Koloma, a clean fuel startup supported by Bill Gates, has secured $245.7 million in its latest financing round. This brings the company’s total funding to over $300 million. The startup primarily focuses on the extraction of carbon-free hydrogen from natural underground deposits.

Koloma revealed the funding details in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on February 9. The announcement came a day after the firm won a research grant from the U.S. Energy Department program. The program aims to improve methods for stimulating underground hydrogen production and the extraction of this fuel.

The funding round was led by Khosla Ventures and had significant investments from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and United Airlines Sustainable Flight Fund. Other clean-technology backers include Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.

Paul Harraka, Koloma’s Chief Business Officer and co-founder, expressed gratitude to the investors. The privately held company capitalizes on extensive research by Ohio State University geologist Tom Darrah. Darrah, who serves as the firm’s CTO and co-founder, has devoted years to studying areas where hydrogen is likely to be found. He has also been figuring out how techniques developed by the oil and gas industry can help harness this resource.

Over the past year, awareness that hydrogen naturally appears in underground pockets across the U.S. and globally has grown significantly. Koloma is among companies that leverage existing oil and gas industry drilling techniques to extract this gas.

The newfound funds will aid them to continue their endeavors and maintain a competitive edge in the emergent clean energy landscape.

Hydrogen’s versatility, with its uses in reducing carbon emissions, power vehicles, and store or make electricity, makes it highly appealing. However, most industrial hydrogen nowadays is made by splitting it from natural gas, a process that emits carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen advocates believe that geologic hydrogen, which is carbon-free, will prove to the cheaper alternative by leveraging long-standing energy-drilling techniques. As a testament to its increasing relevance, proposed Treasury Department rules for a new credit will consider geologic form along with green hydrogen, rewarding up to $3 per kilogram of clean, zero-carbon hydrogen.

Source: Bill Gates-Backed Clean Fuel Startup Raises $246 Million To Aid Plans To Drill For Hydrogen .