In a significant step toward sustainability, PuriFire Energy, based in Cambridge, has secured £2.7 million in seed funding to advance its green hydrogen and methanol production technologies.
The funding round was headed by HICO Investment Group, with contributions from Bulnes Capital, R&R Investments, and Abhishek Desai. This comes on the heels of increased investments in hydrogen tech startups.
PuriFire plans to utilize this investment along with an additional £525,000 grant from Innovate UK. The combined capital will facilitate a pilot project by mid-2025 to convert anaerobic digestion liquid digestate and other wet feedstocks into green methanol using the company’s proprietary technology.
Alongside the financial support, HICO Investment Group’s CEO & MD, Chris Hartnoll, will join PuriFire’s Board of Directors. Hartnoll noted the technology’s potential to convert wet waste into sustainable fuels without competing with other technologies, reducing the levelized cost of methanol production.
Currently, a staggering 99.3% of methanol comes from fossil-based sources, with a mere 0.7% produced sustainably. Green methanol offers a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions (60-95%), nitrogen oxide emissions (60-80%), and almost complete elimination of sulfur oxide and particulate matter emissions. Additionally, it can be blended with gasoline or diesel, easing the transition for shipping operations without significant infrastructure changes.
