Founded by world-renowned hydrogen expert Professor Francois Aguey-Zinsou, SolidHydrogen is pioneering the use of hydrides developed in cooperation with the MERLin laboratory in Sydney.
Hydrides bind hydrogen in a solid form, which dramatically reduces costs across the supply chain. With high costs the main barrier to green hydrogen projects, SolidHydrogen’s technology could be a catalyst for the industry. The company has further optimised the production process, integrating purification, compression and storage into one modular system, the H2CUBE.
Using current processes, green hydrogen production costs are around USD $15/kg, compared to USD $3.80/kg with SolidHydrogen’s system. This breakthrough unlocks a range of use cases where hydrogen becomes competitive, including the production of synthetic fuels – a critical component for decarbonising shipping and aviation.
With operations in Australia, SolidHydrogen brings together a team of leading hydrogen specialists focused on making green hydrogen practical and affordable. Its hydride technology delivers safe, low-cost operation at ambient conditions, enabling simplified deployment across sectors from aviation to heavy industry.
The unique capability of SolidHydrogen to develop low-cost, customised metal hydrides is already attracting interest from customers across a range of industries.
Once complete, the seed raise will fund the setup of a small-scale production plant in Sydney. The round follows SolidHydrogen being awarded a share of a $2.5 million grant as part of an international consortium of energy innovators to produce at scale pilot for a new generation of low-cost green hydrogen production technology.
Professor Aguey-Zinsou said: “Hydrogen is essential to achieving global decarbonisation goals, but cost and ease in deployments have been major barriers. Our technology solves these challenges by making hydrogen safe and affordable, and easily deployable. This is a game-changer for heavy industries such as steel, ammonia, chemical plants and power generation, and hard-to-abate sectors including aviation and shipping that urgently need scalable solutions.”
Philippe Odouard, CEO of SolidHydrogen, said: “Securing the support of the Venture Investments Team as a cornerstone investor is a strong endorsement of our technology and vision. This funding will allow us to move from lab to market, establishing our first production facility and accelerating partnerships with customers to establish at scale pilot and who share our commitment to a low-carbon future.”
Geoff Waring, Head of Research Venture Investments at the University of Sydney, said: “We are excited to support Solidhydrogen’s unique technology that is set to significantly reduce Green Hydrogen’s cost, bringing it to parity with carbon fuels for a faster energy transition.”
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