Fourier makes hydrogen electrification inspired by data centers

Although it was the most abundant element in the universe, clean, clean, clean, clean hydrogen making here on Earth was amazingly difficult.

“Hydrogen has always been afflicted with the problems of a couple, one of them, how to make it efficiently? Another is, how do you distribute it efficiently?” Siva Yellamraju, co -founder and CEO of FourierTell Techcrunch.

The latest startups for hydrogen has focused on standard electrical making, allowing them to be widely produced and pressed in shipping containers. Yellamraju has taken this modern tactic. Fourieh targets something no more than a serial server shelves standing side by side.

Investors, with the leadership of General Catalyst and Paramark Ventures, have noticed a $ 18.5 million round, the company told Techcrunch exclusively. Among the other participating investors are Airbus Ventures, Borusan Ventures, GSBACKERS and collective MCJ and positive projects.

An instant servant’s analogy also extends within the unit. There, the company installs many small electrolysis – about 20 in the current design – which the blades call. Each water blade is fed from a shared pump between it, and electricity comes from the light -modified energy supply of the borrowed from the world of the data center.

“We are reprimanding them and exhausting them to run electrolysis,” said Yellamraju. “It also allows us to use these ingredients that are already sold in billions.”

Inside each hydrogen production unit, the program runs the blades to improve its operation. Here, Yellamraju said that the company is inspired by other negative technology, Li -ion battery.

He said: “If you look at companies such as Tesla, they started with small cells, and a group of them, which allowed them to get rid of the shelf components, but they pay the complexity to a mathematical layer.”

Tesla battery combines thousands of smaller batteries, all supervised by a group of devices and programs known as the battery management system. BMS meets charging and unloading each individual cell, and you will also see anything that indicates that the battery is insulting, which reduces its use or marks it for repair.

Fourier system is similarly monitors the performance of each electropser blade, output and watched signs of decomposition. Yilamerago said the goal is to “push the problem of total efficiency and the problem of production to a problem in improving data.”

Startup has operated two pilots across the laboratory, which is made about a kilogram of hydrogen per hour, with a drug manufacturer and a solar energy company. After that, there are two commercial commercial manufacturers, one in a petrochemical factory in Ohio and another in a company in Freemont, California, which is made parts of airlines. Both should work by June. Ultimately, Furier targets customers who need six to 20 kilograms per hour, which requires about 300 kW to 1 megawatts of electrode capacity.

The potential Forete customers, who include drugs, petrochemical and ceramic manufacturers, pay about $ 13 to $ 14 per kilogram today. Yellamraju said his company can deliver hydrogen for $ 6 to $ 7 per kilogram, not including any government incentives. “With our margins, they still provide half of the hydrogen price,” he said.