Utility announced the successful operation of the company’s H2Gen system at a major steel plant in North America. Utility’s H2Gen system successfully produced the world’s first H₂ using steel plant off-gas (blast furnace gas) in an elegant single process step under actual site conditions. Additionally, this marks the industry’s first successful implementation of a system that can produce clean H₂ from water without the need for electricity.

The H2Gen system is now proven as the leading economic clean H₂ platform solving the steel industry’s significant clean energy challenges. It is a solution that is commercially available, cost-effective, offers a profitable pathway to a clean energy transition and easily integrates with existing assets.

Steel production is vital to industrial progress, but it is also one of the world’s most energy-intensive processes, facing significant energy transition hurdles in reducing its carbon footprint. These challenges include:

• Capital costs in the billions of dollars for alternative steelmaking technologies compared to the blast furnaces used in making most of the steel globally
• Limited space and infrastructure constraints for making economic onsite clean H₂ that can reduce carbon footprint of existing steel plants
• The need to balance sustainability with productivity and global competitiveness while lacking economic carbon capture solutions for the steel industry.

Utility’s H2Gen system offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges by producing H₂ from water using industrial off-gases, such as blast furnace gas. The H2Gen system enables onsite H₂ production with a compact footprint while delivering enriched CO₂ at a single point for cost-effective carbon capture. With more than 3,000 hr of successful operation at a major steel plant, H2Gen has demonstrated its ability to drive a cost-effective, scalable, reliable and commercially ready energy transition pathway for heavy industries including steel, biogas-to-H₂, chemicals, refining, upstream oil & gas, power, and H₂-powered data centers.

REAL-WORLD PROJECT RESULTS:

• H₂ Production: The H2Gen system consistently produced H₂ onsite without the need for electrical input to the reaction.
• Seamless Integration: Designed for compatibility and operational simplicity, the modular, factory-built H2Gen system integrates with existing steel plant processes with minimal pre- and post-gas treatment, enhancing operational efficiency.
• Robust Performance: The system demonstrated significant flexibility, handling a wide variety of feed gas conditions and could restart in less than 15 minutes after feed gas outage events.
• Cost-Effective and Scalable Solution: By minimizing operating and capital costs with a very small onsite footprint and modular scalability, H2Gen provides a practical, economic pathway to clean H₂ production for decarbonizing steel manufacturing, among many other hard-to-abate industry sectors.

"Decarbonizing heavy industries like steel, mobility, chemicals, refining, and power has been one of the toughest challenges in the energy transition — until now. Our successful deployment of H2Gen at a major steel plant proves we can deliver scalable, economic, clean H₂ solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure and assets. H2Gen is the only commercially viable solution for producing clean H₂ in hard-to-abate industries like steelmaking,” stated Parker Meeks, chief executive officer of Utility.

“Utility is rapidly scaling to meet global demand, with strong momentum in steel, biogas-to-H₂ for mobility and beyond. Our H2Gen systems provide an economic, modular solution without the high costs and infrastructure barriers of alternative H₂ technologies. With strong customer and partner momentum including the recent ArcelorMittal funding and GH EnA Project Development announcements, we are accelerating the shift to clean H₂ at scale."