Rosh Ha’ayin-based Aquarius Engines said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with energy company Kampac International (KIP) to set up a plant to manufacture products for the automotive industry in the United Arab Emirates, with an investment from KIP of $ 1-1.2 billion.
The plant will produce products based on the technology developed by Aquarius, and will be operated by a company to be established by the parties – Middle East Aquarius Automotive. In addition, KIP will be given an option to purchase up to 10% of Aquarius shares at a company value of $5b.
“The MOU with KIP is an important milestone in Aquarius’s assessments of significant activity in the global automotive market,” said Gal Friedman, chairman of Aquarius Engines. “The collaboration with KIP is for us another expression of trust in our groundbreaking technology, and we believe that KIP’s capabilities and business relationships will help us advance and establish our capabilities in the automotive world. This is in continuation of the agreements we reported on regarding our planned entry into the market in Japan, and further to the report last month on the successful results of the run-in tests of our linear engine, which is based on hydrogen gas.”
KIP is an international company incorporated in the United Kingdom with an energy arm in Dubai. The company operates in the field of oil, gas and mining exploration. The deal with Aquarius is part of KIP’s entry into the field of green energy in the hydrogen worlds, the company said.
Last month, Aquarius Engines said it developed a new Hydrogen engine that may make reliance on hydrogen fuel cells and fossil fuel a thing of the past. The new engine’s lightweight design and unique internal-gas-exchange-method would greatly reduce emissions and lower the global carbon footprint.
In verified tests, the engine operated on a hydrogen-only basis, without any use of auxiliary fossil fuels, indicating that the company’s engine can also be operated using only hydrogen, while emitting gases, CO2, CO and HC at negligible to zero levels, the company said.