Wednesday 22 June 2022

C-Zero raises $34m to build zero-emission natural gas-to-hydrogen pilot plant

Clean energy company C-Zero has raised $34 million (£27.7m) of financing for its first pilot plant that will produce hydrogen from natural gas with no carbon emissions.

The financing round was led by SK Gas, a subsidiary of South Korea's second largest conglomerate, the SK Group, which was joined by two other new investors, ENGIE New Ventures and Trafigura, in addition to existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eni Next, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and AP Ventures.

C-Zero will use the funding to build a pilot plant, which will be capable of producing up to 400kg of hydrogen per day from natural gas and is expected to be online in the first quarter of 2023.

Eric McFarland, CTO of C-Zero said: “We are excited to be scaling up our innovative technology with experienced investors and partners who recognise the need to decarbonise natural gas and the opportunity that turquoise hydrogen production represents.

“Natural gas provides a quarter of the world’s energy so the scale of the opportunity ahead of us is enormous. But we cannot do it alone.”

C-Zero will use its technology for natural gas decarbonisation, helping companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

Brian (Byung Suk) Yoon, CEO of SK Gas added: “We are eager to bring C-Zero’s technology to Korea, where we see great synergies with our plans to build a hydrogen value chain complex in Ulsan.

“SK Gas strongly believes in the potential of methane pyrolysis and its ability to help countries like Korea in their decarbonisation efforts by producing low cost, clean hydrogen.”