Newlight Raises $9M to Scale Hydrogen Retrofits for Cargo Ships
The San Francisco startup's hybrid system cut CO2 emissions by 28% during a commercial voyage from Singapore to Ghana.
San Francisco-based startup Newlight has raised $9 million in seed funding to deploy a hydrogen-injection system designed to decarbonize the global shipping fleet. The technology allows existing diesel engines to operate more efficiently, offering a pragmatic bridge toward zero-emission maritime transport.
The funding round included investments from lomarlabs, BIRD Energy, Undeterred Capital, CiRi Ventures, and Fusion VC. To prove the system's viability, Newlight recently completed a commercial test voyage spanning 8,500 nautical miles from Singapore to Ghana. Installed on a Lomar Shipping bulk carrier, the system achieved a 28% reduction in CO2 emissions and a reduction in fuel consumption of over 20%.
A Hybrid Approach to Decarbonization
The maritime industry faces intense pressure to reduce its carbon footprint, leading to a surge in experiments with alternative fuels such as methanol and ammonia. However, transitioning to these fuels often requires constructing entirely new vessels or executing expensive, time-consuming engine replacements.
Newlight’s approach utilizes a hybrid retrofit. The system injects compressed hydrogen into the diesel engine at millisecond intervals, guided by real-time performance data. This allows operators to optimize the combustion process of existing infrastructure rather than scrapping it. "Instead of getting power, we actually say to the engine: ‘Hey, reduce the fuel [flow] to the engine, we don’t need as much because we have some nitrous. It’s [just] called hydrogen,'" said co-founder Evyatar Cohen.
Industry Implications
If scalable, this technology provides a faster and more cost-effective path to reducing emissions than a total fleet transition. By optimizing the current global fleet of diesel-powered ships, the industry can realize immediate gains in efficiency while long-term zero-emission alternatives mature.
CEO and co-founder Haran Cohen Hillel noted that the long-range test was a critical milestone, stating that seeing the system operate in real conditions was a "completely different experience" from laboratory testing. The successful voyage demonstrates that the system can maintain reliability across vast distances and varying commercial conditions.
Scaling the Fleet
Newlight is moving toward broader deployment, having signed agreements to install the system on 12 vessels across multiple shipping companies. The company's focus remains on providing a retrofit solution that avoids the need for complete engine replacements, lowering the barrier to entry for ship owners seeking to meet environmental regulations.
Observers will now watch to see if these initial 12 installations can replicate the efficiency gains seen on the Singapore-to-Ghana run across different ship classes and routes.