QD-SOL working to develop completely green hydrogen solution

Israeli company QD-SOL has quite a few things going for it. Not only is it working to produce completely green hydrogen – the renewable energy’s sector game-changing card and biggest buzzword – but it is also backed by none other than Hollywood star and sustainability entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher.

At the moment, one way to produce green hydrogen in a non-polluting way is by electrolysis — directing electricity generated by solar or wind power to a system that isolates hydrogen from water.

The company’s solution puts the whole process inside a solar panel, generating hydrogen directly from sunlight using nanoparticles that catalyze the separation of hydrogen from oxygen in water molecules. This is accomplished without emitting carbon dioxide.

The technology behind QD-SOL is based on years of research by Prof. Lilac Amirav from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, who’s now the chief scientific officer and one of the cofounders of the company.

The company, established at the end of 2021, is comprised of 14 employees. It raised nearly $4 million in a seed round and is looking to begin its Round A of funding to raise $10 million.

The company won an award in May at a clean-tech competition held in Morocco.