Dependable power for generations to come

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.  

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.