Successful technical validation and strategic NuCube Energy collaboration mark transition to engineering phase
SANTA CLARITA, CA, May 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NewHydrogen, Inc. (OTCQB: NEWH), the developer of ThermoLoop, a breakthrough technology that uses water and heat instead of electricity to produce the world's cheapest clean hydrogen, today reported about its commercialization progress.
The Company's recent announcements regarding pre-pilot plant technical validation and its collaboration with NuCube Energy to explore nuclear-powered hydrogen production represent important milestones along the commercialization pathway. NewHydrogen has completed the research phase of its development program and is now entering the engineering phase required for commercialization.
This transition followed the successful passage of Stage Gate One, a rigorous pre-pilot plant test. Based on NewHydrogen's internal review and published literature, the Company is not aware of any other heat-based water-splitting technology that has met this combination of performance and engineering criteria.
Stage Gate One required ThermoLoop to meet the following thresholds:
- Maximum operating temperature below 1,000°C
- Demonstrated operation over more than 10 cycles
- Hydrogen production efficiency exceeding 75% of theoretical yield
- Defined industrial heat-integration strategy
- Formal process control and management-of-change framework in place
- All non-core balance-of-plant equipment utilizes commercially proven technologies
- Manageable separations
- Acceptable safety and toxicity profile
- No identified economic barriers to pilot-scale development
In addition to these technical achievements, NewHydrogen and NuCube Energy, Inc., recently initiated a strategic collaboration. NuCube is developing the NuSun compact solid-state fission reactor, a next-generation, factory-fabricated microreactor system engineered for rapid deployment and inherent safety and capable of producing high-temperature heat of up to 1,100 degrees Celsius. Underscoring the significance of this technology, NuCube was recently selected for the U.S. Department of Energy Launch Pad USA Program.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the companies will collaborate to explore the integration of their respective clean energy technologies.
"High-temperature heat is a vital component for unlocking the full economic potential of thermochemical hydrogen production," said Steve Hill, CEO of NewHydrogen. "We believe NuCube Energy's advanced reactor design could provide a compelling heat source for ThermoLoop, and we look forward to jointly evaluating integration pathways that could accelerate the deployment of nuclear-driven clean hydrogen at scale."
Mr. Hill concluded, "The world needs cheap clean hydrogen as soon as possible, which is our stated goal. In recent months we have dramatically picked up our pace along the commercialization pathway. Our engineering team is highly focused on building a dedicated ThermoLoop engineering test unit. This will allow us to determine commercial pilot plant specifications. With this unit in place and the ability to collect the required data, we will be ready to engage a major industry player to build a pilot plant."
About NewHydrogen, Inc.
NewHydrogen is developing ThermoLoop - a breakthrough technology that uses water and heat instead of electricity to produce the world's cheapest clean hydrogen. Hydrogen is important to modern life, and we can't live without it. Hydrogen is the key ingredient in making fertilizers needed to grow food for the world. It is also used for transportation, refining oil and making steel, glass, pharmaceuticals and more. Nearly all the hydrogen today is made from hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas, which are dirty and limited resources. Water, on the other hand, is an infinite and renewable worldwide resource. Currently, the most common way of making clean hydrogen is to split water into oxygen and hydrogen with electricity using an electrolyzer, a very expensive process. By using heat directly, we can dramatically reduce the use of expensive electricity. A massive source of inexpensive heat can be obtained from current and future power plants, especially small modular nuclear reactors. Working with a world class research team at UC Santa Barbara, our goal is to help usher in the clean hydrogen economy that Goldman Sachs estimated to have a future market value of $12 trillion. For more information, please visit www.NewHydrogen.com.
About NuCube Energy
NuCube is an innovative energy technology company developing NuSun, a compact solid-state fission reactor platform, capable of producing high-temperature heat. Uniquely, the company's technology can serve both the electrical power market and the high-temperature industrial heat market. The NuSun modular microreactor, designed to produce heat up to 1,100 degrees Celsius for industrial processes, is exceptionally safe, simple, and economical. The NuSun platform offers nuclear power generation technology to replace natural gas in energy-intensive industrial applications while also providing competitive electricity in remote and distributed environments and for data centers. For more information, please visit www.nucube.energy.
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Investor Relations Contact:
NewHydrogen, Inc.
ir@newhydrogen.com
