DiviGas co-founders Andre Lorenceau and Dr. Ali Naderi
DiviGas, a Singaporean startup developing industrial membranes designed for refineries, has secured US$3.6 million in seed funding led by the venture arm of MANN+HUMMEL, a global company in infiltration and separations.
Other investors are UK-based Energy Revolution Ventures; US-based investor in battery and energy storage technology Volta.VC, and climate angel investor Albert Wenger.
The startup intends to use the money to support the commercialisation of a new next-generation polymeric hydrogen separation membrane. This molecular filter purifies hydrogen while also helping to capture CO2.
The capital will also enable DiviGas to send its first industrial-scale production pilots of Divi-H under the first two mass manufacturing lines to a select group of partners. It will also foster DiviGas’s upcoming product, CO2 filtering membrane.
Founded in 2019, DiviGas has developed a new process for manufacturing membranes. They aim to recycle unrecoverable hydrogen gas generated in refineries, chemical plants, fertilisers, methanol and metallurgical production, power-to-gas systems, gasifiers, and many other production facilities.
By employing the membrane, DiviGas claims that to save the average refinery US$3-6 million annually with a 2-3x return on investment.
DiviGas’s polymeric membrane, Divi-H, also upgrades existing hydrogen plants to generate so-called “blue” hydrogen where the CO2 is captured when splitting natural gas.
Divi-H is developed with a new polymer composition within modules containing tens of thousands of polymeric hollow fibres. This results in extra resistant properties and can be utilised in various applications, from fuel gas recovery to loop optimisation through H2/CO adjustment and carbon capture.
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“We are convinced that Hydrogen and CO2 separation is key for decarbonising and growing the hydrogen economy, for which Divigas has a unique solution,” said Adonis Pouroulis at Energy Revolution Ventures. “Only through new technologies, deployed at pace and scale, can we accelerate the advent of a sustainable world.”
According to the firm, every year, US$110 billion of hydrogen gas is generated in refineries, chemical plants, and fertiliser plants, of which 15 per cent or US$16 billion are lost to flaring. Hydrogen production is also a major emitter of CO2, generating approximately 1000 million tons or more than two per cent of global CO2 emissions.
The world has put a lot of attention to climate change as the recent COP26 summit brought parties together to supercharge action towards the targets of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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Image Credit: DiviGas
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