Aurora Hydrogen, a company developing emission-free, hydrogen production technology, has raised $10m in Series A funding led by Energy Innovation Capital. Participating investors include Williams, Shell Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures and the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
The funding adds to additional funding by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) that the team received earlier this year.
Aurora Hydrogen is scaling their proprietary and highly efficient microwave pyrolysis technology to produce hydrogen and solid carbon without generating CO2 emissions or consuming water, according to a press release. Aurora’s technology is highly scalable, with units that can supply a broad range of applications from distributed fueling to hydrogen injection and industrial processes.
Hydrogen production from the Aurora technology has the potential to significantly reduce global CO2 emissions by over 900 million tonnes per year. Additionally, Aurora uses 80% less electricity than electrolysis, the conventional method of producing clean hydrogen, requiring far less electrical generation capacity per kg of hydrogen. And, unlike electrolysis, the process does not require water as a feedstock, preserving another critical and scarce resource.
“At Aurora, we are producing low-cost hydrogen at the point of use, at the exact scale required, and without generating any CO2,” said Andrew Gillis, CEO, Aurora Hydrogen. “We use existing energy pipelines and distribution systems to move the energy, then produce hydrogen where it’s needed, eliminating the need for any new costly hydrogen transportation infrastructure.”
The recent funding will be used to build and operate a 200 kg-H2/day demonstration plant for field trials in Edmonton, Canada. Current hydrogen production is either expensive and distributed or low-cost and centralized, requiring additional costs to transport. Aurora’s technology has the potential to unlock many new hydrogen markets and applications by providing low-cost hydrogen at the point of use, fast-tracking the path to decarbonization in heavy transportation, residential and commercial heating, and many industrial processes.
“Energy Innovation Capital invests in innovative companies commercializing technology for clean, abundant and affordable energy for all,” said Christopher Smith, managing director, Energy Innovation Capital. “Aurora’s novel and thermodynamically sound approach has the opportunity to decarbonize the current carbon intensive hydrogen industry and lead the commercialization of new low-carbon hydrogen applications.”
Aurora Hydrogen’s founding team is made up of Andrew Gillis, PhD, MBA, P.Eng, Erin Bobicki, PhD, P.Eng, and Murray Thomson, PhD, P.Eng.
Williams made its investment through its Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) program, which is intended to support efforts to commercialize emerging technologies including clean hydrogen, solar, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) and next generation natural gas, according to a separate release.
