Innovation is central to Star Scientific's identity.
That's one of the ways Andrew Horvath, global group chair of Star Scientific Ltd., described the hydrogen research and development company. The Australian firm, which Wednesday evening — or Thursday afternoon in Eastern Australia — signed a letter of intent to build a $100 million joint research and manufacturing campus in New Mexico, invented a method of turning hydrogen and oxygen into heat.
It does that, Horvath told Albuquerque Business First, by destabilizing and then restabilizing altered hydrogen and oxygen molecules, using a catalyst, to create kinetic energy. That catalyst is called the Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer, called HERO.
The kinetic energy created by the HERO technology can be used to heat water, gas or oils in different applications, from food and beverage manufacturing to brewery distilling. The whole process happens "very quickly and very, very efficiently" without burning anything, Horvath said.
No greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide or methane, are released in the process. The only product, besides heat, is water, Horvath added.
When Star Scientific went looking for a good place to set up a site in the United States to research and manufacture that technology, representatives from the company toured seven states around the country, including New Mexico.
The Australian company first came to the Land of Enchantment to meet with government and industry leaders, like Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and James Kenney, the secretary of New Mexico's Environment Department, over a year ago.
"When we got there, they gave us Secretary Kenney, who just went, 'I'm yours for as long as you're here. Let's go for a drive and I'll show you what we got,'" Horvath said.
What the state has, Horvath said, is a focus on innovation. From large companies with facilities in New Mexico like Netflix and Amazon, to other hydrogen-focused firms like BayoTech and Pajarito Powder, there's a sizeable amount of innovative things happening in the state, according to Horvath.
In that way, New Mexico and Star Scientific make a good match.
"You talk to the governor, you talk to Secretary Kenney, any of the people in the departments of government — everything, including your education system, is based around innovation," Horvath said. "Innovation is a culture. That is where we live."
More momentum for New Mexico's 'ahead of the curve' hydrogen industry
When the Biden administration didn't name New Mexico among the states to get federal hydrogen hub funding, the news came as a bit of a disappointment for state and industry leaders, despite those leaders saying they weren't worried by the funding decision.
That decision didn't deter Star Scientific, either, because, as Horvath said, New Mexico doesn't need the money.
"They looked at who needed the boost to get the industry going," he said. "You guys are so far ahead of the curve, I don't think you needed the money."
Although Star Scientific's HERO technology doesn't produce hydrogen, like many of the companies included in the Western Instates Hydrogen Hub proposal plan to do, it does use hydrogen to make heat. It does that without releasing harmful chemicals — a critical part of New Mexico's hydrogen focus.
"Because of the fact that they're green hydrogen, they're research-oriented, they're manufacturing-oriented, they fit the kind of company we want to see here," Kenney said. "We're not just looking for anyone. We're looking to rise to the top with companies like Star [Scientific]."
Star Scientific is both planning to conduct research and development into its HERO technology in New Mexico, as well as manufacture HERO catalyzers that could replace traditional heat systems in everything from breweries to chile manufacturing plants to large power facilities.
It wants to do that at Mesa del Sol, a master-planned community in far South Albuquerque, where Star Scientific plans to buy a 50-acre plot of land for a multi-building research and manufacturing campus that could, once up-and-running, employ around 200 people.
Learning from example
Mesa del Sol is already the site of both existing and planned investments by massive companies like Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MAXN), which wants to build its own $1 billion manufacturing facility at the South Albuquerque community.
It's the former company, though, that Horvath said made "the biggest impression" on Star Scientific.
That's because the large entertainment company already has a multi-building campus — its Albuquerque Studios — at Mesa del Sol, with plans to expand upon the existing 30-acre site. Its experience building out the studios, and expanding them, showed Horvath that Star Scientific's own development plans won't be "terribly difficult," he said.
Talking with Netflix leadership in New Mexico also assuaged one of Horvath's concerns about recruiting workers to the state.
"We initially were worried would we get employees to move there from other places," he said about New Mexico. "But then when we talked to places like Netflix, it just wasn't an issue. In fact, they had an oversupply of people."
So did Amazon, Horvath added, and other companies Star Scientific talked to while scouting the state.
Sign of progress continues at Mesa del Sol
Water supply was another concern for Star Scientific, Horvath said. But Steve Chavez, managing partner of Mesa del Sol, said infrastructure planning — including for water supply — is a focus for Mesa del Sol.
Chavez said Mesa del Sol — for the past several years — has been preparing the development to accommodate "these type of companies wanting to relocate to New Mexico." That involves working with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the City of Albuquerque to install infrastructure ahead of the arrival of companies.
There's not a big difference between single, large industrial facilities and multi-building campuses, Chavez added. The primary infrastructure, he said, is the same.
Mesa del Sol can act like a "product" that the State of New Mexico, Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque sell to potential investors in the form of companies, Chavez said. Kairos Power, a nuclear technology company based in Alameda, California, moved into a 128,000-square-foot campus at Mesa del Sol in late 2020 and is in the process of expanding that campus through a pair of new buildings — a 22,000-square-foot development lab and a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
"When we started with this vision of igniting Mesa del Sol, this is what we wanted," Chavez said. "It's following down that path."
This story has been updated to clarify that Kairos Power, which expanded to Mesa del Sol in 2020, moved into an existing building at the master-planned community.
