Hydrogen

Agami Zero Breaks Through with Magnetic Hydrogen Advance

Daniel Morton — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:50:11 +0000

Agami Zero Breaks Through with Magnetic Hydrogen Advance Daniel Morton Wed, 12/03/2025 - 15:50

A startup team led by RASEI Fellow Oana Luca, called Agami Zero, has just secured seed funding after winning the 2025 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Lab Venture Challenge. Their winning idea? A new way to produce hydrogen fuel more efficiently, a key mechanism for decarbonizing our energy economy.

Hydrogen is an essential puzzle piece in removing carbon from our energy economy and reducing pollution, but it is not without its challenges. While the overarching goal is to electrify as much of the economy as possible (like swapping gas central heaters for heat pumps), there are some critical areas, including sectors such as long-haul shipping, aviation, and heavy industry (steel / cement production), that are extremely difficult to power with electricity alone. While there are many researchers that are innovating in this space, and exciting discoveries that could lead to future alternatives, Hydrogen, which is an energy-dense, zero-emission fuel, is one of our most promising solutions for decarbonization.

What color is my hydrogen? There is a whole rainbow of hydrogen classifications, with over 10 different colors in total. Each color is defined based on how the hydrogen is produced. While we are not going to take a deep dive into each class here, there are some great resources where you can learn more.

Currently, most hydrogen produced today is Gray Hydrogen. This means it is produced from fossil gas using a process called Steam-Methane Reforming (SMR). The SMR process is a significant contributor to industrial carbon emissions globally, (95% of hydrogen produced in the United States is from SMR), the role of fossil gas in this process means that gray hydrogen is actually a contributor to the pollution problem, not a solution.

Blue Hydrogen is a little bit better, but still not a sustainable solution. Blue Hydrogen is generated using the same processes as Gray Hydrogen, using fossil gas, but the carbon emissions are captured and then sequestered or used in other processes. The use of fossil gas as the feedstock, and the energy required to capture the carbon emissions, also means that this is not a sustainable solution for decarbonized energy.

The real goal is to produce Green Hydrogen. Green Hydrogen is produced using carbon-free renewable electricity (such as wind and solar). The process uses renewable energy to power an electrolyzer, which separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. Green Hydrogen production does not emit any carbon pollution, but there are still challenges associated with this process. This is the area where Agami Zero team are focused, using a clever application of fundamental physics, the Lorentz Force.

A key challenge with the Green Hydrogen process is one of efficiency. Standard electrolysis of water requires a lot of energy. Gas bubbles that form on the electrodes often create electrical resistance, which forces the system to work harder, reducing the overall efficiency. The innovation from Agami Zero is to introduce a technology originally invented, and proven, in space(!), something called magnetically enhanced electrolysis (MEE). In the electrolysis process, an electrical current is used to split the water molecules. When the electrical current passes through the water (which conducts the current), the movement of these charged particles (ions), near the electrode surfaces is affected by the presence of a magnetic field. The force exerted on the ions by the magnetic field is called the Lorentz Force. Researchers found that when a magnetic field is applied to the electrolysis cell, the bubbles forming at the electrode, the ones that cause an increase in the electrical resistance, detach from the electrodes much faster.

The movement of the ions at the surface of the electrode, caused by the magnetic field, trigger the bubbles to detach. Think of it like the magnetic field providing a subtle, but continuous, “nudge”, moving the bubbles, and clearing the way for the electric current. Through careful control and tuning of the magnetic field the Agami Zero team can considerably improve the overall efficiency of the process. This clever technique reduces the systems electrical resistance, enabling a higher rate of hydrogen generation for the same amount of power.

The team is comprised of Oana Luca, RASEI Fellow, Hunter Koltunski, chemistry graduate student and scientific lead and Jafar Makrani (Agami Zero) and Lyle Antieau (Agami Zero) who bring extensive business and industry expertise to the Agami Zero team. The collaboration also includes Prof. Rich Noble, member of National Academy of Inventors and experienced entrepreneur as a mentor and Prof. Ankur Gupta, a modeling expert who will be assisting in scaleup work.

“Early in May 2025, Jafar and Lyle reached out to discuss the idea of magnetohydrodynamic electrolysis (MHD) for hydrogen production.” Explains Luca. “Jafar and Lyle had put together a business case for why the MHD approach would be successful. After reading more about the Lorentz force and quite a few email exchanges among the various team members. I remember going to group meeting and asking Hunter what he thinks about magnetic effects in electrolysis reactions and he was immediately intrigued.” Within a week Hunter was in the lab building some apparatus called Halbach arrays, the effects of which were substantial, and the rest is history. The team came together quite organically. Rich Noble is a long-term collaborator and mentor for Oana, who had engaged in many field-effect-related discussions (and for quite a few years), and Ankur rounded out the team with his mass transport expertise and the needed modeling.

