On Thursday, SK Inc, the outbound investment arm of South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate, said it is the lead investor in a venture capital round for Monolith Materials, the Lincoln, Nebraska-headquartered producer of green hydrogen. The funds will be used to expand Monolith’s green hydrogen production plant in Nebraska, in alignment with SK’s stated goal of bringing carbon-neutral energy to global markets. SK will also work with Monolith as it expands into new geographies.
Other investors in the SK-led consortium include NextEra Energy Resources, private equity firm Perry Creek Capital, along with Azimuth Capital Management, Cornell Capital and Warburg Pincus.
Turquoise hydrogen
Monolith Materials is the first U.S. manufacturer to produce “turquoise hydrogen” (i.e., meeting the industry standard for cleanest hydrogen currently available) at commercial scale using a proprietary process called methane pyrolysis. This process uses renewable energy to convert natural gas into clean hydrogen and a solid carbon material called carbon black, used as an input in automotive and industrial applications. Monolith also recently announced plans to produce clean ammonia at a separate Nebraska production facility.
Expansion of its hydrogen facility is expected to be completed in 2024, at which point Monolith Materials’ production of green hydrogen, clean ammonia and carbon black is expected to take some 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere.
“Monolith Materials’ proprietary green hydrogen production process supports SK’s initiative to lead the global transition to a hydrogen economy and make meaningful progress toward a more sustainable energy system,” SK Inc Executive Vice President Moo-hwan Kim said in announcing the investment round. “SK recognizes the critical role hydrogen plays in alternative energy sources, and we are encouraged by Monolith’s technology that advances clean hydrogen production.”
SK’s investment in Monolith is part of a broader hydrogen push within the Korean conglomerate, which has committed capital to global hydrogen partnerships, innovations in hydrogen production methods, and demand development initiatives. Late last year, SK Inc. started a group-level hydrogen business, called the “Hydrogen Business Development Center,” as it aims to produce 280,000 tons of hydrogen (including 30,000 tons of liquefied hydrogen) beginning in 2023, and 250,000 of green hydrogen beginning in 2025. Earlier this year, the company invested around $1.6 billion in Plug Power, a New York-based provider of hydrogen fuel cell and fueling solutions, in a partnership to jointly enter the Asian hydrogen market.
In 2019, SK Group Chairman Tae-won Chey committed to investing $10 billion to create new jobs and opportunities for communities across the U.S. SK companies have more than 2,000 employees at sites in 10 states with plans that could more than triple its U.S. employee base in the next three years.
In November 2020, Monolith Materials received an investment from the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in support of its clean hydrogen expansion.
