Solidec, a climate-tech startup spun out from Rice University, has secured just over $2 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by New Climate Ventures, with participation from Plug and Play Tech Center, Ecosphere Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Echo River Capital, Semilla Climate Capital, and Safar Partners.

Solidec’s mission is to reinvent how critical chemicals - starting with hydrogen peroxide - are produced by using only air, water, and renewable electricity.

Co-founded by Ryan DuChanois, Yang Xia, and Haotian Wang, Solidec developed a patent-pending electrolyzer that extracts molecular building blocks from ambient air and water, generating pure, commodity-grade chemicals without fossil feedstocks or post-processing separation.

From Air to Chemicals: Solidec’s Modular Reactor for On-Demand Production

Traditional chemical plants rely on centralized, heavy infrastructure with multiple energy-intensive separation stages. Solidec’s modular reactor reduces this footprint drastically. By skipping separations and using renewable electricity, the system produces chemicals like hydrogen peroxide with minimal land, energy, and carbon impact. This locally deployable model reduces supply chain risk and brings decarbonization where it matters most - from mining sites to semiconductor fabs.

The startup estimates its process removes over 15% of chemical manufacturing energy consumption globally and offers on-site generation with a dramatically lower cost structure. Their initial prototype is now moving toward real-world pilots following awards from DOE and participation in Greentown Labs’ Activate program.

Turning Energy into Advantage

Many climate tech startups chase harder materials or incremental efficiency gains - but Solidec focused on the biggest carbon sink in the chemical supply chain: separations. They didn't just improve a process - they replaced it. That reduction in complexity is a strategic moat, not just product advantage.

Founders building infrastructure or hard-tech ventures should note that real defensibility often comes from removing what everyone assumes is necessary. Solidec engineered a system that doesn’t need the costly separation steps - that dependency disappears. Once you eliminate the domain’s cost center, users stop asking why it exists - you’ve rewritten the rules. That’s how you go from solving a problem to creating a new operating model.

Pilots, Partnerships, and Path to Scale

Looking ahead, Solidec plans to build and field-test its MVP hydrogen peroxide reactor at customer sites. Early interest comes from water treatment operators, industrial cleaning firms, and mining operations, all seeking lower-carbon alternatives. The company is also hiring across engineering, process development, and field operations to support its planned deployments and pilots.

Solidec has also received U.S. Department of Energy awards - including a voucher grant - and was selected for the Chevron Catalyst Program, Activate Houston, and Greentown Labs’ startup accelerator programs. These programmatic validations provide both higher visibility and critical support capacity for scale.

Founders with Deep Technical Grounding

Ryan DuChanois led the engineering vision and formerly worked on chemical access in low-income contexts. Yang Xia and Haotian Wang, both from Rice University, bring deep chemical engineering expertise - and together, their team holds more than 160 patents that cover nano-electrochemical operation, reactor architecture, and system control design.

That credibility isn’t just technical - it’s strategic. Because the team created the technology from university research and is now delivering tangible system builds, they’ve earned trust from both technical partners and mission-aligned investors.

Why Solidec Matters Now

As industries scramble to decarbonize, the economics are shifting. Decentralized chemical generation offers both emissions reduction and network resilience. Solidec’s on-site, modular design allows deployment in constrained, remote or high-risk environments - unlocking industries that can't rely on centralized sources or long supply chains.

Their hydrogen peroxide technology alone addresses massive markets - water treatment, semiconductor cleaning, mining processes - where transport cost, purity standards, and emissions pressures are all converging.

And yet, what gives Solidec its strongest anchor is its rewrite of domain logic: why build chemical plants when you can extract molecules from air?

What’s Next

With its pre-seed round in place, Solidec will focus on:

• Building and deploying pilot reactors
  
• Testing across customer environments (industrial and municipal)
  
• Scaling manufacturing of modular reactors
  
• Hiring for field operations and commercialization roles
  
• Building tools to sell molecules or reactors-as-a-service
  

Ultimately, the goal is to move from lab-scale proof to utility-scale infrastructure that redefines how chemicals are produced for industry.