Jordan Blum, editorial director, Hart Energy: We are here at CERAWeek 2025. I am joined by Sachin Nijhawan, the U.S. CEO of Thyssenkrupp Nucera. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

We're going to get into talking about the energy transition, but first I wanted to hear a little bit about your personal transition coming from Honeywell. You've been in the CEO role here about six months. Yeah, if I can just get your overview of how things are going and what you're focused on in the new role.

Sachin Nijhawan, CEO USA, Thyssenkrupp Nucera: Absolutely. So first of all, thank you for taking the time here today. Appreciate it. Been here for about six months in the business, so spent the first probably two months really understanding the business, the portfolio, spending time with the teams and with customers. And really understanding what is the need of the hour, how do we focus our business and how do we drive growth in the organization. It's been a phenomenal journey for me to transition from Honeywell GE to Nucera. It's a smaller organization, but the energy, enthusiasm, the market potential is huge and that's what excites me to be here today.

JB: Great. Now if I can get you to just delve in a little bit for those who aren't familiar on what Nucera is really focused on right now.

SN: Sure. So Nucera has a two-pronged business. We are in the business of manufacturing electrolyzers, and we have a business that serves the chlor-alkali business and also the green hydrogen markets. So the electrolyzers are about the same. Essentially we're taking brine and making chlorine, and in the case of hydrogen, we're making hydrogen. And so the brine business is really where we have about 50-plus person installed base in the marketplace and we are focused on growing our portfolio, helping customers be operationally effective, and how we can serve our chlor-alkali customers and essentially using the same group of people to grow into the green hydrogen space as well.

JB: Great. Now, I know with some political changes and whatnot, I mean the industry's a bit more doubling down on hydrocarbons right now. There's debate on what's best positioned between blue hydrogen, green hydrogen, etc. Just wanted to get your take on the state of the hydrogen markets right now and how y'all are factoring in.

SN: So the fundamental thing I would say is, there is a huge demand for hydrogen. Even if you look a year ago, those 90-plus million tons of hydrogen produced in the country, in the nation. So globally, we need a lot of hydrogen and a lot of our customers, whether they are using hydrogen from a captive perspective with refineries, steel mills, petrochemical plants, are using hydrogen and they have a mission to decarbonize. And so the opportunity for green hydrogen exists. We have a little bit delay because of uncertainty in the political environment, but in long run, I think there's a huge potential for hydrogen markets to grow, become green and sustainable in the long-term future.

JB: Great. Now I know everything's somewhat up in the air, but I mean, can I get your take or maybe projections on how you see the kind of the green hydrogen timeline playing out over time and the role of the electrolyzer technology?

SN: So I would say two things on there. So when I look at the markets, there is the captive markets and then there's other markets that we look in which depend on policy. So we had policy which is in place, which is the 45V which was passed by the previous administration. Those rules on what were passed in January are aligned to support green hydrogen growth. Those are pretty productive. However, we are in a period of uncertainty where there could be potential congressional hearings on those rules, which may delay some of these applications for our markets. Having said that, our customers that I deal with are really looking at more clarity on the policy, are looking for more certainty on the policy before they move the projects to FID. But nobody's come back and said the projects don't exist, are not viable. So I think the market's there, it's a timing question that we have to resolve over the next several months to see where things all shake up.

JB: And I know you touched on it a little bit already, but if I can maybe get you to elaborate a bit on how the growth of green hydrogen isn't necessarily replacing other hydrogen demand. It's just growing overall demand and filling the void there.

SN: So two places I think I would say, yes, it is one, growing the demand for green hydrogen because of renewables, green LNG, green methanol. Those are all applications that don’t exist and are going to be required in the future. So I think there's a potential to grow the green hydrogen space, but also reuse from a refinery perspective on decarbonizing refinery. So that’s a two-prong play on how we see growth in the green hydrogen space.

JB: Are there any other kind of green shoots or business opportunities you're focused on as well, tangentially?

SN: So I would say we're really focused on two prongs. One is the green hydrogen space and then the chlorine business, the chlor-alkali business, which is really our core business to be focused on and driving electrolyzers to our install base in the U.S.

JB: Very good. Well, thank you so much for being here at CERAWeek. We really appreciate it. To read and watch more, please visit online at hartenergy.com.

SN: Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

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