160-Year-Old Hong Kong Utility Goes Green With AI & Hydrogen

A company that's been keeping Hong Kong's stoves lit for 160 years is now fueling the future with green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and AI-powered maintenance systems.

Towngas serves nearly every Hong Kong household with cooking and heating gas through 3,700 kilometers of underground pipes. But behind the familiar blue flame, the utility has quietly become a clean energy powerhouse, developing technologies that turn trash into jet fuel and used cooking oil into aviation gas.

The company's engineers now use ultrasound imaging systems to inspect pipe joints in real time, catching problems before residents notice anything wrong. AI-trained cameras scan building facades for corrosion, helping maintain a supply reliability rate above 99.99 percent while preparing infrastructure for hydrogen delivery.

That hydrogen expertise comes naturally since Hong Kong town gas already contains 50 percent hydrogen. Towngas is now building the city's first green hydrogen production facility and rolling out hydrogen charging stations for electric vehicles, drawing on over a century of experience handling the tricky fuel safely.

The company's green ambitions stretch across sea, land, and air. At sea, Towngas produces internationally certified green methanol by converting scrap tires and farm waste into clean maritime fuel, aiming for one million tonnes annually.

In the sky, EcoCeres (a Towngas startup) transforms used cooking oil into sustainable aviation fuel that cuts carbon emissions. The company already ranks among global SAF leaders, proving that yesterday's waste can power tomorrow's flights.

The Ripple Effect

Towngas isn't keeping these breakthroughs to itself. Chairman Dr. Peter Lee launched the TERA-Award competition, offering up to $1 million annually to green startups worldwide with zero-carbon energy ideas.

The contest has attracted over 1,700 entries from nearly 80 countries since starting. Hong Kong startup i2Cool won gold with an electricity-free cooling coating that lowers building temperatures naturally, now deployed in over 100 projects globally.

Meanwhile, the company's mainland China operations use drones and robots with AI algorithms to inspect and clean solar power stations. Smart kitchen appliances now feature chips that let users control them remotely through smartphones, earning multiple patents and proving Towngas can export high-tech industrial solutions.

The utility even completed its first blockchain-based real-world asset tokenization project in 2025, exploring how new financial technology can improve capital efficiency for green infrastructure.

Across Hong Kong, millions of residents still turn their gas knobs without a second thought, unaware that the same company is pioneering the hydrogen economy and turning agricultural waste into airplane fuel.

A 160-year-old utility is showing the world that legacy doesn't mean stuck in the past.