Osmoses will use the funding to develop commercial scale membrane modules for field deployment and establish pilot partnerships.
Founded by MIT and Stanford PhDs, Osmoses offers cost-effective, climate-friendly technology to purify key molecules for alternative energy production.
Osmoses has 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%. In some applications involving hydrogen purification, Osmoses’ solution can deliver up to 40% higher product recoveries at a fraction of the cost and over 50% reduction in footprint. Osmoses can also power profitable hybrid separation system designs for low feed concentrations such as those in hydrogen de-blending and helium recovery.
“Solving the challenges of global decarbonization and enabling the energy transition isn’t possible without changing how industry separates gases,” says Francesco Maria Benedetti, co-founder and CEO of Osmoses. “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.”
In addition to 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 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,” said Vic Pascucci, Managing General Partner and co-founder at Energy Capital Ventures. “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.”
In addition to its venture capital funding, Osmoses recently received a US$1.5 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE), as well as additional grant support from ARPA-E and NSF, among other organizations.
“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,” said Michael Kearney, partner at Engine Ventures.
Osmoses says in the coming months it 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.
Additional participating investors in the seed round included Engine Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Little Green Bamboo, BlindSpot Ventures and a number of angel investors, including Martin Madaus, the former CEO of Millipore Corporation.
