(Yicai Global) Sept. 22 -- Chinese hydrogen fuel cell firm Tang Feng Energy Technology has secured more than CNY100 million (USD15.5 million) in its Series B round of financing, led by Lightspeed China Partners.

Tang Feng Energy’s outstanding core components should drive down the cost of hydrogen fuel cell systems to make them more widely used, Yicai Global learned from Zhu Jia, partner at Lightspeed China, today.

Tang Feng's core competitiveness lies in developing low-platinum membrane electrodes at a large scale, said Zhang Junliang, founder of the Shanghai-based startup.

Established in 2017, Tang Feng supplies its technologies to many leading Chinese manufacturers of fuel cells which are touted as the next big green logistics method. But hydrogen vehicles are not as popular as electric cars yet because of the tricky and expensive process of turning the clean fuel into electricity.

However, China may become one of the key markets for hydrogen cars as the government is offering policy support to the industry.

Hydrogen vehicle sales in China are expected to tally 300,000 units in 2030, indicating a market penetration rate of 1 percent, according to survey results. The membrane electrode market should reach CNY30 billion (USD4.6 billion). Sales should further rise to 1.5 million units by 2035, equaling a market penetration rate of 5 percent, while the scale of the membrane electrode market is predicted to be CNY84 billion.

Tang Feng's independently developed M10 low-platinum film electrodes measure 1.5 watts per square centimeter in energy density and promise over 10,000 hours of service life, according to Zhang. The invention has passed a vehicle-grade working condition verification, the founder added.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi