Technology
Hgen draws on Tesla and SpaceX experience to lower hydrogen costs
Hydrogen could also be touted because the fuel of the longer term that’s poised to decarbonize shipping and industry, but 90 million metric tons now utilized in every part from fertilizer production to chemical production, 96% comes directly from natural gas, oil, or coal. For example, one of the crucial common methods is steam methane reforming, which essentially cooks the methane in order that the hydrogen comes off, releasing carbon dioxide in the method.
This can hardly be called a climate-friendly future.
That means there’s loads of room for corporations to try to bring down the value of hydrogen production. “There’s over $100 billion being spent on hydrogen for industrial applications right now,” said Molly Yang, co-founder and CEO Hgen.
Yang and her co-founder Colin Ho founded Hgen three years ago after stints at Tesla and SpaceX. Their goal was to modularly create electrolyzers, chemical assemblies that may produce green hydrogen by splitting water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. Electrolysis isn’t squeaky clean—it still requires electricity, which is currently generated from a mixture of renewables and fossil fuels—but because the grid gets cleaner, hydrogen production through electrolysis can be getting cleaner.
That vision earned them a $2 million seed round in 2022 led by Founders Fund and induction into this yr’s Breakthrough Energy Fellows cohort. Now, Hgen is back with one other $5 million funding round from Seven Seven Six with participation from Fontinalis Partners and Founders Fund, the corporate told TechCrunch exclusively.
Part of Hgen’s initial pitch was that we’ve all of the electrolyzer technology we want today, nevertheless it’s not optimized enough. “We’re not a materials R&D company,” Yang told TechCrunch. Instead, the team focused on optimizing the whole gadget, from the electrolyzer electrodes to the tangle of pipes and pumps that support them.
Hgen uses alkaline electrolyzers, an old and proven technology that typically trades a few of the efficiency gains of newer approaches for lower costs. But Yang says Hgen has found a way to make the electrolyzer 20 times smaller, which cuts material and manufacturing costs. “Even with the first designs, we’re coming out with much lower costs,” she said.
In an electrolyzer, the magic happens on the interface between the electrode and the liquid. The electrodes carry current into the liquid and facilitate a chemical response that breaks the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen. When this happens, bubbles of hydrogen gas on one side of the electrolyzer and oxygen gas on the opposite side form on the electrodes and eventually leak to the surface.
But those bubbles also tend to linger an excessive amount of. “That blocks the reactivity of the electrodes and the ability to create new hydrogen,” Yang said. So Hgen modified the electrode design to encourage the hydrogen and oxygen bubbles to drain away more quickly. That means Hgen’s stack of electrolyzers could be smaller and produce the identical amount of hydrogen. The smaller stack uses less material and takes up less space, which further reduces costs. “Our cell design essentially enables this virtuous cycle,” she said.
Yang said Hgen intends to package the entire thing right into a 40-foot shipping container that could be delivered to the positioning and connected with minimal work — “just water and electricity,” she said.
The startup is initially targeting corporations that currently receive hydrogen in liquefied form, which Yang said can cost well over $10 per kilogram. “Being able to avoid all that liquefaction, all that trucking, is just a more attractive price proposition for them,” she said. “And also a more stable, secure supply for them.”
Technology
US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident
Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.
In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”
Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.
Technology
It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500
Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.
The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.
The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.
More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)
Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.
The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.
Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.
Technology
Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers
According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.
However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.
Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.
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