Season 3, Episode 31. August 22, 2024
Zach Jones of C-Zero on Hydrogen 3.0, Decarbonizing
Natural Gas, and The Innovation Economy
C-Zero is using innovative thermocatalysis technology to convert natural gas into zero-emission hydrogen, offering the tantalizing potential to decarbonize major industries while scaling the fuel of the future.
Hydrogen is one of the most promising sources of clean energy in existence, and a key component in alternative fuels capable of decarbonizing hard-to-electrify industries like heavy shipping. But there’s a catch: the current processes used to extract hydrogen from hydrocarbons like natural gas create a rather unsustainable byproduct – carbon dioxide.
Hard-tech firm C-Zero has the answer: a revolutionary method to convert natural gas into hydrogen and a solid carbon byproduct instead, which could have industry, or even world-changing, implications. And Zach, a biomedical engineer, multi-time founder, and venture capital investor with a lifelong passion for hydrogen, is perfectly positioned to take this technology to the next level, having spent his entire career in and around the innovation economy.
Hear Zach share how his interest in hydrogen led him to the idea that would become C-Zero, why “turquoise hydrogen” is the secret to Hydrogen 3.0, and why thermocatalysis could decarbonize the future of energy.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Zach Jones on turquoise hydrogen
00:54 Conor Gaughan introduces Zach and C-Zero
06:05 Ranch life, interest in chemistry, and Duke University
10:39 Entrepreneurial bug, business school, and investing career
18:17 The hydrogen thesis, origin of C-Zero, and the TAM
25:42 Turquoise hydrogen, transport, and public private partnerships
34:32 Pitching investors, global markets, and the long-term horizon
44:19 Fighting climate change, future scale, and exciting innovations
50:16 Staying positive and leaving a legacy
52:29 Where to learn more
53:09 End credits
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