Chimaera Fund

Steel accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clean hydrogen has long been viewed as pivotal to decarbonizing the steel industry, with cost seen as a primary constraint. With current steel production concentrated in China, India, the U.S., Japan, Korea, Brazil, and Turkey  – countries suspected to have high amounts of geoH₂ – we see a unique opportunity to avoid systemic emissions lock-in from upcoming industry expansions while reducing the cost of steel production, if $1 per kg of clean hydrogen can be proven in the next 5-7 years. 

The aviation industry represents 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, almost exclusively caused by the burning of jet fuels. Hydrogen is a fundamental feedstock to producing clean jet fuels. Recent modeling indicates geoH₂ could quadruple demand for sustainable aviation fuels and potentially other feedstock sources like CO₂.

High-temperature heat processes represent a large share of emissions within certain industrial sectors, such as cement, glass, and ceramics, which together represent roughly 7-8% of global emissions.

Roughly 30-40% of cement’s emissions come from heating materials at 1,000-1,600°C to form clinker (about 3.2% of global emissions), while roughly 75-85% of energy requirements in glass and brick kilns come from similar high-temperature processes.

The opportunity goes beyond emissions, as in many places these processes contribute significantly to air quality. In India, for example, brick-kilns are estimated to be responsible for two-thirds of industrial black carbon pollution.

If low-cost clean hydrogen is available, it serves as a drop-in combustion fuel in many kiln and furnace designs, making it one of the few broadly applicable decarbonization levers that can scale through retrofits rather than full plant rebuilds. 

The chemicals industry represents 4-6% of greenhouse gas emissions and it runs mostly on fossil-based hydrogen. At $1 per kg, geoH₂ becomes a rare drop-in option that can decarbonize without needing to rebuild chemical plants. Ammonia, for example, represents 1% of greenhouse gas emissions and is produced by synthesizing nitrogen with hydrogen – a process dependent on the price of natural gas and entirely replaceable by geoH₂.  

Maritime shipping produces approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and for long-haul routes where direct electrification is often impractical, hydrogen-based alternative fuels could become a leading solution.

GeoH₂ could materially narrow the green fuel-cost premium for these alternative fuels, while eliminating nearly all CO₂ and SOx emissions, enabling near-term compliance with the International Maritime Organization’s interim target of 40% lower carbon intensity by 2030. 

Despite a small percentage of the on-road vehicle population, long-haul heavy-duty trucks are responsible for about 5% of global CO₂ emissions. Hydrogen fuel-cell trucks can offer zero tailpipe emissions with hundreds of kilometers of range and refueling times often estimated in the ~10–20 minute range under suitable station conditions, as early field trials report. 

The mining sector is often estimated to account for about 4–7% of greenhouse gas emissions, with a large share driven by diesel use in mobile equipment – especially haul trucks – and energy used for grinding and ore processing (typically electricity plus site fuels). Because geologic hydrogen is commonly generated through ultramafic rocks, and many critical mineral systems are associated with mafic/ultramafic settings, there is a plausible opportunity set where hydrogen production and mining operations could overlap geographically – particularly valuable for remote sites that need local power and fuel.

Unlike current methods of producing hydrogen, which require significant energy input and therefore serve as energy carriers, geoH₂ produces more energy than it requires. As a new primary energy source, geoH₂ could supply baseload firming power to zero-water, zero-emissions data centers as well as support remote communities switching from diesel generators. Additionally, companies are evaluating the use of ammonia produced from clean hydrogen as a partial replacement for coal in power plants to reduce power sector emissions.