Hydrogen powered, built to last. Croft is an ambitious startup with a blueprint for an enduring, local and clean hydrogen economy. From rugged vehicles to groundbreaking at-home fueling products, we build enduring hydrogen equipment for the world’s toughest challenges. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Roderick Blevins and Isaac Holeman, Croft’s early team hails from communities in the American heartland. We set out to make the transition to clean energy work for rural communities and we’re proud to be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Croft的外部链接
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Gates Cambridge Scholar | Forbes 30 Under 30 | Hydrogen equipment for humanity's toughest jobs.
My resolution for 2025: I'm going to build a Base Station that can make hydrogen fuel just about anywhere - even off-grid! Check out the video for a tour of my farm. It's the context for why I believe off-grid hydrogen is how we make clean energy work for real trucks and real people in my part of the world. #hydrogen #cleanenergy #energyindependence #energy
Gates Cambridge Scholar | Forbes 30 Under 30 | Hydrogen equipment for humanity's toughest jobs.
The latest Future of Fuel newsletter is out! This week we're covering news on the future of combustion engines. There's also an article that may interest the folks I connected with at Fed Supernova last week - about how the US Army sees the potential of hydrogen. As ever, thanks to Tarani Duncan for leading the charge on this newsletter. https://lnkd.in/gpxPE5mS
Croft’s co-founder is in Austin this week meeting with other dual use startup founders, investors and partners in government. If you’re in town and want to meet up, send him a message!
Gates Cambridge Scholar | Forbes 30 Under 30 | Hydrogen equipment for humanity's toughest jobs.
I’m at Fed Supernova in Austin this week! Last night was fascinating, thank you to Aabid Razvi from Overmatch Ventures as well as 8VC and Saronic Technologies for hosting a great reception. If you’re here and interested in discussing what a breakthrough in hydrogen storage could do for dual use companies and partners in government, let me know! I’d be happy to tell about what we’re building at Croft.
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Fuel cells aren't the only option for leveraging the benefits of hydrogen. Croft is working to deliver a superior truck for rural communities, which happens to be sustainable. And they're using an H2 ICE. Here are some thoughts from Isaac Holeman about the decision between a fuel cell or H2 ICE. Isaac and Tarani Duncan joined the Future of Mobility podcast for Episode 206. #futureofmobility
Gates Cambridge Scholar | Forbes 30 Under 30 | Hydrogen equipment for humanity's toughest jobs.
At Croft we’re often asked why we’re building rugged hydrogen-powered trucks and at-home fueling products, powered by a breakthrough hydrogen storage technology. Isn’t that a lot to take on? Could we just sell the storage technology to some of the big companies that are already very interested in hydrogen? The simple answer is yes - building a fundamentally new and better product ecosystem is ambitious, and we’re already pursuing some exciting technical collaborations. But building a business that only sells ‘picks and shovels’ wouldn’t cut it in my view. We have a mandate to transform established industries, and selling our core technology to slow-moving, risk-adverse incumbents isn’t going to be the fastest or most efficient way to do that. A recent post by Ian Rountree at Cantos explains why Full-Stake Deep Tech startups are: - Better positioned to change the cost structure and carbon intensity of commodities (in our case, putting hydrogen fuel on track to cost less than diesel by 2030) - Able to target larger Total Addressable Markets (in our case, the >300B truck market and the much larger hydrogen fueling market) - Able to accelerate with each influx of capital (for Croft this self-determination means we aren’t stuck if incumbents decide that we should move forward cautiously with gasoline/diesel-hybrids until 2040 - we get to decarbonize trucks with hydrogen before 2030, with or without them) - Positioned for greater optionality and strategic flexibility (e.g. we’re pursuing technical collaborations with defense and motorsports companies that are intrigued by our H2 storage technology, and we’re positioned to flex this business up or down over time depending on how the ROIC compares to what we’re seeing with our trucks and fueling business) - more capital intensive initially, yet often more capital efficient in the long term. With the right strategy, full stack deep tech startups like Croft are still able to get products to market quickly and start building a customer-centric culture for reasonable pre-revenue Capex.?None of this is to say that there’s no room for picks and shovels businesses, but I think the energy transition needs a lot more Full Stack Deep Tech Startups. If Ian’s post resonates with you (or doesn’t!), I’d been interested to hear why in the comments.?https://lnkd.in/g7KgNicp
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Internal combustion engines produce zero carbon when they burn hydrogen - which means there's a carbon-free future that doesn't involve killing the soul of the automobile. Pursuing that future in earnest could save us billions of dollars, and years of carbon emissions. To expand, burning hydrogen produces emissions, but not substances that affect the climate or the land that depends on it. Specifically, burning hydrogen produces NOx, an abbreviation for two different substances: NO, and NO2. These gasses are harmful to people in that they can cause respiratory issues; these are the pollutants that regulators worked to eliminate back in the '70s to improve air quality in cities. We have technologies on cars already (e.g., catalytic converters) to mitigate these emissions significantly, and tailoring combustion conditions (i.e., tuning air-fuel mixture and fuel-injection conditions) can go a long way to reducing NOx emissions from hydrogen, too. In short, NOx emissions from hydrogen combustion are, at once, a solved and solvable problem. Importantly, neither NO nor NO2 have an insulating effect in the atmosphere; they have no effect on climate change. People often confuse these substances with "Nitrous Oxide," which actually has a chemical formula of N2O. This gas has a terrible insulating effect in the atmosphere and does contribute to climate change, but importantly, it is not produced by combustion. Instead, N2O is generally released by agricultural practices related to fertilizers. Ultimately, we can continue to use combustion engines in a world without carbon emissions. People who like loud V8s will celebrate implicitly, but beyond user experience, this possibility has profound implications. First, we can decarbonize any gas-powered cars relatively quickly. The shift to hydrogen largely requires a change in fuel injectors, fuel lines, fuel tanks, and ECU tuning - not wholesale package redesign. This opportunity would save the automotive industry - and transitively, customers - billions of dollars in shifting to an EV-only production base for vehicles. Second, the industry can transition to zero carbon without abandoning the existing supply chain, or players within it. This opportunity would also save a fortune while also significantly accelerating the pace of decarbonization and mitigating geopolitical concerns associated with dependencies in the battery supply chain. Third, the entire ecosystem of automotive use after vehicle sale can remain relatively independent and self-determined. Combustion vehicles are dependable, easy to fix, and easy to customize. While this may seem like a UX-related point, it also means that we can drive adoption faster where a vehicle architecture already has trust and understanding. It may sound strange, but a zero-carbon future may be very loud indeed.
