COLUMBUS – Spring 2022 has been a time of growth, opportunity and recognition for Columbus hydrogen technology startup, Power to Hydrogen (P2H2).

The two-year old spin-off from pH Matter, a battery, fuel cell, and advanced materials company, previously was awarded grants from the likes of Shell and NASA to accelerate development of its patented technology that reduces the cost of converting renewable energy from wind and solar into clean, storable hydrogen.

Recent industry accolades include:

  • Winning ‘Technology with the Most Potential’ at the 2022 National Energy Storage Summit, presented by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
  • Named a Top Ten Global Hydrogen Startup by Energy Tech Challengers, a startup competition juried by energy industry and venture capital executives including BP, Siemens and Bloomberg.
  • Taking first prize in Italian utility company Enel’s Green Hydrogen Challenge. Enel is the largest utility in Europe, operates in 30 different countries, and is making large investments in green hydrogen projects.
  • Invited to participate in the Amazon Web Services Cleantech Accelerator.

“We are really excited about becoming more and more recognized by industry and investment leaders around the world,” said P2H2 VP of Business Development Alex Zorniger.

“As an example, over 400 applications went into Amazon from 58 countries. Power to Hydrogen was one of only 12 startups across the entire cleantech ecosystem accepted into the program.”

Zorniger said the various conferences and competitions came with the opportunity to pitch to investors from Fortune 500 companies, U.S. government researchers and venture capitalists.

“These pitches have opened many doors for us, and P2H2 is in discussion with several potential investors and strategic partners as a result of these pitches,” Zorniger said.

Additonally, Zorniger said some of the awards come with offers of technical expertise, mentoring and tangible resources such as computing resources courtesy of Amazon Web Services.

P2H2 is the result of a decade-long research effort conducted by Dr. Paul Matter, CEO of pH Matter and Chris Holt, COO/CFO. The technology Matter and Holt developed was patented and spun off into Power to Hydrogen in late 2019. Since then, P2H2 has partnered with NASA on a project to develop a reversible hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen storage solution for future lunar exploration. P2H2 is also collaborating with others such as Shell, Enel and several confidential partners. The company is funded through its current collaborations and a recent seed round of funding.