India/Israel – ArcelorMittal announces it has made a US$5 million investment in H2Pro through its XCarb innovation fund, bringing the fund’s total investment commitments to US$180 million since its launch in March 2021.
The investment is part of a US$75 million Series B fundraise by H2Pro, with other investors including Temasek, Horizons Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Yara.
H2Pro is developing a disruptive way of producing hydrogen from water. Similar to electrolysis, its technology, E-TAC (Electrochemical – Thermally Activated Chemical), uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Unlike conventional electrolysis however, hydrogen and oxygen are generated separately in different steps – an Electrochemical step and a Thermally Activated Chemical step.
95 percent energy efficiency
The technology was developed at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. E-TAC water splitting offers energy efficiency of over 95%, significantly higher than traditional water electrolysis technologies which typically deliver energy efficiency of around 70%. E-TAC is also expected to prove more cost effective than traditional electrolysis, with CAPEX costs anticipated to be broadly halved, alongside lower operational costs. H2Pro is targeting producing hydrogen at a cost of under US$2/kg by 2023, when its first commercial, megawatt scale project is anticipated to move into production, and at a cost of under US$1/kg by 2030.
