Solhyd, known for its H₂ panels that directly produce renewable H₂ from air and solar energy, is raising seed capital from a group of experienced entrepreneurs. The consortium of investors commits to injecting up to €6 MM into the company over the next few years. An initial tranche of €2 MM in seed capital is being provided today. The funds will be used, at this stage of the company, to further optimize the basic technology and deploy it in pilot applications. There is significant potential for this technology, which generates renewable H₂ without the need for a power grid or liquid water and without the use of rare materials.

H₂ will play a crucial role in the future energy mix of a CO₂-neutral society. When produced from green electricity, it is a renewable source of energy (green H₂) that can be easily stored and transported. However, green electricity is currently scarce and expensive, leading to H₂ production mainly relying on natural gas (gray H₂).

Therefore, Solhyd offers an alternative: golden H₂. “This is H₂ directly made from what is universally available, sunlight and air,” said Jan Rongé, CEO of the company. As a spin-off from KU Leuven, Solhyd builds on the technology developed at the university. The Solhyd core technology was developed by Jan Rongé and Tom Bosserez, who completed their doctorates under the supervision of Professor Johan Martens. Together with their team, they have worked on the science behind this product for more than ten years.

The intellectual property, knowledge, and patents related to the core technology are now incorporated into the spin-off with the goal of further developing them within Solhyd. “The Solhyd technology consists of cylinders containing materials to extract moisture from the air and separate it into H₂ and oxygen through a membrane. Both the materials and the device were developed from the outset to be robust and affordable, without the use of rare materials,” said Tom Bosserez, CTO of the company. The technology has been demonstrated in H₂ panels in recent years to prove that it works well, even in the variable Belgian climate. The H₂ panels can be deployed almost anywhere in the world.

Internationally, there is a lot of attention for Solhyd’s technology and its applications in a climate-neutral economy. Green H₂ is an essential element to decarbonize sectors such as steel production and chemistry. In addition, this green fuel can benefit certain decentralized applications, and could be useful for SMEs. The pace of the transition has to increase, as was again demonstrated by latest climate report and the recent climate summit.

The Solhyd team will fine-tune these applications together with partner companies and organizations. “Our team now consists of 7 people with diverse backgrounds, and I have a lot of confidence in their abilities,” said Rongé, “But with these resources, we will also attract new people to accelerate our efforts.”

“We are very satisfied with our capital round and with the quality of the consortium of investors that we managed to convince. They bring not only money to the table but also their experience in entrepreneurship and technology development,” he continued. “We deliberately selected investors who provide added value and who were supportive of our impact philosophy.” The investors are Vansan Investments (the family office of brick manufacturer Vandersanden), serial entrepreneur Luc Thijs (ex-Alro), Keiretsu Ventures (ex-Key Technology), and Lieven Danneels (co-CEO Televic Group). Additionally, the Gemma Frisius seed capital fund from the university itself is also participating.

“As investors, we are very pleased to have been selected by the Solhyd team to invest and to make our knowledge and expertise available to take the company to the next level,” said Frank Zwerts (Keiretsu Ventures). “We are delighted that research of this scale in deep tech can also grow in Flanders. If we manage to scale the Solhyd technology, we have been able to support a significant player in the rapidly growing market of green energy.”