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Decarbonizing road vehicles with batteries will require a 25%-150% increase in installed generation capacity in the United States, depending on how excited we remain about individual freedom of movement. Even ignoring diminishing-ROI ubiquitous charging infrastructure, power distribution, and power transmission, the generation problem will conservatively take more than 15 years and billions of dollars. In parallel, we'll need to get started on changing the >90% of American minds that don't want a BEV anyway. Hydrogen can preserve the lineage of the combustion-powered automobile with a fueling network that can be built in less than a decade with no centralized infrastructure.
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Mechanical Engineering Student | Founder of The Engineering Way| Mechanical Engineering Co-op with Siemens Healthineers
Do you want to find deep joy and satisfaction in your work? Work for a company that is solving a problem you are passionate about and join them in solving it. Here are some innovative companies you could work for as an engineer ???? Varda Space Industries —> Drug manufacturing in Space Siemens Healthineers —> Pioneering breakthroughs in healthcare with molecular imaging technology Picogrid —> unified platform for autonomous systems Holocene —> Building the future of direct air capture Anduril Industries —> Transforming US & allied military capabilities with advanced technology Hermeus —> radically accelerating air travel with hypersonic aircraft SpinLaunch —> Revolutionizing Access to Space Rivian —> Electric Adventure Vehicles REGENT —> Coastal Travel. 100% Electric. LILLIUM GmbH —> high speed air mobility through its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft Archer —> Electric Air Taxis Boom Supersonic —> Supersonic passenger airplanes RTX —> aviation, space, and defense Ursa Major —> Making rocket propulsion easier Croft —> Rugged vehicles to groundbreaking at-home fueling infrastructure Lucid Motors —> Electric sustainable vehicles Tesla —> Accelerating the World’s Transition to Sustainable Energy Ovyl —> Design Consultancy that helps businesses with hardware products Vatn Systems —> Building the future of autonomous underwater vehicles Volocopter —> Electric air taxis Vertical Aerospace —> Pioneering electric aviation Jetson —> Personal electric aerial vehicles Gravity Industries —> Jet suit pilots making human flight reality Blue Origin —> Helping people live and work in space Stoke Space —> Seamless mobility to, through, and from space. SpaceX —> Designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft beehiiv —> The newsletter platform built for growth (beehiiv is absolutely incredible) Boston Dynamics —> changing your idea of what robots can do Helix Biotech, Inc. —> brings cutting-edge medicines to the world through innovation and manufacturing excellence Novo Nordisk —> working to defeat chronic diseases ōURA —> enhance your health journey WHOOP —> Your personalized digital fitness and health coach Zap Energy —> Fusion power. No magnets required. Future Motion —> destroy boredom on the best electric skateboard Wing —> autonomous drone delivery Norsjór —> Advanced laser technology for biofouling removal Five Flute —> Engineering design review platform for modern hardware teams Privateer Space —> creates decision intelligence by tracking space objects Redwood Materials —> Circular supply chain for Lithium-ion batteries Eastman —> chemical manufacturing These companies are solving important problems and you can be a part of the solution! I know you will change the world for good! To learn more: Join The Engineering Way today
We had a great conversation with Brandon Bartneck last week on the Future of Mobility podcast. Check it out to hear more about: - Rural perspectives on the transition to clean energy - A breakthrough in hydrogen storage, and why it matters - Why people are getting so excited about rugged hydrogen pickups https://lnkd.in/dr8xNF8f
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Great discussion this week, tackling a critical yet undeserved aspect of decarbonization - rural transportation. Isaac Holeman and Tarani Duncan join from Croft. We covered topics including: - The need for better solutions to decarbonize transportation in rural environments - Why existing EVs aren’t viable solutions in the country - Why it’s important to make and sell an exceptional product, rather than starting with a green-focused value proposition for end users - Why hydrogen storage is the most expensive and challenging part of the hydrogen value chain - Croft’s novel approach to hydrogen generation and storage - The decision to use a H2 powered V8 ICE rather than a fuel cell system - The path ahead for Croft https://lnkd.in/giNVs3Mu #futureofmobility