Exolum and Vopak Ventures have invested in the French start-up HSL Technologies, a company focused on the development and industrialisation of simple, efficient, innovative, and cost-effective methods to safely transport and store hydrogen.
HSL Technologies’ patented solutions has the potential to overcome the fundamental challenge of safely and economically transporting and storing hydrogen on a large scale. It is developing a unique process to introduce hydrogen molecules into a silica-based liquid carrier, where the hydrogen can be released on demand. Initial tests have shown that this carrier is stable and can be safely transported and stored in existing infrastructures at ambient pressure and temperature.
In addition, this technology requires energy to bind the hydrogen in the carrier, but none to release it, unlike existing solutions. This ability to release hydrogen at no energy cost is a major boost to the development of the hydrogen market.
According to Andrés Suárez, Exolum’s global strategy & growth lead, says: ‘This investment is part of Exolum’s strategy to diversify its business and its commitment to the development of new energy vectors such as hydrogen. The company has traditionally shown a strong commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and this investment is a further step in this direction.’
Martijn Schouten, of Vopak Ventures says: ‘This investment very well fits into Vopak Ventures’ New Energies, Feedstocks & Sustainability fund, in which we focus on funding ventures facilitating new sustainable solutions in areas such as zero emission fuels, green feedstocks, recycling solutions and flow batteries. We are very much looking forward to give our support in further developing this promising technology.’
Corine Dubruel, president and CEO of HSL Technologies says: ‘HSL Technologies innovations will have a disruptive impact in the logistic & storage sector as it has the potential to remove the key barriers that currently prevent a wide deployment of hydrogen-based applications by tackling safety, regulatory and supply chain issues. We are welcoming the investment from two major logistic & storage European leaders who will bring strong industrial & market expertise to support our scale-up and contribute to our board discussions.’
With this investment, Exolum and Vopak Ventures have become shareholders of the French company, in which companies such as Equinor Ventures, EDP Ventures and the European Innovation Council, the largest Deeptech investment fund created by the EU to support startups, have also recently entered its capital.
