Osmoses – an industrial separations technology company that purifies gases, the world’s smallest molecules – recently announced it has raised an oversubscribed $11 million seed round led by Energy Capital Ventures. And additional participating investors include Engine Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Little Green Bamboo, BlindSpot Ventures, and several prominent angel investors, including Martin Madaus, the former CEO of Millipore Corporation. Osmoses will use the proceeds to develop commercial-scale membrane modules for field deployment and establish pilot partnerships.
Gas molecules such as hydrogen, biomethane, and oxygen are essential ingredients for alternative, low-carbon energy production. Since these gases do not naturally occur in a form pure enough for direct use, they must first be separated; yet, their size and volatility make doing so extremely difficult, energy-intensive, and expensive.
Industrial separation processes today, including cryogenic processes, distillation, and solvent absorption, account for 15% of the world’s energy consumption. Carbon dioxide emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes accounted for 89% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. And membrane technology, which operates as molecular filters to separate gas molecules from one another, can potentially reduce energy consumption. Still, widespread implementation remains limited due to product loss and high operating costs.
Osmoses developed a patented novel membrane technology that purifies gas molecules with unprecedented flux and selectivity, meaning lower capital requirements and operating costs for customers, with a significantly smaller physical footprint than today’s traditional separation processes – all while reducing industrial energy consumption by up to 90%.
Osmoses’ breakthrough family of polymer materials can change the paradigm around membranes for gas molecules – delivering breakthrough performance against conventional materials. And in some applications involving hydrogen purification, Osmoses’ solution can provide up to 40% higher product recoveries at a fraction of the cost and over 50% reduction in footprint. Osmoses could also power profitable hybrid separation system designs for low feed concentrations, such as those in hydrogen de-blending and helium recovery.
Along with decarbonizing production and distribution of low-carbon molecules, Osmoses has demonstrated potential to decarbonize numerous applications within the gas separation industry, including oxygen generation, helium harvesting, refrigerant reuse, and carbon capture. Osmoses’ polymer material platform aims to supercharge a $15 billion gas separations industry – which is already expected to grow to $35 billion by 2030.
Along with its venture capital funding, Osmoses recently received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and additional grant support from ARPA-E and NSF, among other organizations. The seed funding also comes at a time when many federal and state financial incentives for energy transition projects are coming to bear. The primary metric the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) uses for assessing the impact of producing and distributing gas molecules like hydrogen is the carbon intensity, which membranes are uniquely positioned to reduce.
Over the coming months, Osmoses will double its full-time employee headcount, increase its pilot programs with chemical and petrochemical companies, utilities, and alternative energy companies, and develop partnerships with engineering and manufacturing firms.
KEY QUOTES:
“Solving the challenges of global decarbonization and enabling the energy transition isn’t possible without changing how industry separates gases. Low-carbon hydrogen and biomethane are energy vectors that can help us achieve a cleaner future, but we need a more cost-effective, climate-friendly process for accessing these precious gas molecules. Osmoses’ cutting-edge membrane technology can reduce the impact of gas separations on the environment while also increasing the economic incentive for end-users and positively impact communities disproportionately affected by climate change. By beginning to commercialize our platform, we’ll enable more organizations across the globe to hit their net-zero goals and eliminate energy waste with our transformative molecular separation technology.”
— Francesco Maria Benedetti, co-founder and CEO of Osmoses
“Osmoses is creating a future where separation isn’t a bottleneck to any industrial process, and their membrane platform is an unprecedented technology that can play a major role in the decarbonization of gas production and distribution. The company has an incredible opportunity to disrupt multi-billion dollar markets worldwide and accelerate the adoption of alternative energy sources with lower environmental impact, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to support them in their next phase of growth.”
— Vic Pascucci, Managing General Partner and co-founder at Energy Capital Ventures
“This funding propels Osmoses toward commercialization, getting first products into the hands of key partners and scaling the team to deliver on its ambitious goal of playing a foundational role in decarbonizing heavy industry.”
— Michael Kearney, Partner at Engine Ventures
