Welcome to #5 of the Deeptech From Scratch podcast!
In this episode, Dom Falcão sits down with Luke Tan, Co-Founder and CPO of Supercritical, to discuss how they are intentionally designing a way out of the carbon crisis by reinventing one of the world's most critical commodities, hydrogen.
HYDROGEN IS ALREADY DOING THE WORK
As Luke points out, the biggest misconception is that hydrogen is merely a futuristic fuel for cars, when in reality it is a foundational commodity already underpinning modern life, from the fertilisers that grow our food to the paracetamol that cures our headaches.
The problem is not the utility of the 90 million tonnes produced annually, but the fact that this production accounts for 2% of global emissions, with 10kg of CO2 generated for every kilogram of hydrogen made. While green hydrogen offers a clear alternative, cost remains the central barrier to adoption.
However, the problem is broader than any single component; it must be addressed at the system level to successfully displace fossil-derived hydrogen.
RETHINKING THE SYSTEM
At its core, the cost of green hydrogen is driven by electricity and efficiency. Existing electrolysers, such as alkaline and PEM systems, lose about 40% of the energy that goes in, meaning a significant share of the most expensive input is wasted before hydrogen is even produced.
While these technologies have existed for over a century, they remain trapped by these efficiency losses and a reliance on a physical membrane as thin as a human hair to separate gases. These membranes represent a major failure point; if the membrane fails due to a tiny defect or pinhole, the entire system shuts down.
However, efficiency alone does not explain the full picture, as hydrogen production must be integrated into a wider industrial system that requires the gas to be delivered at high pressure. This usually introduces additional layers of complexity through external compression, which adds both capital cost and operational risk.
Through early discussions with industrial majors, the Supercritical team identified that pressure was just as critical a constraint as efficiency. Processes like ammonia production already operate at high pressure, meaning hydrogen must be delivered at those specific conditions to be useful.
Supercritical’s approach was to remove the membrane entirely, designing a membraneless architecture that operates at high pressure and high temperature. By doing so, they are targeting efficiencies closer to 86%, drastically reducing energy waste while delivering hydrogen natively at the pressures required for industrial chemical production. This eliminates the need for expensive and complex external compressors, simplifying the entire system and hitting the "holy grail" requirements of the real market.
THE JOURNEY TO GLOBAL LICENSING
The company’s origin story is pure deep tech grit, involving an NDA signed on a car roof in a Surrey car park during the pandemic, several months in a shipping container in Shepherds Bush and a lot of ingenious cost-cutting engineering.
Since that first meeting in Surrey, Supercritical has grown to a team of 45 people, reached over 10,000 hours of testing, and secured backing from heavyweights like Toyota and Shell Ventures as well as top tier funds like Lower Carbon Capital. The goal now is global expansion. Rather than centralising manufacturing, Supercritical has launched a Global Technology Centre in London to license its modular technology to regions with abundant renewable resources, such as Morocco, Oman, and India.
As Luke puts it, technology created this problem, and technology will be what gets us out of it.
You can listen to the full episode here and learn more about Supercritical on their website and LinkedIn.