In October of 2025 Agami Zero competed in the 2025 Lab Venture Challenge. Since 2018 �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has hosted the Lab Venture Challenge, which has now funded more than 115 innovative projects, resulting in 70 new deep-tech startup companies, leading to over $300M in follow-on financing raised by companies. Each year teams participate in an intensive application process that culminates in the LVC Community Showcase. This year eleven teams from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, that brought together faculty, researchers, and graduate students, competed for a combined $755,000 in startup funding grants. The community showcases adopt a “Shark Tank” style format, where the teams pitch, in front of a live audience, their ideas and innovations to a panel of judges. This year Agami Zero were competing in the Physical Sciences category and were able to convince the judges panel that their approach using MEE to offer scalable and cost-effective hydrogen fuel for transportation, industry, and off-grid power, should win.

The success of Agami Zero, from an innovative idea to a winning pitch at the LVC, is more than an entrepreneurial accomplishment, it is a testament to how researchers can use scientific understanding to solve real world problems. By taking a fundamental concept such as the Lorentz Force and applying it to a bottleneck in hydrogen generation, Oana, Hunter, and the entire team now have the opportunity to make a measurable difference in how we generate green hydrogen. This seed funding gives them a real chance to explore this idea, and we look forward to watching how Agami Zero innovates in scaling up Green Hydrogen applications.

December 2025

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Surface Acidity of Oxygen Evolution Intermediates by Excited State Optical Spectroscopy

Daniel Morton — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 19:37:57 +0000

Surface Acidity of Oxygen Evolution Intermediates by Excited State Optical Spectroscopy Daniel Morton Mon, 07/28/2025 - 13:37

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2025, 147, 31, 28474-28483

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A review of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) incorporation in the hydrogen production process

Daniel Morton — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 19:47:57 +0000

A review of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) incorporation in the hydrogen production process Daniel Morton Fri, 06/27/2025 - 13:47

GLOBAL ENERGY INTERCONNECTION, 2025, 8, 3, 363-393

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Rate-limiting regimes in photochemical H2 generation by complexes of colloidal CdS nanorods and hydrogenase

Daniel Morton — Fri, 23 May 2025 22:07:30 +0000

Rate-limiting regimes in photochemical H2 generation by complexes of colloidal CdS nanorods and hydrogenase Daniel Morton Fri, 05/23/2025 - 16:07

CHEM, 2025, 102594

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Assigning Surface Hole Polaron Configurations of Titanium Oxide Materials to Excited-State Optical Absorptions

Daniel Morton — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:18:55 +0000

Assigning Surface Hole Polaron Configurations of Titanium Oxide Materials to Excited-State Optical Absorptions Daniel Morton Tue, 03/04/2025 - 13:18

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2025, ASAP

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Anodic Hydrogen Generation from Benzaldehyde on Au, Ag, and Cu: Rotating Ring-Disk Electrode Studies

Daniel Morton — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:18:37 +0000

Anodic Hydrogen Generation from Benzaldehyde on Au, Ag, and Cu: Rotating Ring-Disk Electrode Studies Daniel Morton Mon, 12/30/2024 - 10:18

JOURNAL OF THE ELECTROCHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2024, 171, 12, 126507

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Probing intermediate configurations of oxygen evolution catalysis across the light spectrum

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Probing intermediate configurations of oxygen evolution catalysis across the light spectrum Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/09/2024 - 00:00

Mapping a route for more efficient production of sustainable fuels

Read the Article

Find out more about CEDARS

This perspective article, led by RASEI Fellow Tanja Cuk, brings together researchers at six research institutions from across the United States, to describe how advances in spectroscopy and theory can map out the elementary details of the oxygen evolution reaction, a critical reaction to enable the production of fuels from sustainable energy sources.

The oxygen evolution reaction (or OER for short), is a critical step in the creation of sustainable, decarbonized fuels, such as hydrogen. Water (H₂O) can be split into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) using electricity. This process pulls apart strong chemical bonds – it takes a lot of energy! If we can better understand this process, we can make it more efficient, which will enable us to create clean fuels and store renewable energy, like solar and wind power, to smooth out variations in the supply. Specifically, the OER is the half-reaction that occurs at the anode (positive electrode) during electrolysis, in which the water molecules are oxidized to produce oxygen gas (O₂), protons (H⁺), and electrons. Though this sounds straightforward, the process involves multiple intermediates, or steps, many of which are currently poorly defined. Understanding this complex process requires a collaborative approach. Jin Suntivich (Cornell University) and Dhananjay Kumar (North Carolina A&T) bring expertise in making advanced materials and electrochemistry, Geoffroy Hautier (Dartmouth College) and Ismaila Dabo (Carnegie Mellon University) develop theoretical models, and Ethan Crumlin (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Tanja Cuk (�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder), and Jin Suntivich use X-ray and optical spectroscopy to visualize the small molecular intermediates.

Imagine that you have to drive from Denver, Colorado, to Greensboro, North Carolina. If someone gave you a map that only showed your starting location and destination, it would be quite difficult. You would know that you had to head east, but you wouldn’t know what roads to take, which were the fastest moving, or where any good stops were along the way. You could probably get there, but you would get lost a few times on the way, use some of the slow roads, and maybe be stuck staying in places you didn’t want to. It would be a very inefficient journey. Now compare this to using a modern navigation app, one that has details of every road along the way, the speed limits, the traffic levels, where all the gas stations are, the good restaurants and coffee shops, and good places to stop for the night. You would be far more efficient (and happy) using the navigation app.

