Hgen is a Los Angeles-area climate-tech company building higher-efficiency alkaline electrolyzers that convert water and renewable electricity into clean, low-cost hydrogen for heavy industry. Founded in 2021 by former Tesla and SpaceX engineers, Hgen redesigned the electrolyzer cell to shed hydrogen bubbles faster, claiming roughly 20x higher power density and a much smaller footprint than conventional alkaline systems. The company packages its technology into shipping-container-sized units that need only water and electricity, aiming to undercut the cost of trucked-in liquid hydrogen and help decarbonize chemicals, steel, and other industrial processes.
Molly Yang is the co-founder and CEO of Hgen, a Los Angeles climate-tech company building modular, mass-manufacturable alkaline electrolyzers to make clean hydrogen cheap enough for heavy industry. A former energy product lead at Tesla, she teamed up with childhood friend and ex-SpaceX engineer Colin Ho to shrink the electrolyzer roughly twentyfold and package it into shipping containers that need only water and electricity. Hgen has raised $7M total from Founders Fund, Seven Seven Six, and Fontinalis Partners, and Yang was named a 2022 Breakthrough Energy Fellow.