Decahydron unlocks the twin potential of geology to both power and decarbonise the global economy. By producing natural hydrogen and locking away CO₂ through mineralisation, we tackle two urgent climate challenges: reducing fossil fuel reliance and lowering industrial carbon emissions.
Our Story
Decahydron was founded out of a desire to tackle the need for clean energy and carbon sequestration at massive scale.
Arnaud Lager, Decahydron’s founder, saw how much effort was being poured into injecting CO₂ into oil wells for enhanced oil recovery. As a geologist walking the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, an area rich in ultramafic rock, he saw a better way: inject CO₂ into these rocks instead to produce clean hydrogen and permanently lock away carbon.
Oil companies never drilled these rocks on purpose. Ultramafic rock holds no organic matter, so it cannot make oil, and it was assumed to have no porosity or permeability to hold or deliver gas. Where a well did cross it, the hydrogen it met was ignored. Decahydron was built around one of those wells, and has shown that the assumption was wrong: the rock is fractured, porous and permeable, and it holds gas.
Today, with partners in government, industry and research, we are preparing to re-enter that well in Sharjah, exploring Fujairah, and building Europe’s first water-free CO₂ mineralisation project in Greece.
What We Do
We are advancing technologies that will help fuel a carbon-negative future through:
- Appraising and producing natural hydrogen from ultramafic rock
- Permanent carbon storage, by mineralising CO₂ as carbonate without adding water
- Helping hard-to-abate sectors decarbonise through clean hydrogen and geological CO₂ removal
Decahydron holds exclusive rights to sites in the northern Emirates and is developing projects in the ophiolites of the UAE and Greece.
Our Team
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Dublin, Decahydron brings together scientists, engineers and finance professionals with deep experience across energy, carbon removal and geology, united in a mission to change the economics of hydrogen and carbon storage.
Arnaud Lager
Arnaud Lager is the founder and CEO of Decahydron, with 25 years in geochemistry and reservoir engineering across the oil, gas and CCUS sectors at BP, TotalEnergies, CEPSA and ADCO, where he was acting VP Technology. He played a key role in the Al Reyadah project in the UAE, which captures 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year. He was named SPE Engineer of the Year.
Les Hofmeister
Les Hofmeister brings 37 years of reservoir engineering and CO₂ injection. He has held senior technical and leadership roles in Kuwait, the UAE and Kurdistan, where he helped scale the Peshkabir Field to 50,000 barrels per day. At Decahydron he owns well design, injection engineering and operations in Sharjah and Greece.
Oakley Turner
Oakley Turner is a discovery geologist with a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc from Camborne School of Mines, and a European Geologist. He has worked for Anglo American, Stevin Rock and Allied Gold, and leads Decahydron’s geological work on natural hydrogen and CO₂ mineralisation in ultramafic rock.
Fergal O’Beirne
Fergal O’Beirne brings 30 years of finance leadership, including three IPOs and private equity. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and leads Decahydron’s finance, including the accounting for its public grants.