Hydrogen is often billed as the fuel of the future, but getting it from where it's produced to where it's needed is not an easy task. Transporting it requires either extreme pressure or cryogenic cooling – methods that demand energy-intensive infrastructure and present safety risks.

German company Hydrogenious is pioneering a different approach – it chemically binds hydrogen to a liquid organic carrier, so it can be pumped, stored and shipped at room temperature and pressure, using much of the same infrastructure that already moves diesel and other liquid fuels.

A member of the EIC Scaling Club's Clean Fuels & Hydrogen group, Hydrogenious has built a roster of strategic backers and is at the centre of Germany's push to establish an industrial-scale, EU-backed hydrogen supply chain running from the Rhineland to Bavaria.

Revolutionising hydrogen storage with liquid carriers

Hydrogenious was founded in 2013 by Dr Daniel Teichmann, together with professors Peter Wasserscheid, Wolfgang Arlt and Eberhard Schlücker.

Hydrogenious's Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) technology is based on benzyltoluene – a thermal oil that can absorb and release hydrogen without degrading it.

The hydrogen attaches to the carrier, and, once bound, the oil can be pumped, stored and shipped at room temperature and normal pressure, just like diesel or any other liquid fuel.

When the hydrogen is needed again, a second reaction (dehydrogenation) releases it, leaving the carrier oil ready to be refilled and used again.

Loaded with hydrogen, the carrier can hold 54 kg of hydrogen per cubic metre. Plus, unlike compressed or liquefied hydrogen, it doesn't self-discharge – it can sit in a tank for months without losing any of its cargo.

Since it is neither flammable nor explosive at ambient conditions, it's less hazardous than pressurised hydrogen gas, and can integrate into existing liquid-fuel infrastructure.

Hydrogenious is also looking beyond this fossil-derived carrier: through the Horizon Europe-funded EPOCH project, it is contributing expertise to a consortium developing a bio-based hydrogen carrier made from lignin, a renewable polymer found in plant cell walls.

The team driving Hydrogenious forward

Following more than a decade of founding leadership as a CEO, Dr Daniel Teichmann was appointed Executive Chairman in 2025, focusing on long-term strategy and financing. He also chairs the board of management of Hydrogenious LOHC Maritime AS, the company's Norwegian shipping joint venture.

Dr Andreas Lehmann, who joined Hydrogenious in 2020, stepped up to Chief Executive Officer in 2025. Before joining the company, Lehmann completed a joint PhD in engineering at FAU and the University of British Columbia, then worked as a project manager on McKinsey's Hydrogen Strategy team in Germany.

CTO Dr Caspar Paetz joined Hydrogenious in 2016 after a PhD in chemical reaction engineering at FAU, bringing prior R&D and pilot-plant management experience from Thyssenkrupp Uhde. As part of the board of management, he oversees the ongoing development and optimisation of the LOHC technology.

COO Dr Stefan Bürkle joined the board of management in 2025 after more than 20 years in senior engineering and contracting roles across the petrochemical, oil & gas, LNG and energy sectors, including leadership positions at Linde, E.ON/Uniper and ILF Consulting Engineers.

Together, this team has successfully scaled Hydrogenious and secured the backing of major industrial players for its vision.

Scaling up: investment and partnership milestones

Hydrogenious's investor base has grown steadily since AP Ventures backed its seed round in 2014. A 2019 raise brought in €20 million from Royal Vopak, Covestro, Mitsubishi Corporation and Winkelmann Group, with Hyundai Motor Company joining as a strategic investor in early 2020.

In September 2021, the company raised a further €50 million in a round led by JERA Americas and Temasek, with Chevron Technology Ventures and Pavilion Capital investing for the first time alongside returning backers. More recently, in February 2025, Hydrogenious closed a strategic round of more than €17 million backed by existing investors.

Equity aside, the flagship Blue Danube project has also drawn non-dilutive support: in 2024 Hydrogenious received a combined grant of €72.5 million from the German Federal Government and the State of Bavaria.

On the engineering side, Hydrogenious entered a strategic partnership with industrial services group Bilfinger in 2021 to deliver turnkey LOHC plants across Europe, and in October 2025 signed a contract for its Blue Danube release plant with the Griesemann Gruppe.

Building LOHC infrastructure and beyond

Hydrogenious's flagship effort, the LOHC Link, connects two major facilities targeted for commercial operation in 2028:

• Hector: Set to become the world's largest plant for storing green hydrogen in LOHC.
• Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube: Designed as the world's largest LOHC release plant, capable of releasing up to five tonnes of hydrogen daily to cut roughly 16,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

‘At a time when the hydrogen economy is facing uncertainties, we need tangible projects and technology-neutral approaches,’ said CEO Andreas Lehmann when the contract was signed.

Beyond LOHC Link, the company has also launched LOHC Bridge to explore hydrogen export routes from Morocco and Egypt. Another project, LOHC Maritime, a joint venture with Norway's Østensjø Group, is developing an LOHC-fuelled, zero-emission propulsion system for ships. The idea is to pair a dehydrogenation unit with fuel cells so vessels can generate power on board without carrying pressurised or cryogenic hydrogen.

Making clean hydrogen viable at scale

Hydrogenious joined the EIC Scaling Club in 2024 as part of the Clean Fuels & Hydrogen market group. The company's mission of making bulk green hydrogen transport and storage viable fits into the EU's broader vision of energy security and decarbonisation.

As Hydrogenious moves toward realising ambitious projects like Hector and Blue Danube, the EIC Scaling Club's network of investors, corporates and mentors can help the company continue to advance its LOHC technology for large-scale application.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

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