Bringing industrial decarbonization to scale means aligning innovation with capital and execution. At CERAWeek, TechEnergy Ventures and Tulum Energy presented a venture-building model now taking shape in a hydrogen pilot at Ternium’s new Pesquería plant in Mexico, featuring Tenova’s direct reduction technology.

For heavy industry, the path to decarbonization hinges on a delicate balance: advancing the transition while preserving economic viability. At CERAWeek, TechEnergy Ventures (TEV) and Tulum Energy focused on bridging this gap between the industrial dimension and return on investment, making the case that innovation must go hand in hand with new models to bring solutions to market.

From TEV’s perspective, the role of corporate venture capital extends well beyond financing. It is about backing companies that can translate early-stage innovation into industrial solutions that can be applied in complex environments. In his remarks during CERAWeek, TEV CIO Alejandro Solé explained how the Techint Group’s venture capital arm targets initiatives with real decarbonization potential and supports them, both technically and financially, through to scale.

“We invest in early-stage initiatives that can accelerate decarbonization while creating new business opportunities for the Group,” Solé said, outlining TEV’s focus on areas such as clean hydrogen, carbon management, energy storage and critical minerals.

This approach led to the launch of Tulum Energy, the first initiative developed entirely under TEV’s venture-building model. The project centers on a pragmatic premise: leveraging existing steel industry solutions to produce low-emissions hydrogen at competitive cost, while sidestepping the bottlenecks facing other decarbonization pathways.

Solé pointed to a core challenge for the sector: moving technologies from the lab to the market in industries defined by scale, high capital intensity and tight margins.

“The issue is not just technical, it’s one of scale,” he pointed out. “We need solutions that can compete economically in sectors that operate in the ballpark of millions of tons and require really significant investment.”

From Tulum Energy’s perspective, the company’s CEO, Massimiliano Pieri, elaborated on the technical rationale behind methane pyrolysis as a pathway to produce turquoise hydrogen along with a solid carbon co-product. Unlike other alternatives, Tulum’s approach aims to combine energy efficiency with scalability—two key factors for industrial adoption.

“Our approach does not start from scratch: it builds on equipment and solutions already proven in the steel industry, allowing us to move faster and use capital more efficiently,” emphasized Pieri.

The approach rests on repurposing electric arc furnaces to break down methane at high temperatures, producing hydrogen while recovering heat in the process. This not only maximizes energy efficiency but also reduces technical risk and shortens development timelines compared with solutions that require an entirely new infrastructure.

Another pillar of the model is the coexistence of two distinct markets: hydrogen and solid carbon. As Pieri noted, balancing both is critical to viability. “We’re dealing with two products, two markets and two types of customers. Our approach is to design the plant around hydrogen and then develop broad markets for carbon, without compromising system efficiency.”

Along those lines, Solé added that many pyrolysis initiatives are constrained by a focus on niche carbon products, which drives up asset costs and limits their scalability.

“Designing a plant around a specific carbon output reduces efficiency and narrows the market. We believe that the emphasis should be on delivering competitive hydrogen while supplying large-scale carbon markets,” he said.

From an industrial standpoint, Fernando Actis, Global Vice President of Research, Development, and Intellectual Property at Ternium, set out the conditions under which these solutions can scale. Speaking at the panel, he pointed to the company’s new direct reduction plant in Pesquería, Mexico, which features Tenova technology and a production capacity of 2.6 million tons. The facility will start operations using natural gas and is designed to incorporate hydrogen from the outset. The idea is for the Tulum Energy pilot project to be integrated into Ternium’s most advanced industrial site within this framework, marking a concrete step on the company’s decarbonization roadmap.

Acti emphasized that combining natural gas and hydrogen can reduce emissions while increasing productivity, enabling a gradual transition without disrupting operations. “We prefer a step-by-step approach. We are convinced that this is the right path,” he explained.

Together, the perspectives shared by Solé and Pieri point to a broader conclusion: accelerating the energy transition will require more than innovation alone. It depends on models capable of aligning industry, capital and execution. In that context, venture building is emerging as a way to turn ideas into companies—and companies into industrial solutions for decarbonization.