Dr SB Cha

Dr SB Cha is a Korean-origin serial entrepreneur and deep-tech founder with a career spanning multiple technology ventures at the frontier of clean energy. He is the co-founder and CTO of Suiso, the Rotherham-based company developing industrial-scale green hydrogen generators using a proprietary microwave-driven methane cracking process — technology originally invented by his father and subsequently acquired and commercialised by the founding team.

Prior to Suiso, Dr Cha built an extensive track record across cleantech and advanced materials. His earlier roles included leadership positions at Cambridge Touch Technologies, Kinestral Technologies, and ACAL Energy — a fuel cell technology company — where he accumulated over eight years of hands-on experience developing, building, deploying, and maintaining microwave reactor systems for industrial applications. A chartered engineer and first-class honours graduate in Chemical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, he brings both academic rigour and engineering depth to his ventures.

At Suiso, Dr Cha leads technology development for a system that extracts hydrogen from natural gas or biogas using microwave energy, capturing carbon as commercially valuable carbon black — a byproduct used in tyres, batteries, and inks. The process uses 80% less electrical energy than grid-powered electrolysis and produces emissions 97% lower than steam methane reforming. Suiso won the BEIS Low Carbon H2 Supply scheme in 2023 and subsequently raised £3M from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund to scale towards 1,000 kg per day generator units.