Industrial-Scale Hydrogen Without the Water Footprint: A Conversation with ROTOBOOST

By Kaisa Nikulainen 23 February, 2026

Decarbonisation only matters if it scales, says CEO Nikulainen, who shares how her hydrogen solution is getting some of heavy industry's biggest players on board

ROTOBOOST doesn't require water to produce hydrogen & captures solid carbon before it's emitted as CO₂ – this material can be used for conductive materials, batteries & tires
Large industrial players are embracing this tech, with Baowu using it for hydrogen-based steelmaking & Hankook Tires to develop next-gen carbon materials for tires
Recognising that energy systems don't flip overnight, ROTOBOOST's methane-based solution helps power-hungry sectors reduce lifecycle emissions & get cleaner over time
Author: Kaisa Nikulainen
Kaisa Nikulainen, CEO and co-founder of ROTOBOOST, is a leader passionate about sustainable technology. With a Master’s in Chemistry Technology and a background at Wärtsilä managing global projects, she brings extensive expertise across energy and industrial sectors. In 2021, she co-founded ROTOBOOST to advance methane pyrolysis technology, which turns waste and natural gas into clean hydrogen and energy for industry. Relocating to China to drive growth, she has established key partnerships with global energy, shipping, and steelmaking firms, positioning the company as a leader in scalable decarbonization solutions.
Read more from Kaisa Nikulainen →

When we heard ROTOBOOST pitch at the Asia Technology Entrepreneurship Conference (ATEC) in Dec 2025, we knew its tech could be game-changing in the quest to decarbonise heavy industry – and the judges agreed. It not only won in its own category “Sustainable Climate Tech & Systems” but also snagged the audience favourite award, even up against some serious competition in “Frontiers of Human Health”, “AI Infrastructure & Intelligence”, and “Consumer Digital Experience”.

Inspired, we sat down with CEO Kaisa Nikulainen to dive into ROTOBOOST’S disruptive tech, their “pragmatic approach to decarb” and how they’ve already managed form partnerships with industrial giants across Asia from Baowu Clean Energy to Petronas.

CWR: Congrats on your latest win! Tell us about the vision behind ROTOBOOST, the challenge you’re trying to solve, and major achievements so far.

Kaisa Nikulainen (KN): The energy transition challenge is often discussed in sweeping targets – net zero by 2050, 1.5°C pathways, trillions in green finance. But in boardrooms and plant control rooms, the question is far more concrete: how do we decarbonise heavy industry without breaking reliability, cost, and supply chains?

Steel, aluminium, chemicals, shipping, and large-scale power users are “hard to abate” for a reason. Their processes require high-temperature heat, stable molecules, and dependable 24/7 energy. Many of these sectors can’t simply electrify everything overnight, and even where electrification is technically possible, the enabling infrastructure – renewable generation, grid capacity, transmission, storage – often isn’t available at the required scale or timeline.

Hydrogen is not a silver bullet unless it is low-carbon, affordable, scalable & water-smart

Hydrogen is frequently positioned as the viable answer. Yet hydrogen is not a silver bullet unless we solve a more fundamental bottleneck: the availability of low-carbon hydrogen that is affordable, scalable, and deployable where it’s needed. In many regions, that challenge is intertwined with another pressing constraint: water.

So, we founded ROTOBOOST on a pragmatic belief: decarbonisation only matters if it scales, and scaling in heavy industry requires more than a good idea. Third-party validation, operational credibility, and adoption by the most demanding industrial customers is critical.

In a space crowded with pilot announcements, we focused early on milestones that industrial decision-makers and financiers could actually underwrite. ROTOBOOST became the first in the world in its category to secure TÜV certification, establishing independent confidence in system design, safety, and industrial readiness – an important prerequisite for deployment into regulated, high-consequence operating environments.

We supply low-carbon hydrogen to China Baosteel, the world’s largest steelmaker…

At the same time, we moved into real industrial adoption by working with China Baosteel, the world’s largest steelmaker, to address the most practical bottleneck in hydrogen-based steelmaking – the cost and scalability of low-carbon hydrogen supply. Because the project was built around a deployable pathway that aligns with steel plants’ existing infrastructure, uptime expectations, and procurement realities, the collaboration was selected as a national project supported by both the China and Finland governments.

…& produce solid carbon for Hankook Tire’s next-gen tires

Beyond hydrogen, we have also pushed into the difficult work of solid carbon qualification, including becoming one of the first to sign a development partnership with Hankook Tire to develop next-generation carbon materials for tires – demonstrating that serious industrial users can view solid carbon not as “waste”, but as a performance material, provided it meets stringent specifications.

CWR: So, your tech produces both hydrogen & solid carbon? How does it work? Is it different from other hydrogen players?

KN: ROTOBOOST is commercialising a technology called Thermo-Catalytic Decomposition (TCD), sometimes referred to as methane pyrolysis. In simple terms, instead of burning methane (natural gas) and producing carbon dioxide, we split methane into two useful outputs:

  1. Hydrogen-rich gas, which can be used for green-steel production, industrial feedstock, or power-generation pathways
  2. Solid carbon, which can be used as an industrial material (for example in conductive materials, batteries, tires, or other applications depending on grade and qualification)

Carbon in methane is captured as a solid before it ever becomes CO₂

The key idea is pre-combustion carbon removal. Decarbonising before combustion means that the carbon in methane is captured as a solid before it ever becomes CO₂. That changes the decarbonisation equation. Instead of treating CO₂ after it is emitted (which typically requires capture, compression, transport, and permanent storage), the carbon is physically separated upfront and can become a product. This turns a liability into an asset when markets and specifications align.

