Newtrace

Newtrace is a ClimateTech startup that manufactures innovative electrolyzers to produce green hydrogen efficiently and affordably. It aims to tackle climate change by enabling wide-scale adoption of green hydrogen, and by being at the forefront of India’s clean energy transition.

The demand for hydrogen was 90 million tonnes in 2020, and its use resulted in over 900 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the same year. By using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuel-based hydrogen, companies can significantly cut back on their CO2 emissions. This is because the production of green hydrogen relies on renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power.

Electrolyzers are key to the production of green hydrogen as they use electricity or renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen gas is then collected and used for industrial applications. Newtrace’s proprietary, patent-pending electrolyzer technology is designed to obtain ultrapure hydrogen, with up to 60% reduction in overall production costs.

Green hydrogen lends itself to diverse use cases; including the possibility of replacing all fossil-based hydrogen with it in refineries and the fertilizer industry, powering fuel cells in medium to heavy-duty land transport, as well as using it as electrofuel (or e-fuel) in the aviation and shipping industries. Since green hydrogen doesn’t emit polluting gasses, it can significantly help reduce our carbon footprint.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Newtrace was founded by Prasanta Sarkar and Rochan Sinha in October 2021. Prasanta has a PhD in Fluid Mechanics, Energy and Process Engineering from Université Grenoble Alpes, and is a two-time awardee of the Marie Curie fellowship. He is an aerospace engineer turned entrepreneur. Rochan is a material scientist with a PhD in Applied Physics from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands and specializes in the areas of solid-state batteries, electrolyzers, and solar fuel devices.

*Angel investor: Ashish Goel.