In a Series A fundraising round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Eni Next, California based C-Zero raised $11.5 million, with the participation of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and AP Ventures.
The funding would speed up the initial commercial implementation of the C-Zero decarbonisation technology, allowing industrial users of natural gas to prevent the generation of CO2 in applications including electricity production, process heating and commodity chemicals such as hydrogen and ammonia.
Thermocatalysis
Innovative thermocatalysis for separating methane-the main molecule of natural gas-into hydrogen and solid carbon in a method known as methane pyrolysis is used by C-Zero’s technology, originally developed by the University of California, Santa Barbara.
A wide range of current uses, including the manufacture of hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, can be decarbonized with the aid of hydrogen, while carbon can be sequestered indefinitely.
As renewable gas is used as the feeder, C-Zero’s technology can also be negative in carbon, securely mining and storing carbon dioxide in the form of high-density carbon atmosphere.
Color identification
Recently, numerous hydrogen processing methods have been related to different color codes for easy identification.
Conventional production via steam methane reforming (SMR) is referred to as “gray hydrogen,” SMR with CO2 sequestration is referred to as “blue hydrogen” and hydrogen produced by splitting water via electrolysis is known as “green hydrogen.” Hydrogen produced via methane pyrolysis processes like C-Zero’s is increasingly being referred to as “turquoise hydrogen,” as it combines the benefits of both blue and green hydrogen by being low cost and low emissions, respectively.
