Tulum Energy is developing an industrial process that uses methane pyrolysis to make hydrogen and solid carbon. The idea traces back to an unexpected observation at a Techint electric-arc furnace; in July 2025, Tulum announced a $27 million financing round to advance a pilot plant in Pesquería, Mexico. The pilot is in development, so the company’s commercial output, cost and emissions figures remain projections or aims—not demonstrated results.
How an electric-arc furnace led to Tulum Energy
Between 2002 and 2005, engineers at the Techint Group were adjusting an electric-arc furnace when they noticed its carbon electrodes growing instead of being consumed. The phenomenon was later recognized as methane pyrolysis: methane splitting into hydrogen and solid carbon. The observation was documented internally but was not pursued at the time.
Tulum CEO Massimiliano Pieri later summed up the lack of interest: “Back then, nobody cared because nobody cared about methane pyrolysis, about hydrogen.” TechEnergy Ventures subsequently looked for ways to make hydrogen from methane without conventional pollution and identified the earlier work. It helped form Tulum through a strategic partnership around technology developed at Tenova.
How Tulum’s methane-pyrolysis approach is intended to work
Methane pyrolysis decomposes methane without oxygen, producing hydrogen and solid carbon. Tulum’s industrial approach adapts electric-arc and plasma equipment associated with steelmaking. TechEnergy Ventures identifies natural gas and biogas as possible feedstocks; Tulum says its process does not require expensive catalysts to encourage the reaction.
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That reaction description is not, by itself, a lifecycle-emissions assessment. The full climate impact depends on factors including methane supply and leakage, as well as the energy used to run the process. Tenova’s 2024 sustainability report describes a 90% CO2 reduction compared with traditional technologies as an aim, not a verified operating result.
Who invested $27 million and where the pilot is planned
Tulum announced the $27 million venture financing round in July 2025. CDP Venture Capital, through its Green Transition Fund, and TDK Ventures led it. TechEnergy Ventures, MITO Tech Ventures and Doral Energy Tech Ventures also participated. The stated purpose was to advance a pilot at Ternium’s industrial complex in Pesquería, Mexico.
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Ternium’s 2025 annual-report material describes Tulum, working with Tenova, as installing the pilot. A 2026 gasworld report says Scandinavian Energy Contractors was commissioned for engineering, procurement and construction services, with design, engineering and construction-management work planned across 2026 and 2027. These updates describe a project in development; they do not establish that the pilot is operating or producing hydrogen.
What the commercial numbers do—and do not—show
| Figure | What it refers to | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 200 tons of hydrogen per day | Projected output for a commercial plant, as reported by TechCrunch in July 2025. | Projection, not pilot production. |
| 600 tons of solid carbon per day | Projected co-product output for a commercial plant, as reported by TechCrunch in July 2025. | Projection, not pilot production. |
| About $1.50 per kilogram of hydrogen in the United States | Tulum’s reported commercial-scale cost target in TechCrunch’s July 2025 report. | Target, not an achieved cost. |
| 90% CO2 reduction | Tenova’s stated aim versus traditional technologies in its 2024 sustainability report. | Aim, not an independently verified lifecycle result. |
The distinction matters: a proposed plant’s economics would rely on both hydrogen sales and a market for its solid-carbon co-product. A plant capable of making large quantities of carbon needs buyers able to absorb that volume and use the material at the required quality. Tecpetrol’s 2026 CERAWeek account highlights the importance of broad carbon markets to the project’s design.
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Why the Pesquería location matters to steelmaking
Ternium’s Pesquería complex is developing a direct-reduction steel plant designed to incorporate hydrogen from the outset. Tecpetrol’s 2026 CERAWeek account gives that facility a planned capacity of 2.6 million tons. That figure describes Ternium’s steel facility, not Tulum’s pilot, and the available reporting does not establish an offtake contract between Ternium and Tulum.
The industrial setting offers a potential use case for hydrogen and a connection to the steelmaking equipment knowledge behind Tulum’s process. It does not, on its own, demonstrate that Tulum’s hydrogen will supply the steel plant or that the proposed process will meet its cost or emissions goals.
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What remains to be proven
- Operating performance: The sources describe a pilot under development, not verified hydrogen production or operating data.
- Economics: The reported $1.50-per-kilogram figure is a commercial-scale target, not an observed cost.
- Climate impact: A reaction that does not directly produce CO2 does not settle lifecycle emissions; methane leakage and process energy matter.
- Carbon sales: The projected solid-carbon volume makes the size and requirements of the buyer market central to the commercial case.
- Comparisons with other startups: Modern Hydrogen, Molten Industries and Monolith are named as competitors, but the available information does not establish comparable verified performance data for ranking them.
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