Lancashire hydrogen fuel firm wins £12m backing for plans to power vehicles

NanoSUN based at the Lancaster Business Park, in Caton Road, has got the funds from HydrogenOne Capital Growth, to help get its a fully mobile, self-contained and automated hydrogen refuelling solution, Pioneer Station, into production.

It aims to offer an affordable and rapidly deployable way of delivering hydrogen fuel to the point of use, such as vans, trucks and other vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

NanoSUN was founded in 2017, to come up with technology to the infrastructure gap between producers of hydrogen fuel and operators of hydrogen vehicles.

It initially developed the Pioneer station with funding support from Angel Investors, Innovate UK and Horizon2020’s flagship EIC Accelerator programme, but now has won further backing from the growth fund backed by chemicals giant INEOS along with the Westfalen Group of Germany.

Graham Hodgson, NanoSUN’s founder and chairman said: “The Pioneer’s ability to facilitate the quick introduction of hydrogen vehicle fleets will enable the transport industry to get to a clean, green future fast, with just one hydrogen bus saving roughly one tonne of CO2 emissions every week.

“This fundraise is all about scaling NanoSUN so we can help our customers to accelerate the roll out of thousands of fleets of hydrogen buses, trucks, vans and forklifts over the coming years.

“Westfalen is one of our earliest customers and we take it as a huge compliment that they see such potential in NanoSUN and Pioneer that they want to be more than just a customer.

“Finally, in Hydrogen One, we are delighted to have found a patient capital investor that shares our vision and values for the future of NanoSUN, with the resources to help us turn it into reality.”

Simon Hogan, Chairman of HydrogenOne said: “NanoSUN’s refuelling equipment is set to be integral in the downstream hydrogen sector, and HydrogenOne believes that NanoSUN will be a leader in this field.”