Thursday 3 February 2022

Ekona Power secures $79m to commercialise hydrogen technology

Ekona Power has secured CAD$79 million (£45.9m) worth of investment for its novel hydrogen technology, led by Baker Hughes.

The investment - also provided by Mitsui, Severstal, ConocoPhillips, TransAlta, Continental Resources, NGIF Cleantech Ventures and BDC Capital - will support the commercialisation of Ekona's methane pyrolysis technology platform, which produces lower cost blue hydrogen.

Its technology uses the decomposition of natural gas to produce hydrogen and solid carbon and is said to have the potential to offer cost-effective hydrogen production with 90% less emissions than conventional steam methane reformer technologies.

If successful, the platform would be low cost, scalable and could be sited wherever natural gas infrastructure exists.

Ekona believes its technology will help decarbonise multiple markets, including upgrading, refining, power generation, chemicals manufacturing, steel production as well as natural gas transmission and distribution.

Chris Reid, Chief Executive Officer, Ekona Power said: “We are excited to close this significant milestone for our organisation as we become one step closer to commercializing our technology. We would like to thank all our investors and stakeholders for their investment, passion and commitment to our technology. We believe that to facilitate the smooth application of hydrogen across global markets, we need a solution that is clean, scalable and economically viable.

“Therefore, Ekona’s technology has been developed to produce hydrogen at costs on par with conventional steam methane reformers, while considerably reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”