KPM-Accelerate is proud to announce CleanInnoGen as the latest start-up to join the accelerator! We will be working with CleanInnoGen to provide clarity and guidance on process scale-up for their novel thermochemical water-splitting Cu-Cl cycle for hydrogen production.
About CleanInnoGen
Founded in 2020, CleanInnoGen, an Ottawa-based cleantech startup, set out to address the need to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as cement and steel using hydrogen. They are commercializing a more efficient process for hydrogen production that successfully completed lab-scale prototype testing at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL)’s Chalk River lab in 2020.
CleanInnoGen’s technology involves a copper chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle that produces hydrogen by splitting HCl instead of water. The four-step cycle uses up to 65% less electricity compared to conventional water electrolyzers for hydrogen production because much of the energy is provided as heat.
Heavy industries such as cement and steel generate significant waste heat and are very emissions-intensive. CleanInnoGen’s technology can use the waste heat to help power their Cu-Cl cycle which produces green hydrogen and oxygen. On-site hydrogen production can help decarbonize industrial operations by providing a low-carbon alternative fuel, improving combustion efficiency, providing a sustainable source of inputs, and more. The technology also has the potential to enable large-scale renewable energy production when coupled with concentrated solar heat or nuclear Small Modular Reactors to produce hydrogen with much higher end-to-end efficiency
CleanInnoGen has received grant approval from NRCan, leaders in the natural resource sector in Canada, to support a pilot plant in the cement industry. The pilot client is a strategic partner to scale up and integrate the Cu-Cl cycle in the cement industry and beyond.
The Team and Their Plans
CleanInnoGen is led by Terry Kimmel and Victoria Xu. Terry is the former President of the Canadian Hydrogen Association, with 25+ years of experience in the hydrogen industry. Victoria is an impact entrepreneur and angel investor with 8+ years of early-stage tech start-up experience.
In 2023, CleanInnoGen aims to secure seed funding and begin engineering for pilot testing with strategic partners. The next stage for this team is focusing on the scale-up of their Cu-Cl process as they work to integrate their process with industry partners and deliver a pilot for this first-of-its-kind waste heat to hydrogen process.
We look forward to working with CleanInnoGen in moving toward their goals of commercialization and decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors.