Former TotalEnergies executive brings deep expertise in technology industrialization, large-scale operations, and senior ties in refining and chemical sectors
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HOUSTON, Texas – November 6, 2025 – Utility, the global economic industrial decarbonization company, today announced the appointment of Eric Duchesne as Advisor to the Board of Directors focused on the refining, petrochemical and chemical markets. As the former CTO and Head of Capital Projects for downstream businesses of TotalEnergies, Duchesne brings deep expertise in industrialization of first-of-a-kind transformative technology solutions, large-scale project execution and operations, with strong relationships in the energy ecosystem globally.
During his 35 years at TotalEnergies, Duchesne directed more than 2,000 engineers across multifunctional teams on multi-billion-dollar projects in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. He was responsible for decarbonization of refining and petrochemical assets of TotalEnergies, including greenfield and retrofit mega projects. He left a legacy in operational safety and reliability, and an excellent track record in effective project development and design to cost, focused on end customer value.
Throughout his career, he developed close relationships with equipment vendors, leading Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies in the industry, and strategic decarbonization partners. Duchesne is an expert in setting corporate strategies and securing a broad spectrum of win-win commercial contracts.
“Eric’s extensive experience leading energy megaprojects and operations alongside his passion for commercializing decarbonization technologies makes him an ideal Advisor to Utility as we enter the refining and petrochemical industries,” said Parker Meeks, CEO of Utility. “His deep industry insights and connectedness in downstream oil & gas will strengthen and accelerate our path to market as we expand our economic decarbonization solutions.”
“Utility’s proprietary H2Gen technology that is operationally flexible and produces clean hydrogen from water without electricity supply can be far more competitive than green or blue hydrogen. Also, it is capable of producing a separate stream of up to 95% pure carbon dioxide, effectively eliminating the need for carbon capture in some settings. Essentially, H2Gen offers an efficient and easy-to-implement-at-large-scale decarbonization solution for refineries, petrochemical, and chemical plants around the world,” said Eric Duchesne. “I look forward to partnering with Utility help drive its next phase of global growth.”
Duchesne holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from ENSIC in Nancy, France, and is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, one of France’s most selective and prestigious schools.
Duchesne is the latest global executive advisor to join Utility, following steel industry executives Dr. Henrik Adam, and Tetsuya Shioda. Utility continues to strengthen its commercial relationships and value propositions in targeted industrial sectors, including harnessing the extensive experience from high caliber industry veterans in each target market, now including Eric.
About Utility Global
Utility delivers practical solutions that drive economic industrial decarbonization across industries such as steel, mobility, refining, chemicals, and upstream oil & gas. The company’s breakthrough H2Gen® technology harnesses energy from industrial off-gases and biogases to produce application-specific high-purity, low-to-negative carbon intensity hydrogen on-site from water, without electricity, using its proprietary electrochemical process. H2Gen also produces a high-concentration carbon dioxide stream, which can eliminate or reduce the cost of carbon capture. H2Gen systems are modular, scalable, and operationally flexible, integrating seamlessly into existing hard-to-abate industrial assets with a record small footprint, enabling practical, economic decarbonization.
Utility is a portfolio company of Ara Partners, a global private equity and infrastructure firm that is decarbonizing the industrial economy. For more information, visit www.utilityglobal.com.
About Ara Partners
Ara Partners is a global private equity and infrastructure investment firm focused on industrial decarbonization. Founded in 2017, Ara Partners seeks to build and scale companies with significant decarbonization impact across the industrial and manufacturing, chemicals and materials, energy efficiency and green fuels, and food and agriculture sectors. The company operates from offices in Houston, Boston, Washington D.C., and Dublin. Ara Partners closed its third private equity fund in December 2023 with over $2.8 billion in capital commitments. As of June 30, 2025, Ara Partners had approximately $6.6 billion of assets under management.
For more information about Ara Partners, please visit www.arapartners.com.
Media Contact:
Susan Cellura
Director of Marketing & Communications | scellura@utilityglobal.com