The Story of Celadyne: Building the Future of Hydrogen Energy

Sometimes the most revolutionary companies start with a simple realization. For Gary Ong, it came during his PhD qualifiers at Berkeley, when a quick calculation showed that his battery research would fall “1000x off of what it needs to be to help the world.” That moment led him to pivot his entire research focus to hydrogen technology – a decision that would eventually birth Celadyne Technologies.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Gary shared how a series of unexpected turns shaped Celadyne’s mission to revolutionize hydrogen fuel cells and enable sustainable trucking.

The story begins in 2018, not with a grand entrepreneurial vision, but with reluctance. “I basically spent six, seven months convincing myself not to start the company,” Gary recalls. “I cold called all the major chemical corporations and was like, can you guys please license this technology and bring it to light, et cetera, so that I don’t have to do it?”

After receiving “flat out nos” from more than ten major corporations, Gary faced a pivotal decision. “If no one’s going to do it, and I really believe that this technology is going to help change the world, not leaving me much of a choice here.”

The timing seemed perfect at first. By early 2020, Celadyne had secured its first million in grant funding and recruited a core team. Then March arrived, bringing with it a global pandemic and an eviction notice from their lab space at Argonne National Lab.

What followed was a masterclass in adaptation. The team found themselves working in shifts in a 100-square-foot biohacking space, far from their original sophisticated lab setup. This constraint forced them to rethink their entire approach to their technology.

A journalist once described Celadyne’s technology as “like, if you can make it happen, it’s the equivalent of a unicorn that can eat Brussels sprouts and poop filet mignon and fly to the moon.” As Gary explains, their innovation focuses on the proton exchange membrane – a critical component so important that it’s literally in the name of the technology: proton exchange membrane fuel cell.

“Our materials are about ten to 15 times better at blocking gases,” Gary explains. “I think of it as, like, it’s a very funky, very expensive kind of like a chip bag, like a potato chip bag.” This seemingly simple improvement makes fuel cells safer, more efficient, and more durable – critical factors for applications like heavy-duty trucking.

The pandemic constraints led to a crucial pivot. Instead of trying to commercialize every feature of their technology, they focused solely on gas permeability – the feature customers cared about most. This decision accelerated their timeline dramatically, allowing them to ship materials just six months later.

Today, Celadyne has grown to 13 full-time employees, working to commercialize their technology with major manufacturers. Looking ahead, Gary envisions Celadyne playing a crucial role in the future of sustainable transportation: “At least four or five OEMs should be using Celadyne materials in their fuel cells, and they see a bunch of solid electrolyzers, either near utilities and near truck stops and so forth, making hydrogen for refueling and industrial carbonization.”

This vision represents more than just commercial success – it’s about fundamentally transforming how we power our world. From a reluctant startup founder to a pioneer in hydrogen technology, Gary’s journey with Celadyne demonstrates how sometimes the most impactful innovations come not from trying to do everything, but from doing one critical thing exceptionally well.