For a business and investment audience, the implication is straightforward: this is not only an emissions story; it is a value-chain story, creating two potential value streams.

CWR: Usually, the “greener” the hydrogen, the more water is used in its production. How much water do you use?

KN: Water matters more than most hydrogen conversations admit. A large share of the “green hydrogen” discussion centres on water electrolysis. Electrolysis can be an excellent solution in the right context, especially where there is abundant low-cost renewable electricity and sufficient water resources. But at industrial scale, it faces real-world constraints: power availability, intermittency management, grid connection timelines, and water sourcing and treatment.

We therefore believe hydrogen pathways should be evaluated not only by carbon intensity, but also by their resource footprint of electricity, water, land, and infrastructure.

ROTOBOOST can produce hydrogen in water stressed regions as it does not require water as an input

So TCD does not require water as an input to produce hydrogen. This helps in water-stressed regions or in industrial zones where water allocation can be a political and operational risk. Lowering water dependence can materially improve project bankability and social acceptance. Even where water is available, reducing industrial water demand helps protect local watersheds and can lower the cost and complexity of permitting.

CWR: There are lots of hydrogen start-ups stuck in the pilot phase, but you have managed to partner with some industry giants – what’s your secret sauce to scaling up? What advice do you have for others?

KN: We believe it’s important to scale with industry, not against it. For decarbonisation to move beyond pilots, technologies must fit the realities of industrial deployment. And there’s a broader point that often gets missed in climate discussions… climate sustainability at industrial scale must be built on economic sustainability.

If a solution cannot compete on cost, reliability & deployability, it will remain a pilot

If a solution cannot compete on cost, reliability, and deployability, it will remain a pilot, no matter how elegant the science. Talking about sustainability without market forces is often just wishful thinking.

We are not sure if we have a “secret sauce” to scaling but we just focused on 3 practical “real world” areas:

  1. Scalability and modularity: As heavy industry needs large volumes and high uptime, we used a modular system approach to reduce project risk: replicate proven units rather than redesigning every plant from scratch.
  2. Integration into existing infrastructure: Our tech needed to plug into gas supply chains, industrial sites, safety standards, and trained operators that already exists versus solutions that require entirely new networks everywhere (new power lines, new water pipelines, new storage systems)
  3. Total cost, not just “green premiums”: We focused on providing a total return as most decision-makers are not choosing between “clean” and “dirty” in a vacuum.

CWR: But you still use natural gas as a source material so some could argue that your solution doesn’t fast track fossil fuel transition. Plus, there’s methane leakage in its extraction & transport. How can a natural-gas-based pathway be part of a credible transition?

KN: This is an important and fair question.

We focus on reducing the lifecycle emissions intensity of hydrogen

First, we focus on measurable lifecycle outcomes, not labels. The relevant metric is the lifecycle emissions intensity of the hydrogen delivered to the end use (and the products displaced). If a process significantly reduces CO₂ formation at the point of production and is paired with rigorous methane management upstream, the net climate impact can be materially improved versus conventional alternatives.

Second, methane leakage must be treated as a design constraint, not an afterthought. A serious deployment strategy should include upstream gas sourcing standards, monitoring/reporting/verification (MRV), and a preference for low-leakage supply chains. Investors increasingly understand that methane is not only a climate issue but also a reputational and regulatory one.

“Transition” should mean a pathway that can get cleaner over time…

…energy systems do not flip overnight

Third, “transition” should mean a pathway that can get cleaner over time. One practical advantage of methane-splitting approaches is that they can evolve with the feedstock: fossil natural gas today in some contexts, and increasing shares of certified low-leakage gas, biogas, or synthetic methane where available. That flexibility matters, because energy systems do not flip overnight.

Finally, it’s worth naming an uncomfortable truth: waiting for the perfect solution everywhere can become a form of delay. The atmosphere does not reward good intentions; it responds to cumulative emissions. If we can deliver large emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors sooner – while building the frameworks that prevent greenwashing (transparent LCA, MRV, and accountable reporting) – that is a pragmatic climate strategy.

CWR: Agreed, especially since escalating physical risks and a rapidly deteriorating cryosphere mean we must minimise overshoot. Speed matters when decarbonising – sooner not later. From our conversation, hydrogen adoption looks like it could speed up – what are your thoughts on hydrogen vs. electrification?

KN: Again, we take a pragmatic view. We believe transition will not be won by any single technology, but by scaling whatever tech works and retiring what doesn’t. We must also hold every pathway to transparent, measurable outcomes for carbon, water and wider environmental impacts.

From our perspective, the role of technologies like TCD is not to replace renewables or electrification. It is to complement them – especially in the sectors and regions where the constraints are most severe and the need for scalable solutions is most urgent. We hope that through ROTOBOOST we’ve expanded the toolkit without lowering the bar for credibility.

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