Industry veteran brings 20+ years of experience advancing decarbonization technologies from research to commercial deployment
HOUSTON, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Utility Global (“Utility”), a global company enabling economic industrial decarbonization, today announced the appointment of Erik Meuleman, Ph.D., as Chief Technology Officer. Meuleman joins Utility as the company continues rapid acceleration of its proprietary H2Gen® technology from proven technology into broad commercial deployment, bringing more than two decades of experience advancing separation and carbon capture technologies from early-stage research through commercial-ready systems.
Meuleman joins Utility from ION Clean Energy, where he served as CTO since 2016, leading the transformation of a research-driven carbon capture company into an integrated product development organization focused on commercial deployment. He grew ION’s engineering and science organization from six to 25 professionals with zero unplanned turnover and directed system-level optimization efforts that improved the cost of capture by 30 percent for capital expenditures and 15 percent for operating expenditures, while cutting solvent reclamation needs by a staggering 90 percent.
Previously, at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, he led teams of up to 25 research engineers and scientists advancing carbon capture technologies from inception through pilot scale, supporting the development of more than 15 patents and four pilot plants. Earlier in his career, at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, he initiated and led the development of separation technologies, including new distillation and pervaporation systems, across multi-national research programs. Meuleman holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
“Erik has spent two decades moving technology out of the lab and into industrial plants that run, which is exactly the discipline and leadership we need right now,” said Utility Chief Executive Officer Parker Meeks. “He’s built technology organizations from the ground up more than once, and we are looking forward to working with Erik to enhance our advanced technical team’s ability to accelerate the continued commercial deployment of our proprietary H2Gen around the world.”
Utility enables industrial companies to unlock value by extending the economic life of existing assets, eliminating or reducing emissions and accelerating progress toward their sustainability and decarbonization goals to support a cleaner environment for our communities and the world.
As Utility advances multiple commercial projects and expands its footprint across North America, Europe and Asia, Meuleman will lead the technology organization through this next stage of growth.
“What drew me to Utility is the combination of an exciting technology that already works at scale and a team ready to build real engineering discipline around it,” Meuleman said. “I’ve spent my career doing exactly that kind of work, closing the gap between what’s proven in demonstration and what a customer can actually run with extreme confidence at industrial scale.”
Utility Global is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure firm decarbonizing the industrial economy.
About Utility Global
Utility Global is an economic industrial decarbonization company. We transform industrial operations to reduce or eliminate emissions by converting water into clean hydrogen without electricity and off-gases into concentrated CO₂, all without requiring customers to replace existing assets. Utility creates value by extending the economic life of legacy assets. Our proprietary H2Gen® technology is commercially-deploying globally and ready for the rigorous demands of industrial operations. Utility combines deep technical innovation with a culture of curiosity, collaboration and purpose.
Utility is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure firm that is decarbonizing the industrial economy.
For more information on Utility’s solutions and services, visit www.utilityglobal.com
About Ara Partners
Founded in 2017, Ara Partners is a global private markets firm focused on decarbonizing the industrial economy. The firm invests in the middle market across three strategies: Private Equity, Infrastructure, and Energy. The firm scales commercially demonstrated decarbonization solutions, supports the businesses and infrastructure that enable their adoption, and reduces emissions at the source across the conventional energy value chain. Ara’s model combines investing, market and policy expertise, project execution and operational optimization, and rigorous carbon accounting to reduce emissions economically and unlock growth at an industrial scale. The firm operates from Houston, Boston, Dublin and Washington D.C., and, as of March 31, 2026, had approximately $8.2 billion in assets under management.
For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.
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