method of producing hydrogen from water. E-TAC (Electrochemical – Thermally Activated Chemical), a technology similar to electrolysis, uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, unlike traditional electrolysis, hydrogen and oxygen are produced separately in two steps: an electrochemical step and a thermally activated chemical step.
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, developed the technology. E-TAC water splitting has an energy efficiency of over 95%, which is significantly higher than traditional water electrolysis technologies, which typically have a 70 percent energy efficiency. E-TAC is also expected to be more cost effective than traditional electrolysis, with CAPEX and operational costs expected to be roughly halved. By 2023, when its first commercial, megawatt-scale project is expected to go into production, H2Pro hopes to produce hydrogen for less than US$2/kg, and for less than US$1/kg by 2030.
Dr. Hen Dotan, Professor Gideon Grader, and Professor Avner Rothschild, three leading hydrogen experts from Technion, and Talmon Marco, founded H2Pro in 2019. Talmon previously co-founded Viber, a messaging app that was bought for US$900 million by Rakuten Inc. in 2014, and co-founded and led Juno, a ride-hailing app that was bought for US$200 million by Gett Inc. in 2017.
Commenting, Pinakin Chaubal, chief technology officer, ArcelorMittal said: “The potential green hydrogen holds to deliver deep decarbonisation of the steelmaking process is well understood. Although the technology required to directly reduce iron ore using hydrogen still needs to mature, the greater challenge with this new method of ironmaking is the cost and availability of the energy input – green hydrogen.
“Given H2Pro’s focus on developing a novel technology which aims to produce green hydrogen in an energy efficient manner at competitive costs, it is a very welcome and natural addition to our XCarb™ innovation fund investment portfolio. Although at an early stage, E-TAC is a very exciting technology and we look forward to working with the H2Pro team as it seeks to move it into commercial production.”
Talmon Marco, CEO, H2Pro added: “Green hydrogen is one of a small number of tools in the world’s decarbonisation toolbox. To become a viable tool, green hydrogen needs to be cheaper — much cheaper. Over the last couple of years, we’ve made tremendous progress and with this round of funding we’re not only on track to deliver on our promise of cheap green hydrogen technology, but we will also be able to setup manufacturing.”
