SK Innovation leads latest funding round for zero-emission Amogy

LONDON South Korea's SK Innovation led the latest $46 million funding round for climate tech start-up Amogy, which aims to speed up the shift to zero emission fuels for heavy industries such as shipping.

The company wants to drive the transition to greener fuels by converting carbon-free ammonia to power, as it accounts for around 17 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Ammonia is widely used in industrial applications, but its suitability as a transport fuel has been limited because of the technical challenge of converting the chemical into energy in confined space.

The problem the company is solving is the battery, according to Seonghoon Woo, CEO of Amogy. They were useful for small electric vehicles, but they also need a fuel with more energy density, such as ships, trucks and planes.

The energy storage system we've built converts ammonia to electrons very efficiently in a small footprint, so you can use it in different vehicles. Amogy said that other investors, including Amazon, through its Climate Pledge Fund, AP Ventures and Newlab, are also backing the round, apart from Saudi Aramco and SK Innovation.

The total funding of Amogy has been close to 70 million since its founding in 2020, according to Woo.

He said that the money would be used to scale up Amogy's technology for trials in sectors including shipping, where it plans to test a demonstration vessel over the next year with the aim of developing ammonia-based power for ocean-going ships.

With 90 per cent of world trade transported by sea, shipping accounts for nearly 3 per cent of CO2 emissions, but environmental campaigners say efforts to reduce emissions are too slow.

The International Maritime Organization has a goal to reduce GHG emissions from ships by 50 per cent from 2008 levels by 2050, which is below the targets set by countries such as the United States that have pushed for a zero emissions target by the year 2050.

The IMO said it would issue a revised GHG strategy in 2023.