Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: SASAYAMA Shinichi, hereinafter referred to
as "Tokyo Gas"), through its wholly owned subsidiary Acario Investment One, LLC
(President and CEO: MAEDA Kenji), has become the firstJapanese energy company to
invest in H2U Technologies, Inc. (CEO: Jourdan Urbach, hereinafter referred to as
"H2U"), a US startup company that has unique, highly efficient catalyst discovery
technology to reduce the cost of PEM*1 water electrolysis equipment, and has signed
a letter of intent to collaborate with the company.
The development of water electrolysis equipment is progressing around the world in
an effort to realize a decarbonized society. One of these methods, the PEM water
electrolysis method, uses iridium, a rare metal that is very expensive and has a limited
supply, in the electrodes, so in order to reduce costs, there is an urgent need to
develop a new catalyst that is inexpensive and does not use rare metals as an
alternative.
Tokyo Gas and H2U have been working together on the joint development of lowcost, high-performance non-iridium catalysts since February 2023*2
. As part of the
two companies' efforts, they have synthesized approximately 20,000 catalyst samples
per year and evaluated their performance and durability, while also conducting
searches using AI (artificial intelligence) based on the accumulated evaluation
database.
Through this investment and collaboration, we will broaden the scope of our search
for new catalysts and search for catalysts with higher performance. We will also
accelerate the implementation of non-iridium catalysts in water electrolysis
equipment, aiming to quickly realize low-cost hydrogen production.
Comment from Jourdan Urbach, CEO of H2U Technology
Our CDE * 3 and AI (artificial intelligence) are ideal for efficiently searching for highly
active and durable, low-cost catalysts. We are very pleased to be able to develop both
non-rare metal catalysts and water electrolysis equipment to further advance the
results of our joint development with Tokyo Gas and provide green hydrogen at an
affordable price.
Comment from YAKABE Hisataka, Executive Officer and General Manager of the
Hydrogen and Carbon Management Technology Strategy Department, Tokyo Gas
Co., Ltd.
We are pleased to be able to continue to advance our search for inexpensive
catalysts for water electrolysis equipment and to work together with H2U to advance
technological development aimed at application to water electrolysis equipment.
The Tokyo Gas Group will contribute to the realization of the government's goal of
carbon neutrality by 2050 by achieving a responsible transition in accordance with
the Carbon Neutral Roadmap 2050, which was formulated to achieve net-zero CO2
emissions, as set out in the Group's management vision.