This startup is fuel-injecting hydrogen to make cargo ships more

One of the most iconic scenes in the Fast & Furious franchise sees Paul Walker's character hit a small red button, injecting nitrous oxide into his Mitsubishi Eclipse's engine for an explosive boost. That's not exactly how Newlight's hydrogen-injection system works on cargo ships—the startup uses compressed hydrogen to enhance efficiency rather than outrace Vin Diesel—but it's an analogy that co-founder Evyatar Cohen finds surprisingly effective. "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,'" he told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. The San Francisco Bay Area-based team has developed a retrofit hydrogen-injection system that can be installed in under two weeks without a dry dock. According to the startup, it cuts fuel use and emissions by more than 20% and can save some vessels up to $500,000 annually. Newlight achieves this by continuously monitoring the diesel engine to pinpoint optimal moments—down to the millisecond—for hydrogen injection. The system tracks exhaust temperature, combustion pressure, and air intake pressure, adjusting hydrogen flow with every piston movement in the engine's cylinders. This hybrid system recently completed its first long-range commercial voyage: an 8,500-nautical mile trip from Singapore to Ghana on a 650-foot Lomar Shipping bulk carrier. Newlight reported a 24% reduction in fuel consumption and a 28% drop in carbon dioxide emissions. "It was amazing," said Haran Cohen Hillel, Cohen's co-founder and Newlight's CEO, of the month-long voyage. "Being onboard and seeing the system operate in real conditions was a completely different experience from anything we had done in the lab." Turning the system on with his co-founder for the first time was an "emotional moment for both of us," he added. "We spent a lot of time monitoring the system, the engine behavior, and the performance, and what impressed us most was how smoothly everything worked," Hillel told TechCrunch. "Seeing the system integrate with the vessel, operate reliably, and deliver the results we had been working toward was a huge milestone for us and for the entire Newlight team." These results, combined with a compelling pitch and the founders' years in the Israeli Navy, helped secure a $9 million seed round. Investors included lomarlabs (the venture arm of Lomar Shipping), BIRD Energy (a U.S.-Israel joint venture), deep tech funds Undeterred Capital and CiRi Ventures, and Fusion VC. Newlight says commercial interest is growing, with signed agreements to install the system on 12 vessels across multiple companies and "broader fleet rollouts planned for next year." As the maritime industry faces tightening emissions regulations through 2026 and beyond, such retrofits offer a pragmatic bridge toward cleaner shipping.

via TechCrunch Startups