Home-grown hydrogen energy start-up Epago aims to tap Hong Kong’s innovation ecosystem to expand to China and overseas

The company, founded in 2022, is the first spin-off of the government’s InnoHK initiative to fund research projects in different industries

Epago wants to leverage Hong Kong’s position in the Greater Bay Area to tap China’s low production costs and sophisticated supply chain

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The company has developed a new structure of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), the most critical component of hydrogen fuel cell batteries. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 2:07pm, 4 Apr 2024

Epago Technologies, a Hong Kong green energy start-up which makes “new-generation electrodes” for hydrogen fuel cell batteries, aims to use the city’s innovation, policy, and geographical advantages as a springboard to access bigger markets in mainland China and Europe.

The company, founded in 2022, is the first spin-off of the government’s InnoHK initiative to fund research projects in different industries, and will participate in the incubation programme at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP) in Pak Shek Kok this August.

“We see Hong Kong as a good place to start, to test our prototypes, and to run some small-scale manufacturing activities. The city has skilled talent for research and development (R&D), and government support for early-stage entrepreneurship,” Andrea Grippi, co-founder and CEO, said at the company’s office in HKSTP last week.

Having started out as a research project looking at fuel cell electrodes at HKSTP, the company has developed a new structure of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), the most critical component of hydrogen fuel cell batteries which makes it possible to convert hydrogen into electricity.

Because of its complicated structure and use of expensive platinum as a catalyst, MEA accounts for around half of the cost of a hydrogen fuel cell stack, and requires a huge amount of energy during the production process.

Using patented technology developed by its team from Hong Kong University and the California Institute of Technology, Epago is able to restructure the MEA in fuel cells to save up to 80 per cent on the production costs and make the manufacturing process five times faster, according to Zhu Haoyu, co-founder and chief technology officer at Epago.