Helix Earth Technologies, Inc., (Helix Earth), a Houston-based hardware company at the forefront of clean tech solutions, has announced the successful close of its $US5.6 million seed funding.
This investment will empower the Helix Earth team to accelerate the development and deployment of its first groundbreaking hardware technology designed to disrupt a significant portion of the commercial air conditioning market.
“This is an industry that is ready for innovation,” according to Rawand Rasheed, PhD, Helix Earth co-founder and CEO, and co-inventor of the NASA technology exclusively licensed to the company, which was spun out of Rice University and has been incubated at Greentown Labs in Houston since 2022.
Leveraging technology developed for NASA, this cost-effective, commercial air conditioner add-on technology, now in pilot phase, will save up to 50 per cent of the net energy used in commercial air conditioning, a significant impact on both emissions and operating costs, with an expected unsubsidised payback in three years or less.
The technology in question is called Helix Micra and is a filtration system that consists of the company’s proprietary filters and liquid desiccants. The Helix Micra system is six to eight times more efficient than other commercially available dehumidification systems.
The filters are easy to manufacture using 3D printing, which can be done using recycled materials.
The device connects in a matter of hours to nearly any existing AC rooftop unit (RTU) or dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS). The Helix MICRA unit pre-dehumidifies supply air, substantially dropping the load on the existing unit and lowering power needs by 50 per cent.
“The enthusiastic response from investors reinforces our team’s confidence in our ability to transform innovation-starved sectors such as commercial air conditioning with an easy-to-install-and-maintain solution that benefits distributors, mechanical contractors, and most of all, building owners, with a positive benefit to the environment,” Rasheed said.
Helix Earth Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2022 by two Rice University alumni, one with a track record of four successful startups. Helix Earth has already garnered industry attention and recognition for its transformative approach to accelerating liquid-gas chemical processes.
In addition to its commercial air conditioning solution, the company is innovating solutions for commercial humidity control and carbon capture. The company has also secured grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy.