Back in the early 2000s, engineers working for the Techint Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Italy and Argentina, were trying to fine-tune a new electric arc furnace at a steel plant. But something strange happened. The carbon electrodes in the furnace weren’t breaking down as expected. Instead, they were getting bigger.
What the engineers had unknowingly triggered was a chemical process called pyrolysis, burning a material in the absence of oxygen.
In this case, the furnace was splitting methane into two valuable byproducts: hydrogen gas and solid carbon. This accidental reaction was quietly reported within the company and then forgotten for nearly two decades.
“Back then, nobody cared because nobody cared about methane pyrolysis, about hydrogen,” said Massimiliano Pieri, now CEO of Tulum Energy.
That changed recently when Techint’s venture capital arm, TechEnergy Ventures, began looking for cleaner ways to make hydrogen. It didn’t take long for someone at the company to remember that forgotten internal report.
“Someone in the company realized, ‘But we already have that. We have this discovery,’” Pieri explained.
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