It is the same with a chemical reaction. If you understand the elementary steps of a reaction, you can design a system that is more efficient and effective at getting to the final product. Creating this ‘map’ for the OER is a central mission of the Center for Electrochemical Dynamics and Reactions on Surfaces (CEDARS). CEDARS is a Department of Energy funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), that brings together twelve research groups at five universities and two DOE national labs across the chemical, materials, and computational sciences. CEDARS is headed by Director Dhananjay Kumar at North Carolina A&T, with a strong program in thin materials research. This is the first EFRC awarded to an HB�鶹��Ѱ��as a lead institution in the country. There are several challenges that need to be overcome before the OER process can be scaled up. Currently OER is expensive, energy intensive and not reliable for continuous long-term operation. OER requires large inputs of electricity, the catalysts used in the reaction are based on scarce materials that are unstable under long-term exposure to the harsh conditions present in the OER process. By better understanding the elementary steps of the OER reaction researchers can design cheaper, more efficient processes.

RASEI Fellow, and Associate Director of CEDARS Tanja Cuk explains that there have been a series of proposed oxygen-related intermediates (e.g. OH*, O*, O-O), but it has been hard to capture experimental evidence for them and the elementary steps that create them. “The article is a perspective on how to get at the intermediates and their dynamics within the buried electrode-electrolyte interface. The approach involves model crystalline materials, targeted spectroscopies to isolate the intermediates, and theoretical investigations that predict how they appear in the electrochemistry and the spectroscopy. We also use materials that bind the intermediates at different strengths, so that they appear statically and transiently.” This fundamental and basic energy sciences approach combines expertise from across CEDARS bringing together computational theoretical modeling, materials synthesis, and spectroscopy. The diversity of institutions involved has already provided for many student and postdoctoral exchanges that further deepen the background of the team and broaden the scope of the research. Just last month the Center Director and his graduate student visited NREL and �鶹��Ѱ��to test the samples made at NCAT.

Precise control of the materials under investigation is required for effective characterization and theoretical modeling. Dhananjay Kumar, Jin Suntivich, and collaborators within CEDARS use a process called epitaxial layer deposition, a procedure where a thin crystalline layer is grown on top of a substrate. For these investigations the epitaxial layers are the OER catalysts made from ruthenium and titanium oxides that are then tested electrochemically. Geoffroy Hautier is a materials theorist who uses computational models to calculate the structure and defects that intermediates create in the materials and their impacts on x-ray and optical spectra. Ismaila Dabo takes these configurations and creates a model of the electrical and water environment around the electrode interface, describing a more realistic environment for the OER processes. To provide a more detailed understanding, the theoretical models are tested and refined based on feedback from advanced spectroscopic observations. The spectroscopies highlight static spectra of intermediate coverages and transient intermediates during OER. Jin Suntivich brings expertise in combining in-situ electrochemistry with non-linear optical techniques; Ethan Crumlin develops in-situ and time-resolved x-ray spectroscopies; Tanja Cuk combines in-situ electrochemistry with ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Integrating the computational advances with the experimental observations provides a powerful toolkit. Accurate interpretation of the spectral observations relies on the findings from the computational techniques.

While the ‘map’ for the OER has not been solved, this interdisciplinary and fundamental approach to interrogating the OER process is providing invaluable insights into how different catalysts bind to the intermediates and how this impacts different reaction pathways. By characterizing the nature of the intermediates bound to the catalyst an understanding of their equilibrium behavior during the OER process can be developed. The CEDARS team are already thinking about next steps for this powerful approach. These include understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of these intermediates by fully time resolved x-ray and optical probes and investigating more complex material structures. The observations from these ‘in-process’ reactions will help define the roadmap to a more efficient and cost-effective approach to generate clean fuels from renewable energy sources.

NATURE ENERGY, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01583-x

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Phenomenology of Intermediate Molecular Dynamics at Metal-Oxide Interfaces

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Phenomenology of Intermediate Molecular Dynamics at Metal-Oxide Interfaces Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 06/01/2024 - 00:00

ANNUAL REVIEW OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, 2024, 75, 457-481

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Computationally Guided Discovery of Mixed Mn/Ni Perovskites for Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production at High H2 Conversion

Anonymous — Fri, 31 May 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Computationally Guided Discovery of Mixed Mn/Ni Perovskites for Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production at High H2 Conversion Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/31/2024 - 00:00

CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS, 2024, 36, 11, 5331-5342

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Recent advances in anodic hydrogen production: Electrochemical oxidative dehydrogenation of aldehydes to carboxylates

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Recent advances in anodic hydrogen production: Electrochemical oxidative dehydrogenation of aldehydes to carboxylates Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/01/2024 - 00:00

CURRENT OPINION IN ELECTROCHEMISTRY, 2024, 45, 1011484

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