Over the past two years, TEP Birmingham has been proud to support Ki Hydrogen as the clean-tech start-up has developed its innovative approach to producing green hydrogen and progressed towards the next stage of its growth.
Ki Hydrogen first joined the TEP community through the fourth cohort of the Climate Innovation Platform in 2024. Delivered by the University of Birmingham in partnership with Energy Systems Catapult and supported by HSBC UK, the programme provided clean-tech business with access to incubation space, specialist expertise and business development support.
At the time, Ki Hydrogen co-founder and CEO Koji Muto described TEP as an ideal environment in which to scale the company’s technology, as the team set its sight on taking innovation beyond the laboratory.
Rethinking Green Hydrogen
At the heart of Ki Hydrogen is a novel approach to one of the major challenges facing the hydrogen economy: producing green hydrogen affordably and with lower energy requirements.
The company is developing biomass electrolysis technology which combines renewable electricity with biomass from sources including agriculture, forestry and industrial waste to co-produce green hydrogen and biogenic carbon.
These outputs could provide important building blocks for the decarbonisation of industries ranging from chemicals and heavy industry to sustainable fuels, with potential applications including sustainable aviation fuel, green methanol, green ammonia and fertiliser production.
From Innovation to Scale-Up
During their time at TEP Birmingham, Ki Hydrogen has continued the transition from developing its technology towards showcasing it at scale. In 2024, the business began recruiting engineering expertise specifically to lead its scale-up activity at TEP.
This development has been accompanied by a growing external recognition and investment in the technology. For instance, Ki Hydrogen has secured Innovate UK backing for its EVERgreen Hydrogen project and, in 2026, announced a further £899,654 award through the Innovate UK Investor Partnerships programme to support the next stage of its scale-up.
The company have also continued to grow their engineering capabilities, alongside gaining wider industry recognition. In June, Ki Hydrogen was named Startup to Watch at the inaugural SAFTAs (Sustainable Aviation Futures Trailblazer Awards) at SAF congress in Amsterdam, which brought together more than 1,000 senior-level attendees from across the sustainable aviation fuel industry.
The Next Chapter
Ki 13 is now entering their next phase of development; rebranding from Ki Hydrogen to Ki 13 but still retaining the same mission and technology.
The business is moving into a new laboratory and office facilities in North Acton, London, where the team is progressing through its engineering scale-up phase and building its first industrial pilot.
“Over the past two years, TEP Birmingham has provided KI Hydrogen with a supportive environment as we have continued to develop and scale our technology. Being part of the wider clean-tech network at TEP has also given us the opportunity to connect with other businesses, expertise and organisations working towards similar goals. As we move into our next phase and begin building our first industrial pilot, we’re grateful for the support we’ve received and look forward to what comes next”
Dr Micheal Stanton, Co-Founder and CTO at Ki Hydrogen.
For TEP, supporting businesses as they develop, test and ultimately scale new technologies is a central to the ecosystem we are building here in East Birmingham.
As Ki Hydrogen begins this next chapter, we are proud to have played a part in their journey over the past two years and look forward to following the team’s progress as they continue to develop and scale its technology
To find out more about how our members are driving innovation across the clean-tech sector, click here.
