Verne

Company Description

Heavy-duty trucks, airplanes, and ships are increasingly being developed with hydrogen (H₂) fuel cell technology as a pathway to zero-emission transportation. However, inadequate hydrogen storage technology is a recurring challenge for these applications.

Despite its availability and increasingly low cost, compressed H₂ gas, a conventional hydrogen storage method, is low in density, limiting vehicle range and reducing the vehicle payload capacity. In contrast, liquid H₂ is much denser and takes up less space, but is prone to evaporation and energy-intensive to produce, resulting in higher costs and operational complexity.

Verne is building high-density, low-cost hydrogen storage systems to address these challenges and therefore is helping the heavy-duty transportation sector transition to zero-emission fuel cells.

The Verne system will store hydrogen in a cryo-compressed state at moderate pressure and low temperature levels for heavy-duty applications. The ultra-high density achieved in this method enables long-haul trucks, ships, and planes to store the required energy to travel full routes, while avoiding the inefficiencies, costs, and infrastructure limitations of alternative methods (such as liquid hydrogen). Verne’s first target application is heavy-duty trucks.

This technology has the potential to reduce H₂ storage costs by 40 percent and to enable vehicles to refuel at any hydrogen refueling station, doubling storage capacity and increasing fueling flexibility for long-haul trucking and other transport.