Renewable fuels company Raven SR announces strategic investment from Chevron, ITOCHU, Hyzon Motors and Ascent Hydrogen Fund

PINEDALE, Wyo., Aug. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Raven SR Inc., a renewable fuels company, announced today the closing of a $20 million strategic investment from Chevron U.S.A. Inc. ("Chevron"), ITOCHU Corporation ("ITOCHU", TSE: 8001), Hyzon Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: HYZN) and Ascent Hydrogen Fund ("Ascent"). Raven SR plans to build modular waste-to-green hydrogen production units and renewable synthetic fuel facilities initially in California and then worldwide.

Raven SR's technology makes it one of the only combustion-free, waste-to-hydrogen producers in the world. Unlike alternative approaches to waste disposal, such as incineration or gasification, Raven SR's Steam/CO₂ Reformation process involves no combustion. Raven SR's process is designed to reduce emissions and produce more green hydrogen per ton of waste than competing processes.

Raven SR's process can also produce other renewable energy products such as synthetic liquid fuels (diesel, Jet A, mil-spec JP-8), additives and solvents (such as acetone, butanol, and naphtha) and electricity via microturbines. Also, Raven SR's technology can produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), an increasingly important component of the global aviation industry's decarbonization efforts to align with targets outlined in the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change.

"We are grateful for our investors' recognition of Raven SR's technology which transforms organic waste into renewable hydrogen and synthetic fuels for commercial and passenger vehicles and airplanes," said Matt Murdock, CEO of Raven SR. "Today, we're excited to start working with our partners on realizing our global vision of zero-emission transportation, on land and in the skies, through locally sourced and produced renewable fuels, while reducing waste in our landfills and their accompanying emissions."

Murdock noted the new funding reflects growing business and consumer demand for clean energy and renewable fuels that will have a positive impact in addressing climate change.

"Our investment with Raven SR underscores our commitment to help develop a commercially viable hydrogen value chain that can provide lower carbon energy solutions to a variety of sectors," said Alice Flesher, general manager of Strategy and Planning for Chevron's global Downstream & Chemicals businesses. "This is an exciting opportunity to develop green hydrogen technology with partners in the Bay Area that can complement our existing hydrogen infrastructure at Chevron Richmond."

"Raven SR's technology is highly efficient, scalable, and mobile, solving many of the logistics and financial challenges of green hydrogen production," said Hyzon Motors CEO Craig Knight. "With their partnership, we expect to reach our vision of 1,000 green hydrogen hubs, which will enable thousands of Hyzon hydrogen fuel cell-powered trucks to operate on US roads in the near future – at costs comparable to diesel-powered vehicles."

The strategic investment comes after Raven and Hyzon Motors agreed to build up to 250 hydrogen production facilities across the United States and globally. Hyzon Motors, with U.S. operations based in Rochester, N.Y., is a leading global supplier of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell-powered commercial vehicles.

Tsuyoshi Matsumoto, general manager of ITOCHU's Petroleum Trading Department, said: "ITOCHU has set enhancing our contribution to and engagement with the SDGs through business activities as one of the Basic Policies in its medium-term management plan. We expect that Raven's technology enables us to produce renewable hydrogen and renewable fuels from municipal solid wastes more efficiently. Through Raven's projects and products, we would like to create a supply chain with partners, and will continue to work to introduce renewable fuels in worldwide markets to solve issues for the realization of a circular economy, a carbon-free and a sustainable society."

"Ascent's global mandate is to look for champions across hydrogen's vertical value chain from hydrogen production, hydrogen logistics to hydrogen applications," stated David Wu, co-founder and president of Ascent Hydrogen Fund. "What makes Raven even more exciting, is its ability to be a champion and disruptor in hydrogen production, but also in waste management and synthetic liquid fuels. They have one of the only carbon negative processes in the world that can convert waste to renewable hydrogen and clean fuels without burning the waste. With their scalable and mobile systems, they will be able to onsite at any location, making them the ideal partner of choice for many companies looking to decarbonize their operations."

Raven SR's first renewable fuel production facilities will be built at landfills and will produce fuel for Northern California hydrogen fuel stations and for Hyzon's hydrogen hubs. These initial facilities are expected to process approximately 200 tons of organic waste daily, yielding green hydrogen and producing on-site energy to be as autonomous as possible. Raven SR's units are modular and scalable and can easily be expanded to accommodate sites with higher hydrogen requirements. In addition to landfills, the production units can also be placed at wastewater treatment plants and agriculture sites.

