byFounders, Superangel, and Norrsken Evolve have backed a €2.7 million pre-seed funding round for Spiral Hydrogen, a startup aiming to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in green hydrogen production. The round includes €2.0 million in equity and €0.7 million in grants, providing the company with the resources to move its technology from laboratory development to real-world pilot deployment.
The company’s next step will be a pilot project in collaboration with SwitcH2 Offshore, based in the Port of Rotterdam ecosystem—one of Europe’s key hubs for hydrogen and industrial decarbonization.
Green hydrogen is widely seen as a critical solution for reducing emissions in sectors that are difficult to electrify, including steelmaking, shipping, fertilizers, and heavy chemicals. However, high production costs have remained a major barrier to adoption, keeping hydrogen from competing with fossil-based alternatives.
A significant part of that cost challenge stems from a fundamental limitation in conventional electrolysis. During hydrogen production, gas bubbles form on electrode surfaces, reducing efficiency by as much as 30%. While this issue has long been recognized, it has never been fully resolved within traditional system designs.
Spiral Hydrogen is taking a different approach. Instead of optimizing existing technology, the company has developed a centrifugal electrolyzer that eliminates bubble buildup altogether. By continuously rotating the system, gases are removed immediately as they form, keeping electrode surfaces clear and maintaining optimal performance.
This design enables significantly higher efficiency levels—reportedly exceeding 90%, compared to the typical 60–70% range seen in conventional systems. If validated at scale, such improvements could reduce the cost of green hydrogen by 50–75%, potentially making it competitive with—or even cheaper than—grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels.
With fresh capital secured and a pilot project underway, Spiral Hydrogen is now moving toward demonstrating its technology outside the lab. The outcome could have broader implications for the hydrogen sector, where cost reductions are widely considered the key to unlocking large-scale adoption.
