Advanced Ionics has closed a Series A funding round at $12.5 million. This round was led by bp ventures, with additional investors including Clean Energy Ventures, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and GVP Climate.
The company plans to avail the funds to grow and accelerate the first deployment of its Symbion™ water vapor electrolyzer technology. It is available for heavy industry.
The company will also expand its team. Also, it will make available its next-generation electrolyzer systems to early customers.
The press release says the water vapor electrolyzer will ease the two main hurdles in expanding green hydrogen production. They are requirements of cost and electricity in the process.
Chad Mason, CEO of Advanced Ionics, said, “bp ventures’ investment in Advanced Ionics is a powerful backing of our technology’s potential to help accelerate green hydrogen’s future and heavy industry’s shift towards decarbonization,”
“The results we’ve achieved in our testing along with early customer interest have indicated that we are an ideal technology provider for industrial customers looking to augment, expand or replace their existing hydrogen production facilities with green hydrogen.”
Advanced Ionics water vapor electrolyzer technology
The technology combines comparatively lesser cost and electricity requirements with standard industrial processes to harness available heat.
The release says, the system utilizes widely available steels and other simple materials to make the electrolyzer.
The company states its electrolyzer stack requires less than 35 kWh per kilogram of produced hydrogen. In comparison, a typical electrolyzer takes more than 50 kWh per kilogram.
Gareth Burns, vice president of bp ventures, said, “Advanced Ionics’ technology has the potential to drive down cost and disrupt the hydrogen market”
“bp has a global portfolio of hydrogen projects, and as the world transitions to a net zero future, it’s important to us to be investing in these technologies and advance the track to deploying green hydrogen. We look forward to working with Advanced Ionics on the next stage of its growth.”
Advanced Ionics is demonstrating its product through a pilot program with global energy company Repsol Foundation.
The investor bp Ventures is exploring pilot opportunities with the company.
Other investors in Advanced Ionics include Aster and the angel investor collectives Clean Energy Venture Group and SWAN Impact Network.
Hydrogen is one of bp’s five transition growth engines. The others includes bioenergy, convenience, electric vehicle charging, and renewables & power.
bp’s five transition growth engines include bioenergy, convenience, electric vehicle charging, renewables & power, and hydrogen.
According to the release, the company bp Ventures plans to move in these businesses through this decade.
