Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics has raised $5.8 million for its technology to create an environmentally friendly chemical reactor that could, one day, replace those used at refineries and chemical plants.
“This reactor is fundamentally different,” CEO Trevor Best said. “It's super science.”
Chemical reactors are the containers in which chemicals get combined and turned into new products. Most chemical reactors do this at very high temperatures and pressure levels. Syzygy uses LED lights.
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Hydrogen is the first element that Syzygy will seek to make in large quantities. Traditionally, this has required burning natural gas to heat water and methane to a temperature of about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The reactor is also pressurized to about 500 psi, or pounds of force per square inch of area.
Syzygy's chemical reactor will use LED lights to turn water and methane into hydrogen. As such, it operates at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit and a normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 psi — more similar to a household oven than a refinery.
And because it doesn't require massive amounts of heat, the Syzygy chemical reactor can run off renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power (traditional reactors can't use these renewable sources and still reach their high temperatures in a cost effective way). This reduces emissions by 40 percent to 50 percent compared to the current method for producing hydrogen, Best said.
“Syzygy's photocatalysis technology platform can transform how we approach chemical manufacturing — using light instead of burning fossil fuels,” said Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine, an MIT-backed investment group investing in Syzygy.
Syzygy was founded in 2017, though its technology is based on two decades of research by Rice University professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander. The company previously raised $900,000 in early 2018 to prove this research could be created on a larger scale.
The company is chasing hydrogen first because of the element’s versatility. Best said hydrogen is used to create ammonia, which is the base of fertilizer. It's used in refinery processes, and it's used in the manufacturing of semiconductors for phones and computers.
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But for Syzygy, the most exciting potential is creating hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles. Best expects this to become the company’s first commercial market as auto companies invest in developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In December, for example, Hyundai Motor Group and its suppliers announced plans to spend $6.7 billion to boost fuel cell systems production and to explore new business opportunities for supplying these systems to other transportation manufacturers. For the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Toyota said it will support Tokyo 2020 with a large number of zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles.
Syzygy has also received Department of Energy and National Science Foundation grants to develop chemical reactors that would be virtually emissions free and that would remove carbon from the atmosphere.
“You're taking something that's usually a waste stream, that usually goes into the atmosphere, and you can commoditize it,” Best said. “You can turn it into something else that can be sold.”