Syzygy Plasmonics, a deep-decarbonization company that is electrifying chemical manufacturing, announced $76 million Series C financing led by Carbon Direct Capital with participation from Aramco Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, LOTTE CHEMICAL, and Toyota Ventures. Existing investors including EVOK Innovations, The Engine, Equinor Ventures, Goose Capital, Horizons Ventures, Pan American Energy, and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas also joined the round. Carbon Direct Capital will join the Syzygy board and serve as the Series C director.
“Our mission is to decarbonize chemical and fuel production.”
The capital raised will fund further development and delivery of all-electric reactor systems that eliminate fossil-based combustion from chemical manufacturing and reduce the carbon intensity of hydrogen, methanol, and fuel. Rather than rely on thermal energy, Syzygy Plasmonics harnesses the power of light to energize chemical reactions. This approach is designed to reduce feedstock waste while producing fewer emissions when powered by renewable electricity. Select Series C participants have also entered into commercial agreements with Syzygy to support their decarbonization goals.
The International Energy Agency reported in its Global Hydrogen Review 2022 that producing 94 million metric tons of hydrogen in 2021 released 900 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. The IEA estimates that hydrogen production must double by 2030 for the world to stay on track for net zero emissions by 2050, with roughly 60% of that being from low-carbon production. Widely available low-carbon, low-cost hydrogen is necessary to increase its adoption and contribution to the achievement of climate goals.
Syzygy technology combines two major recent breakthroughs to reduce emissions in chemical manufacturing. The first was the invention of high-performance photocatalysts at Rice University by company co-founders and professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander. The second was the engineering of a novel reactor that uses common low-cost materials like glass, aluminum, and LEDs instead of high-cost metal alloys. The result is a scalable, universal chemical reactor platform that is designed to utilize different feedstocks to drive multiple, fundamental chemical reactions. Several field trials have initiated with commercial units scheduled to ship in 2023.