Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2023, then-President Joe Biden launched a plan to boost the nascent clean hydrogen industry with federal dollars. President Donald Trump subsequently cut the initiative. Still, a Delaware company is moving forward with plans to open a facility to produce heavy water and hydrogen, both key materials in pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
Wilmington’s Atermium announced plans on Tuesday to open a novel clean hydrogen and heavy water production facility in Dover — a move that will likely bring dozens of jobs to the area.
The company said the plan is moving forward after it finalized an agreement for a purchase of a property at the Garrison Oak Technical Park, which sits in east Dover near Route 1.
“This is a pretty big deal for Central Delaware,” said Linda Parkowski, executive director of the Kent Economic Partnership. She said the project is a nearly $260 million investment.
The plant will produce clean hydrogen by separating water into its molecular components, using electricity rather than fossil fuels. It will also sell the byproduct of the process, which is called deuterium oxide, or heavy water.
Aternium founder and CEO Andrew Cottone said the substances are essential for the pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries. But producing either one by itself is not yet a sustainable business model, he said.
“However, when you combine the two … you get a very economical business model,” Cottone said of hydrogen and heavy water.
Clean hydrogen power is an emerging technology that some see as a way to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. President Joe Biden sought to support the industry during his term in office with the promise of up to $7 billion in incentives. President Donald Trump cut the program last year.
Cottone said his business model does not depend on those tax credits.
Still, he has received government funding, such as $1 million in federal money distributed last year by the Delaware Accelerator & Seed Capital Program. Cottone said the money was necessary because his production model is entirely new.
At the time of the award, the company said the investment would “propel Aternium to its next phase of engineering on its way to producing industrial clean hydrogen.”
Aternium’s forthcoming Dover facility will use about 50 megawatts of energy per hour, roughly the equivalent of 40,000 homes, to produce the hydrogen and heavy water. It will also use about 300,000 gallons of water each day, or about the same as 3,000 homes. The facility may use treated wastewater, Cottone said.
According to the company’s website, the Dover facility, and future hydrogen production sites, would bring 30 to 60 permanent jobs in fields like engineering, electrical work and plumbing, with a median annual salary of $115,000.
Construction on the Dover facility is slated to break ground in late 2027.
Aternium plans to open other production facilities across the region, and is currently considering sites in Sussex County, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
A Sussex County spokesperson said on Tuesday that she is not aware of conversations to bring hydrogen production facilities to the county.
