A blueprint for an enduring, local and clean hydrogen economy

Croft’s Base Station unlocks never-before-realized energy independence by supporting hydrogen production and refueling anywhere there’s water and electricity. Leveraging breakthroughs in materials science, our hand-portable cartridges store hydrogen densely at low pressure, offering simple, affordable, and safe energy without the use of rare earth materials.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why hydrogen fuel?
Hydrogen is cleaner than fossil fuels, and it can be produced locally wherever there is electricity and water. Local production offers greater choice and energy independence for rural communities and work sites that face gaps in their access to centralized infrastructure. Like other clean technologies, the cost of hydrogen is dropping rapidly. We expect it to be cheaper than diesel in many communities by the end of this decade.

Hydrogen also has capability advantages – it has the energy density and portability to replace fossil fuels in a range of applications that are difficult to electrify with batteries. While lithium batteries can only offer economical back-up power for 4-12 hours, the Base Station can store hydrogen efficiently with minimal losses for days or weeks. That kind of long duration energy storage is becoming more important as electrical grids are strained by wildfires, hurricanes, growing demand for electricity, and the rapid transition to intermittent wind and solar power.

Croft’s fuel and storage products are being designed alongside partners who rely on off-grid power generators, commercial trucks, and off-road equipment to sustain the way they live and work. Agriculture, construction, utilities, forestry, and natural resources are a few of the industries that operate in austere environments and stand to benefit from Croft’s vision of an enduring, local, and clean hydrogen economy.  
Why hydrogen vehicles?
Hydrogen vehicles have the potential to go further and do more than gas-powered equivalents. They can be refueled just as quickly. They can reintegrate cherished technologies that enable familiar driving experiences (e.g., combustion engines and manual transmissions). They can tow, haul, and go off-road with impressive range. None of these statements apply to BEV trucks or SUVs.

A clean vehicle must be able to do what people need it to do, not just what policy-makers suggest is sufficient. Hydrogen is the only fuel that, as of now, can do or exceed what gas and diesel can do in hardworking vehicles, like trucks and SUVs, making it the only fuel that can position clean trucks for mass adoption.  

What is the Croft Base Station?
Croft’s modular Base Station enables on-site hydrogen production, storage, and quick refueling anywhere there’s water and electricity. Base Stations are inherently modular – they’re designed to be stacked to meet each site’s hydrogen requirement, in much the same way that standard solar panels are stacked in an array to meet a given site’s requirements. This means that Base Station installations can start small and scale to meet your ambitions.
Why decentralized hydrogen?
Croft's decentralized approach to hydrogen production and storage makes Croft hydrogen 80% cheaper to buy and orders of magnitude more affordable to scale than legacy hydrogen. The breakthroughs inherent in the Croft Base Station mean that hydrogen infrastructure can grow much faster and easier than researchers and policy-makers previously realized.
How does the Base Station fuel a hydrogen vehicle?
Croft's Base Station offers two methods to refuel a hydrogen vehicle: hand-portable cartridges and a refueling hose. Both methods offer expedient refueling times of just a few minutes.
How much hydrogen can a Base Station produce?
The standard Base Station produces 2 kg of hydrogen every 24 hours. With an additional electrolyzer module, each Base Station can produce up to 5 kg every 24 hours.
How does Croft's solid state hydrogen storage technology work?
Legacy hydrogen storage systems compress hydrogen gas to extremely high pressures (700x atmospheric pressure) or liquify it by cooling it to extremely low temperatures (-253° Celsius or -423° Fahrenheit). Compression and cryogenic liquefaction are energy intensive processes that require expensive equipment, which has been a major barrier to the build-out of hydrogen fueling infrastructure.  

By contrast, Croft’s products adhere hydrogen molecules to the surface of a solid particle – a process known as physical adsorption. Specifically, we use a proprietary nanoparticle that is made of graphite, the same abundant material used in battery anodes and pencil cores.  

When hydrogen flows into a tank that has been filled with this proprietary material, hydrogen molecules adhere to the solid material in a manner that allows for very dense packing of hydrogen, even at ambient temperature and relatively low pressure. In practical terms, this means that Croft’s hydrogen cartridges can store significantly more hydrogen than a 700 bar compressed gas storage system of the same size, yet our tanks operate at 90% lower pressure. At the system level, this low-pressure storage breakthrough makes hydrogen equipment simpler, safer, more modular, and more affordable.  
What kind of vehicles do you make?
A luxury work and adventure SUV with 7-passenger seating, Croft’s flagship vehicle is crafted for refined capability and endurance. Starting with a first-of-its-kind transmission, every feature is designed for go-anywhere, do-any-job capability. Combining premium off-road suspension, class-leading towing and range with a heritage interior comprising heirloom materials, we’re invoking a great new era of American dynamism—only made possible with hydrogen.
Hydrogen powered, built to last.

Croft is an ambitious startup with a blueprint for an enduring, local and clean hydrogen economy. From rugged vehicles to groundbreaking at-home fueling infrastructure, we build enduring hydrogen equipment for the world’s toughest challenges. The Croft team is made up of pathfinders, caretakers, thinkers and builders who set out to unlock the next great chapter in American dynamism, particularly for  rural communities.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Roderick Blevins and Isaac Holeman, Croft’s early team hails from communities in the rural heartland and we’re proud to be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.