BPH Energy looks to increase stake in Clean Hydrogen Technologies to 17.5%

BPH Energy (ASX: BPH) has added to its significant stake in green energy fuel developer Clean Hydrogen Technologies with a further approximately $390,000 investment to take its holdings in the US company to 17.5%.

The company and its 36.1% (direct interest) investee company Advent Energy initially entered into a binding term sheet with Clean Hydrogen under which the purchasers agreed to subscribe for 10% of the total issued share capital of the New York-headquartered energy business.

In April 2023, the purchasers were granted the right to acquire an additional 10%.

The purchasers have made approximately $780,000 in payments after requests from Clean Hydrogen with unsecured loan agreements in March and April.

The April loan agreement provided for the processing of a further unsecured loan of approximately $780,000 to be made to the borrower.

A further amount of around $390,000 has now been advanced to Clean Hydrogen to enable BPH and Advent to move to a 17.5% interest in Clean Hydrogen under a term sheet agreement.

Clean hydrogen technology breakthroughs

BPH is attracted to Clean Hydrogen due to its development of technologies which have the capability to process hydrocarbons from natural gas and produce two products, hydrogen (sometimes referred to as turquoise hydrogen) and carbon black.

The company’s end-to-end system consumes and processes hydrocarbons via a unique thermocatalytic reactor process and catalysts to produce hydrogen at commercial scale.

Clean Hydrogen is working up a system for commercial use, using unique catalysts and bespoke engineering processes, to generate clean hydrogen and solid carbon which has many uses, including conductive carbon used to manufacture batteries.

Notably, Clean Hydrogen’s technology is expected to produce valuable products through processing natural gas with no CO2 emissions.

Potential gas development opportunity

BPH recently signed a hydrocarbon process agreement with its investee companies Clean Hydrogen Technologies and Onshore Energy, a 100% subsidiary of Australian gas fields owner Advent Energy.

Advent has rights to natural gas assets at the Weaber field located in onshore Retention Lease RL1 in the Northern Territory’s Bonaparte Basin, where an estimated 11.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) is classified as 2C contingent resources of natural gas.

Under that agreement, Onshore and Clean Hydrogen will investigate the potential to process the hydrocarbons from Advent’s gas holdings to produce high-value hydrogen and carbon black products.

Huge hydrogen market growth forecast

The 2023 global green hydrogen outlook, produced by the Deloitte Centre for Sustainable Progress (DCSP), forecasts that by 2030, the clean hydrogen industry could surpass the global LNG business, reaching an estimated $3.2 trillion annually by 2050.

The European Union and the US government have recently announced tens of billions of dollars in hydrogen technologies and green energy investments for 2023.

Clean Hydrogen Technologies is initially targeting the huge US market opportunity, where the Biden-Harris administration is promoting the fuel with significant structural and investment support.

The recently released US National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap has identified an opportunity for the nation to build a clean energy future and accelerate a forecast American manufacturing boom.

By 2050, hydrogen demand in the US is projected to reach up to 73 million metric tons, with its use as a transportation fuel being a significant driver.