Hydrogen Technology H2Site Raises Funds to Scale Membrane Reactor Technology

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Hydrogen technology company H2Site has raised 12.5 million euros in a Series A funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). The funding is to accelerate the scale up of the company’s integrated membrane reactor and membrane separation technologies.

Spanish company H2Site has developed innovative technologies enabling the use of existing natural gas infrastructure to bring clean hydrogen to end users. “While much focus is given to hydrogen generation cost reduction, less attention is given to reduction of hydrogen transport cost. Transporting hydrogen is a complex task, it being a small molecule that is difficult to contain. The current compression, storage, decompression, and transport solutions are both economically and environmentally inefficient”, says Andrés Galnares, H2Site’s CEO.

Tecnalia, Spain’s largest private research center, and the Technical University of Eindhoven realized that 13 years ago and developed the advanced membrane reactors. They combine special membranes with one-process-step reactors to produce onsite, low-cost renewable hydrogen. Engie’s R&D entity Crigen contributed to the development of the commercial version of the reactor. Intellectual Property was transferred into the newly created H2Site to commercialize the technology.

The company has since developed these onsite hydrogen generation units. Double skin inorganic membranes with long lifespan, integrated into process units can both crack hydrogen carriers and separate the hydrogen from blends in natural gas infrastructure or purify it in dedicated hydrogen infrastructure.

The manufacturer has shown strong commercial traction in 2022 and has recently been awarded projects to transform ammonia into H₂ for the bus fleet in Birmingham, England, biogas into H₂ for hydrogen refueling stations in Spain and in France, as well as several separation projects from H₂/ natural gas blends in the gas transport infrastructure that are under construction.

Recognizing the potential of this technology, a consortium with participation of Equinor Ventures, Engie New Ventures, Tecnalia and institutional investors from the Basque Country and Seed Capital Bizkaia participate in a Series A financing amounting to 12.5 million euros.

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The funding is to accelerate the scale up of the ntegrated membrane reactor and membrane separation technologies to obtain fuel cell purity hydrogen from ammonia or methanol cracking, or enable hydrogen transportation in existing natural gas infrastructure. The company also plans to increase its membrane manufacturing capabilities, operating a world unique membrane manufacturing plant in the North of Spain.

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