About Raven SR

Raven SR, headquartered in Wyoming, transforms biomass, mixed municipal solid waste, bio-solids, sewage, medical waste, and natural or biogas into renewable fuels. Using its proprietary, non-combustion, non-catalytic "Steam/CO₂ Reformation" technology, Raven SR dependably produces a hydrogen-rich syngas regardless of feedstock utilized. Raven SR, led by co-founders Matt Murdock and Matt Scanlon, is committed to adding value to local resources and communities while responsibly reducing greenhouse gases and achieving a low carbon economy. By using modular systems and producing low air emissions, their systems can be located closer to customers and feedstock, creating local fuel from local waste for local mobility. Visit https://ravensr.com.

About Chevron

Chevron is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. We believe affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy is essential to achieving a more prosperous and sustainable world. Chevron produces crude oil and natural gas; manufactures transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and additives; and develops technologies that enhance our business and the industry. To advance a lower-carbon future, we are focused on cost efficiently lowering our carbon intensity, increasing renewables and offsets in support of our business, and investing in low-carbon technologies that enable commercial solutions. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

About ITOCHU Corporation

The history of ITOCHU Corporation dates back to 1858 when the Company's founder Chubei Itoh commenced linen trading operations. Since then, ITOCHU has evolved and grown over 160 years. With approximately 100 bases in 62 countries, ITOCHU, one of the leading sogo shosha, is engaging in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textile, machinery, metals, minerals, energy, chemicals, food, general products, realty, information and communications technology, and finance, as well as business investment in Japan and overseas. Visit https://www.itochu.co.jp/en/index.html.

About Hyzon Motors

Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., with U.S. operations also in Chicago and Detroit, and international operations in the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia and China, Hyzon is a leader in hydrogen mobility. Hyzon is a pure-play hydrogen mobility company with an exclusive focus on hydrogen in the commercial vehicle market. Utilizing its proven and proprietary hydrogen fuel cell technology, Hyzon aims to supply zero-emission heavy duty trucks and buses to customers in North America, Europe and around the world. The company is contributing to the escalating adoption of hydrogen vehicles through its demonstrated technology advantage, leading fuel cell performance and history of rapid innovation. Visit www.hyzonmotors.com. 

About Ascent

Ascent Hydrogen Fund is a US-based energy platform that seeks champions within the hydrogen ecosystem. Ascent is led by Mark Gordon, veteran Wall Street energy investor with senior positions at Goldman Sachs, Soros Fund Management, Paulson & Co and Janus Henderson; and capital markets executive David Wu, a former Rothschild banker and Chairman of Capital Markets for Fosun International, one of the largest investment conglomerates in the world managing over US$100bn in total assets. Visit www.ascent-funds.com.

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Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are: changing crude oil and natural gas prices and demand for our products, and production curtailments due to market conditions; crude oil production quotas or other actions that might be imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producing countries; public health crises, such as pandemics (including coronavirus (COVID-19)) and epidemics, and any related government policies and actions; changing economic, regulatory and political environments in the various countries in which the company operates; general domestic and international economic and political conditions; changing refining, marketing and chemicals margins; the company's ability to realize anticipated cost savings, expenditure reductions and efficiencies associated with enterprise transformation initiatives; actions of competitors or regulators; timing of exploration expenses; timing of crude oil liftings; the competitiveness of alternate-energy sources or product substitutes; technological developments; the results of operations and financial condition of the company's suppliers, vendors, partners and equity affiliates, particularly during extended periods of low prices for crude oil and natural gas during the COVID-19 pandemic; the inability or failure of the company's joint-venture partners to fund their share of operations and development activities; the potential failure to achieve expected net production from existing and future crude oil and natural gas development projects; potential delays in the development, construction or start-up of planned projects; the potential disruption or interruption of the company's operations due to war, accidents, political events, civil unrest, severe weather, cyber threats, terrorist acts, or other natural or human causes beyond the company's control; the potential liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations and litigation; significant operational, investment or product changes undertaken or required by existing or future environmental statutes and regulations, including international agreements and national or regional legislation and regulatory measures to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the potential liability resulting from pending or future litigation; the company's ability to achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquisition of Noble Energy, Inc.; the company's future acquisitions or dispositions of assets or shares or the delay or failure of such transactions to close based on required closing conditions; the potential for gains and losses from asset dispositions or impairments; government mandated sales, divestitures, recapitalizations, taxes and tax audits, tariffs, sanctions, changes in fiscal terms or restrictions on scope of company operations; foreign currency movements compared with the U.S. dollar; material reductions in corporate liquidity and access to debt markets; the receipt of required Board authorizations to pay future dividends; the effects of changed accounting rules under generally accepted accounting principles promulgated by rule-setting bodies; the company's ability to identify and mitigate the risks and hazards inherent in operating in the global energy industry; and the factors set forth under the heading "Risk Factors" on pages 18 through 23 of the company's 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K and in other subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed in this news release could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE Raven SR Inc.