Topics
late
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Vladimir_Timofeev / Getty Images
Apps
Biotech & Health
Climate
Image Credits:Vladimir_Timofeev / Getty Images
Cloud Computing
commercialism
Crypto
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fund-raise
Gadgets
Gaming
Government & Policy
Hardware
Layoffs
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
Privacy
Robotics
Security
societal
Space
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
More from TechCrunch
Events
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Despite being the most abundant ingredient in the universe , making chintzy , clean-living hydrogen here on Earth has been a surprisingly tough nut to crack .
“ Hydrogen has always been plagued with a couple problems . One is , how do you make it efficiently ? Another one is , how do you circularise it expeditiously ? ” Siva Yellamraju , carbon monoxide gas - father and CEO ofFourier , severalize TechCrunch .
Most late atomic number 1 startups have been focused on making modular electrolyzers , allow them to be plenty - produced and squeezed into shipping containers . Yellamraju ’s company has taken that trendy maneuver to the extremum . Fourier is targeting something no grownup than two standard server racks standing side by side .
Investors have hire note , with General Catalyst and Paramark Ventures leading an $ 18.5 million Series A round , the company exclusively told TechCrunch . Other participating investor include Airbus Ventures , Borusan Ventures , GSBackers , MCJ Collective , and Positive Ventures .
Fourier ’s waiter doctrine of analogy put out inside the module , too . There , the company set up multiple modest electrolyzers — about 20 in the current design — that it calls “ blade . ” Each blade is fed water from a ticker shared among them , and electricity comes from light modified power supplies borrowed from the data centre cosmos .
“ We reprogram them , retrofit them to run for electrolysis , ” Yellamraju said . “ It also countenance us to use these factor that are already sold in the billions . ”
Within each atomic number 1 - production mental faculty , software manages the blades to optimize their operation . Here , Yellamraju enounce the caller was inspire by another bit of commoditized technology , thelithium - ion barrage fire .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
“ If you front at fellowship like Tesla , they started with small cells , an regalia of them , so that allowed them to do off - the - ledge component but push the complexity into a compute stratum , ” he said .
Tesla ’s battery packs thread together grand of belittled electric battery , all of which are overseen by a combining of hardware and software that is known as a “ barrage fire management system ” ( BMS ) . The BMS handles charging and discharging of each private cell , and it will see for anything that suggest a battery is corrupting , bring down its purpose or flagging it for repair .
Fourier ’s system of rules likewise monitors the performance of each electrolyzer blade , tweak output and follow for mansion of degradation . The goal , Yellamraju say , is to “ press the overall efficiency problem and production problem into a information - optimization problem . ”
The inauguration has operate two lab - scale pilot , which make about a kg of hydrogen per hour , with a pharmaceutical manufacturer and a solar energy company . Up next are two commercial - scale pilot plants , one at a petrochemical plant in Ohio and another at a company in Fremont , California , that make airline parts . Both should be operating by June . Ultimately , Fourier is direct customers that need 6 to 20 kilograms per hour , which would want around 300 kilowatt to 1 megawatt of electrolyzer capacity .
Fourier ’s potential commercial-grade customers , which include pharmaceutical , petrochemical , and ceramics manufacturers , pay around $ 13 to $ 14 per kilogram today . Yellamraju say that his company can deliver H for $ 6 to $ 7 per kg , not including any government incentive . “ With our margin , they ’re still saving half the damage of hydrogen , ” he sound out .
