About Us

Our History

ACT Hydrogen was founded in 2008 by Chas Radovich and Gary Betherum in an 8,300 ft² lab in Chatsworth, CA. Chas brought in Robert Plaisted as the first Chief Science Officer, who took an entirely new angle to electrolysis and hydrogen production. Through trial, error, and relentless pursuit, we uncovered new principles to elevate theoretical efficiencies of electrolysis beyond what anyone deemed possible.

Tragically, Gary passed away from ALS in 2017. But Chas was determined to carry on their shared vision of transforming hydrogen production technology. Our team, led by Robert, continued development, testing, and improvements, even extending into research related to applying the technology to the manipulation of hydrocarbons.

A major breakthrough occurred in 2018 when our technology advanced away from known Faraday’s laws of electrolysis and began implementing a dual pulsing plasma process. As the fourth state of matter, plasma had been largely untested in this application and has proven integral to our success.

In 2021, ACT was introduced to NAER as they searched for a new green hydrogen solution. As an international power supply company with experience in building, refurbishing, and improving power generation plants in multiple industries, they recognized the potential in the new hydrogen technology that ACT Hydrogen could offer.

In 2022, NAER conducted their own independent testing of our technology and were amazed by the potential efficiencies and hydrogen production they observed. Their test results can be found here:

Since then, ACT and NAER have worked hand-in-hand to advance our technology from the lab to commercial application. Our partnership with NAER has been invaluable in R&D, manufacturing, and arranging our Pilot Project with California Power Partners in Q1 2026.

In 2024, ACT entered into a collaboration with the nation’s leading fuel research laboratory at UC Irvine’s HIMaC Laboratory, headquarters of the $1.2 billion ARCHES Hydrogen Energy Hub. During our first lab-to-real-world trials from May-September 2025, we established proof of concept while stress testing and identifying multiple improvements to enable field durability for continuous operations.

Limited-scale manufacturing of our first commercial HPU is underway to power our first pilot project in January 2026. We will also deliver a new HPU unit to HIMac for continued testing and material science collaboration through the end of 2026.