Harwell's Nium raises £2.3m in green ammonia technologies scale up

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Tom Kilkelly

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Harwell-based nanotechnology company Nium has raised $3 million (£2.3 million) in seed funding to scale up its green ammonia technologies.

The company is looking to 'decarbonise chemistry' and this latest round of seed funding will contribute to Nium's ambition of transforming the most polluting chemical industrial process on the planet, ammonia production, into a more environmentally sustainable practice.

Funding was led by companies including agri-food-tech venture capital investor AgFunder, deeptech investors DCVC, and pre-seed investors from the UK and Europe such as Carbon13.

These funds will be employed through Nium's first ’minions’, which are small scale, modular, low energy consumption reactors that produce green ammonia. The minions contain Nium’s catalyst, delivering ammonia at a reduced cost and cutting the pollution of traditional ammonia production methods.

Today, 96 per cent of Ammonia relies on Haber-Bosch, the most polluting chemical industrial process on Earth. CEO and cofounder of Nium Lewis Jenkins said: “Nium has the potential to eliminate emissions at every stage of this process. Removing Haber-Bosch from our lives would reduce the 500 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) from ammonia production each year.

''Nium’s technology can also help unlock a potential 700 mega tonnes of CO₂ from transport as zero carbon ammonia replaces the literal ‘bottom of the barrel’ for fossil bunker fuel in maritime shipping and other industrial applications.

''There is also an immediate opportunity for ammonia as a hydrogen energy carrier. Green Ammonia on Demand delivers on hydrogen’s promise as a vector for renewable energy and a viable alternative to fossil fuels.”

Law firm Burges Salmon advised Nium on the funding with a team comprised of partner Alex Lloyd and associate Niall Mackle.

Alex said: “What Lewis and the team at Nium have developed through nanotechnology is quite extraordinary. This funding will enable Nium to continue in its all-important production of green ammonia technologies and we are very proud to have played our part in helping progress this critical work.”

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Tom Kilkelly

Tom Kilkelly started working as a freelance journalist for The Business Magazine following his graduation from UCL in 2022. During his studies Tom became very interested in the works of Irish authors including Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan). His current role as a freelance business reporter is his first exposure to the world of business journalism. Working at TBM has given Tom the chance to really get to grips with the goings-on in the business hive that is the South East.