HyOrc Advances on Dual Fronts: Green Fuel and Rail Decarbonization

HOUSTON, TX – January 12, 2026 – Clean-energy infrastructure firm HyOrc Corporation is marking a significant transition from development-stage planning to commercial execution, announcing major progress in both its green methanol and rail decarbonization ventures. The company confirmed it has submitted its application to uplist to the OTCQB Venture Market, a strategic move aimed at boosting market visibility and capital access as it advances its first industrial-scale projects.

The dual announcements underscore a pivotal moment for HyOrc, which is simultaneously targeting two of the most challenging sectors for decarbonization: maritime shipping and freight rail. With binding agreements on the horizon and its technology moving from the factory to the field, the company is positioning itself as a tangible player in the global energy transition.

Riding the European Green Methanol Wave

At the forefront of HyOrc's commercial push is its green methanol project in the Porto area of Portugal. The company is now in advanced discussions for a 10-year offtake agreement with a major European renewable fuels counterparty. This long-term contract is designed to secure the sale of the initial output from the facility, a critical step that significantly de-risks the project for investors and financiers.

The Porto project is set to launch with a modular unit capable of producing approximately 8 tonnes of green methanol per day. This initial phase is part of a larger, scalable strategy. In September 2025, HyOrc established a 50-50 joint venture with Start, a Portuguese waste infrastructure company, to co-develop a network of green methanol plants. The venture plans to scale from the initial 8 tonnes per day (TPD) unit to five full-scale sites, each processing 300 TPD of municipal solid waste to produce 80 TPD of green methanol, leveraging HyOrc's proprietary waste-to-fuel technology.

Further validating this long-term vision, HyOrc has also received a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) from a global energy trading group. The LOI outlines potential long-term purchases of up to 25,000 tonnes per year over a decade, contingent on the successful expansion of the platform and definitive agreements. This interest from a major commodity trader highlights the growing market appetite for sustainable fuels.

This momentum is directly fueled by tightening environmental regulations, most notably the European Union's FuelEU Maritime initiative. The regulation, which is already in force, mandates a gradual reduction in the greenhouse gas intensity of marine fuels, creating urgent demand for alternatives like green methanol. Shipping operators are now scrambling to secure compliant fuel supplies, creating a seller's market for early producers like HyOrc. The global green methanol market reflects this urgency, with projections estimating its value could soar from around $3.16 billion in 2025 to nearly $20 billion by 2035.

Decarbonizing the Rails: From Factory to Field

While the maritime sector presents a massive opportunity, HyOrc is simultaneously advancing a parallel strategy to decarbonize the world's railways. The company has developed a patented hydrogen-capable combustion system designed to retrofit existing diesel-electric locomotives, offering a pragmatic path to lower emissions without requiring a complete fleet replacement.

In a key milestone, HyOrc announced that two of its 500-kilowatt turbines, totaling one megawatt of power, have been shipped to a customer for field deployment. This move is significant as it transitions the technology from a controlled factory environment—where it underwent successful testing witnessed by the global certification body Bureau Veritas—to real-world operational conditions.

The potential market for this technology is vast. There are an estimated 90,000 diesel locomotives operating across key global markets, with retrofit costs estimated at around $2 million per unit. HyOrc is pursuing this multi-billion-dollar opportunity through a global strategy, with pilot projects already underway in India, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

To penetrate the significant North American market, HyOrc signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in late 2025 with Zeltech (Zero Emissions Locomotive Technologies). The partnership aims to jointly develop and deploy HyOrc's hydrogen-ready locomotives in the United States, beginning with a pilot project based in California, a state known for its stringent emissions standards.

A Strategic Pivot to Project Finance and Market Visibility

Underpinning these technological and commercial advancements is a deliberate corporate strategy focused on securing growth capital and enhancing shareholder value. The company's application to uplist from the OTCID market to the OTCQB Venture Market is a cornerstone of this plan. An OTCQB listing requires stricter reporting standards, including audited financials and adherence to corporate governance protocols, which can increase transparency and build confidence among institutional and retail investors.

This move is a stepping stone toward HyOrc's ultimate goal: a listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. To that end, the company filed a Form 10 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2025, officially becoming a fully reporting SEC issuer.

Crucially, HyOrc is shifting its funding model away from relying on its own balance sheet. Instead, it is structuring its ventures to support asset-level, non-recourse project finance. This sophisticated approach involves securing financing for individual projects based on their own projected revenues and assets. The 10-year offtake discussion for the Portugal facility is a prime example of this strategy in action, as a guaranteed revenue stream makes the project a more attractive and self-sustaining investment for lenders. This model allows the company to scale its infrastructure platform more rapidly without diluting equity at the parent-company level.

Navigating a Competitive Clean-Tech Landscape

HyOrc is entering a dynamic and increasingly competitive field. In Portugal alone, it joins other significant green energy initiatives, such as Madoqua Synfuels' e-methanol project and Plug Power's involvement in a large-scale green hydrogen and methanol facility. This activity underscores Portugal's emergence as a European hub for green fuel production, driven by favorable renewable energy resources and strategic port access.

However, HyOrc aims to differentiate itself with its dual-pronged approach and proprietary technology. Its waste-to-methanol process addresses both waste management and clean fuel production, offering a circular economy solution. In the rail sector, its focus on retrofitting existing assets with hydrogen-capable turbines provides a potentially faster and more cost-effective decarbonization pathway compared to manufacturing entirely new locomotive fleets.

As the company works to convert its commercial frameworks and letters of intent into executed contracts, its near-term focus remains squarely on execution. With technology now being deployed in the field and its first major production facility advancing through permitting, HyOrc is working to prove it can deliver on its ambitious vision. The successful uplisting to OTCQB would provide another critical tailwind, enhancing its ability to fund these projects and solidify its role as an emerging leader in the heavy transport decarbonization race.