CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov 4, 2021–
Osmoses, the developer of a novel membrane technology for gas separations, today announced it has raised a $3 million pre-seed funding round, led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT that invests in early-stage Tough Tech companies. Fine Structure Ventures ( FSV ), a venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, also participated in the round, alongside Orbia Ventures, Little Green Bamboo, and notable individual investors, including Stuart Levinson and Adrian Pylypec. This capital will be used to fuel rapid growth through hiring talent, platform development and manufacturing. It will also support initial commercial partnerships, accelerating Osmoses’ mission to eliminate energy waste with efficient separation technology, reducing production costs and CO 2 emissions.
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Osmoses’ founding team (Photo: Business Wire)
Today, molecular separations represent 15% of global energy use and generate 16% of CO 2 emissions annually. While gas separation processes are critical for the more than 13,000 chemical and power plants operating in the U.S., the traditional approaches to purify methane, hydrogen, and oxygen are not only a source of significant energy waste, but also very costly for production companies.
Osmoses has developed a membrane platform technology with unprecedented performance for a number of gas separation applications, which easily integrates with existing energy infrastructures. The materials platform solves the inherent tradeoff between permeability and selectivity in membrane technology, achieving the highest combination demonstrated to date of these two key parameters. Its novel 3D ladder membrane polymer is stable in industrial conditions and delivers up to 5x the selectivity and 100x the permeability, when compared with conventional membranes.
“There’s an increasing need for gas separation membranes and the global category will continue to surge in the coming years, representing a $10 billion and growing market opportunity overall,” said Francesco Maria Benedetti, co-founder and CEO of Osmoses. “We’ve developed and proven the viability of Osmoses’ materials platform to overcome traditional membrane challenges, to deliver membranes offering the most sustainable alternative to thermal processes. Our molecular filters can be manufactured at scale using established techniques, consume 40% to 60% less energy than commercial alternatives, and most importantly, deliver excellent separation.”
Osmoses’ patented materials platform can be applied across several gas and vapor separations. This invention addresses the rising demand for biogas and hydrogen, as well as the increasing need for CO 2 removal, and provides a cost-effective, high-performance technology to support global energy transition to renewable sources. The platform …….