H2Fuel has quite an unusual story of origin. How did it all begin?
Our founder, Rob de Kraa, first made his name in fashion as the man behind the clothing brand O’Neill. After selling the company, he decided he was too young to stop working and began investing in new ideas. One of those ideas was using a white salt, called sodium borohydride, to carry hydrogen. For years, people had tried to make this work, but the process was unstable. Rob teamed up with chemist Gerard Lugtigheid, and after four years of research they managed to make the reaction safe and reliable. That was the starting point of H2Fuel.
How does your technology work in simple terms?
Imagine a salt that holds hydrogen inside it. When we add ultra-pure water and a catalyst to this salt, the hydrogen is released straight away. Due to the chemical reaction the ultra-pure water is also split in hydrogen and oxygen, so you end up with the double amount of hydrogen after the reaction. It comes out at a purity of over 99 percent, which makes it excellent for fuel-cells and clean engines. The reaction is easy to control and much safer than transporting hydrogen as a gas or liquid. And best of all, the leftover material can be recycled back into fresh salt using green electricity from wind and/or solar.
Where are you now in terms of development?
We have already built and tested a laboratory model. In the technical world this is called Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 5, which simply means that the idea works in practice, but only on a small scale. The next big step is to build a mobile demonstrator that shows it can also work at industrial size. We are working with Technical University Delft (TU Delft) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) to make the recycling process even simpler and cleaner. To do that, we need new investment to raise around €30 million to enable executing our Roadmap.
What are the main challenges for H2Fuel?
One of the toughest challenges for any young company is what we call the “valley of death.” This is the stage between proving an idea in the lab and having a product ready for the market. It is a risky phase because everything costs money, from building prototypes to setting up partnerships, but investors often want to see a finished product before they commit. Still, we believe our technology stands out because it is safe, green, and about 30 percent cheaper than other hydrogen carriers.
Japan has been a leader in hydrogen. What does it mean for H2Fuel to be noticed there?
Japan has always been at the forefront when it comes to hydrogen, so for us it was a real honor to be featured at Expo 2025 in Osaka. Our solid hydrogen approach is still quite new, but once people hear about it they immediately see the benefits. Japan is open to innovative solutions, and we hope to build connections there that can help bring this technology to the world.