Two decades of revolution

Lapis philosophorum - the "philosopher's stone" - does not (contrary to what a popular youth book suggests) "merely" describe a mineral substance that grants its owner healing and thus eternal life. The term refers above all to the goal of transmutation, which was researched in alchemy for several centuries but never achieved: a base material is turned into a precious metal through a special process - rubble becomes gold.

Certainly, the time of the alchemists is long gone, and the gold of the present is "clean" energy, which, as we know, cannot be generated from coal-fired power plants (because of emissions), nuclear power plants (because of fuel rod storage) or Russian pipelines (for a variety of reasons). So what to do? Well, it seems that a German-American entrepreneur has found the modern "philosopher's stone" - and that Europe is finally starting to take it seriously.

Waste becomes hydrogen

Charlie Thannhäuser is not an alchemist, of course, nor are there any miracles or magic behind his company "Concord Blue". In more than two decades of research and with an enormous investment of personal resources, Thannhäuser and his team have succeeded in developing a technology that can be used to recycle almost any type of waste into "green" hydrogen. The only thing that remains, apart from the element chemically described as "H2", is a few grams of fine, non-toxic ash.

The hydrogen produced can be used directly to power vehicles, for example, or indirectly to generate electricity in corresponding power plants. The defence and technology group Lockheed Martin in the USA recognized the potential of the method back in 2016, and several "Concord Blue" power plants are also connected to the grid in Japan. Only in Europe, which is constrained by a corset of regulations (and has long been "spoiled" by cheap gas), did hardly anyone seem to be interested. Until now.

All of a sudden, even the biggest bureaucrats and most cautious investors are realizing that if the "Concord Blue" method succeeds, several global problems would be solved in one fell swoop. Two questions are therefore being asked more and more frequently: Doesn't it all sound too good to be true? And: Who is the entrepreneur who has been working on (his) revolution for more than two decades?

Vision, capital and perseverance

First of all, let's talk about Charlie Thannhäuser, who spoke to m&k via Zoom. He is the exact opposite of an "absent-minded professor", both visually and in his mannerisms. His skin is tanned by the Californian sun - the company's headquarters are now located in Los Angeles - and English words are repeatedly mixed into the entrepreneur's otherwise accent-free High German. The journalist's subjective impression: Thannhäuser does not look like someone who travels the world almost non-stop and breathlessly to give keynotes, lobby interests or initiate partnerships. Nevertheless, that is precisely his life, as he reports.

But he doesn't have to do all this because he has already made a career for himself. As a programmer with his own company, whose core business he sold at the height of the digital boom. He could actually drive up and down Wilshire Boulevard, the central axis connecting Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, in a convertible until the end of his days, perhaps interrupted by the occasional round of golf or tennis. Instead, he has decided to use Wilshire Boulevard simply to get to the office. Life as a private citizen, says Thannhäuser, was never an option; he invested a large part of what he earned back then from the sale of his core business in his hydrogen vision.

From entrepreneur to missionary?

"But I want to be completely honest," says the entrepreneur: "When I founded Concord Blue twenty years ago, it wasn't out of pure benevolence. I knew that oil and gas are finite resources and I wanted to earn money as a logical consequence of this fact." At the time, he was still operating out of the tranquil German town of Herten, but he underestimated two things: the industry's unwillingness at the time to face up to the facts when it came to finite resources - and the slowing power of German bureaucracy. "Nobody was talking about 'renewable energies' in 2002, they were only ever talking about 'alternative energies'," recalls Charlie Thannhäuser. And why were 'alternatives' needed when cheaper energy sources seemed to be available in abundance? Germany's planned nuclear phase-out was a long way off, coal emissions only really seemed to matter to eco-activists - and nobody could anticipate the energy war with Russia. So the "Concord Blue" team was fighting a pretty lonely battle.

Nevertheless, a test reactor for the "waste-to-hydrogen method" was to be connected to the grid in Herten in order to demonstrate the advantages of the technology to decision-makers practically during operation. The paradox, however: "After three years, we would have had to deconstruct the site again, because pilot projects in this area were only allowed to be set up for a certain period of time at the time." So "Concord Blue" applied for a permit for permanent operation of the plant, but would have had to accept that the relevant authorities would place the technology on a regulatory level with that of combustion power plants. The founder then decided to change location: "Our way of producing hydrogen is defined precisely by not working with combustion," he says - and adds with a grin: "At some point, that was simply too anti-innovation for me." At the same time, a kind of mental transformation took place for him: What was originally supposed to be primarily a clever business idea became a mission. And giving up was no longer an option.

Tour around the world - with success

In Japan, India and the USA, people were much more open to the sustainable production of hydrogen, and so Charlie Thannhäuser set up sites in Izumo, Mumbai and Owego. Each time he proved his point: The water vapor thermolysis, which he had patented, works excellently. The details of the process are not easy for laypeople to understand, but the expert community and relevant specialist media agree: what has been developed here is a stroke of genius (for more details, see the QR code in the separate info box).

It is also important to emphasize something else at this point: "Concord Blue" has received German TÜV certification for its technology in 2022 and has thus overcome one of the most important hurdles for its "return" to Germany, to Europe. According to Charlie Thannhäuser, several locations where he wants to turn waste into hydrogen in Germany and the Netherlands have already been identified. And, as he is not the only one to reveal, the official news is that Concord Blue has already secured several hundred million US dollars in investment. In order to acquire the remaining amount, the entrepreneur is in talks with potential investors. "I'm convinced," he says, "that we'll soon be at a point where things can move very quickly."

A grand vision

And then it will happen, the vision of the global roll-out of the "Concord Blue" technology. As difficult as the process was to develop, the infrastructure used for it is robust, explains the founder. Whether somewhere on the African continent, in South American mega-cities or in the German provinces, the technology can be scaled up without any problems. "Large cities can solve their waste and energy problems in this way, but rural villages in developing countries can not only finally have a power supply, they can also be completely self-sufficient," says Thannhäuser. Twenty years of work would then have been more than worth it: the "impact" would shape the world for centuries to come.

Charlie Thannhäuser is a German-American entrepreneur. As CEO and founder of the company "Concord Blue", he and his team have developed a process that can convert almost any type of waste into "green" hydrogen via steam thermolysis. Further information on Concordblue.com.