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A technology being developed in Conroe could soon play a much larger role in an American manufacturing supply chain that stretches from electric vehicles and wind turbines to some of the nation’s most advanced defense systems.

Hertha Metals, which operates a demonstration-scale iron and steelmaking facility at 100 N. FM 3083 Road E. in Conroe, announced that it has produced iron at 99.95% purity, meeting a specification used by manufacturers of rare-earth permanent magnets. The company is now preparing to break ground on Chalyx, its first commercial production plant.

For Conroe, the milestone puts a locally based industrial technology company at an important turning point: moving from proving that a new steelmaking process works to attempting to operate it reliably at commercial scale.

According to reporting by the Houston Chronicle, Hertha Metals is planning a $100 million investment for its new Conroe plant near the company’s existing pilot operation along FM 3083. The $100 million figure was separately reported by the Chronicle and was not included in Hertha’s Aug. 18 announcement about its latest purity milestone.

The significance of the project extends well beyond the size of the investment. Hertha is trying to establish a domestic source of an industrial material that remains largely imported while also developing a different approach to one of the world’s oldest and most emissions-intensive manufacturing processes.

Why 99.95% Pure Iron Matters

High-purity iron rarely receives the attention given to rare-earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium. Yet iron is a major component of neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets, which are used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, electronics, manufacturing equipment and numerous defense applications.

Hertha says high-purity iron accounts for roughly 70% of the weight of neodymium magnets and that the United States currently imports nearly all of the material it needs.

For magnet producers, purity is critical. Even small amounts of unwanted elements can affect magnetic strength, performance and durability.

Hertha says its latest result reaches 3N5 purity — 99.95% iron — using fully domestic inputs and commercial-grade equipment, clearing an important technical threshold as the company works toward supplying U.S. rare-earth magnet manufacturers.

“High-purity iron is one of the least visible materials behind the magnets that power everything from electric vehicles to defense systems, and today almost none of it is made in America,” Hertha Metals founder and CEO Laureen Meroueh, PhD, said. “We've now demonstrated that we can produce magnet-grade iron domestically, creating a new pathway to build a domestic supply chain.”

Producing iron at that level of purity traditionally requires multiple refining and processing steps. Hertha says its process instead controls oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and residual metallic impurities through a single continuous pyrometallurgical process with minimal post-processing.

By reaching 99.95% purity on commercial-grade equipment, the company says it has demonstrated both the material quality and underlying process needed to move toward customer qualification and larger-scale production.

A Conroe Company Trying to Rethink How Steel Is Made

Hertha Metals was founded in 2022 by Laureen Meroueh, who holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and developed the proprietary pyrometallurgical process behind the company.

Hertha calls its technology Flex-HERS™, a semi-continuous, single-step system designed to produce iron and steel using natural gas, hydrogen and electricity.

Unlike processes that require narrowly specified, higher-cost iron inputs, Hertha says Flex-HERS can process different grades and forms of iron ore and waste oxides, including fines and lumps.

That flexibility is a central part of the company’s strategy because it could allow manufacturers to use a wider range of domestic iron resources rather than relying exclusively on premium-grade feedstocks.

The process is also designed to transition between natural gas and cleaner hydrogen as hydrogen becomes more widely available and economically competitive, without requiring manufacturers to replace the core furnace.

Hertha says its technology can reduce production costs by more than 20% and cut emissions by approximately 50% compared with conventional methods. Those figures are company estimates, and commercial-scale operation will provide a much larger test of the economics and environmental performance Hertha has demonstrated at pilot scale.

The broader environmental challenge is significant. Hertha has noted that steel production is responsible for up to 9% of global industrial emissions, making decarbonizing steel one of the more difficult challenges facing heavy industry.

Rather than depending solely on a “green premium” that asks customers to pay more for lower-emission material, Hertha’s business model is built around the argument that cleaner steelmaking also has to compete economically.

That approach has increasingly brought the Conroe company into the national conversation about advanced manufacturing and industrial decarbonization.

Laureen Meroueh Named Among Reuters Events’ 2026 Trailblazing Women

That work has also brought new recognition to Hertha’s founder.

Reuters Events Sustainable Business named Laureen Meroueh to its 2026 Trailblazing Women list, placing her among leaders selected for their professional achievements, influence, social impact and leadership.

Reuters Events said its 2026 honorees were selected from more than 11,000 nominations across the global economy. Meroueh was included in the list’s climate category alongside leaders from government, business and environmental organizations.

Hertha describes Meroueh as the first woman to invent a steelmaking technology and build a company around it, a distinction Meroueh has also used in discussing the Reuters recognition. Reuters Events Sustainable Business publicly congratulated her on her inclusion, and Breakthrough Energy — where Meroueh is a Fellow alumna — also highlighted the honor.

The recognition adds a human dimension to a project built around furnaces, metallurgy and industrial equipment.

Steelmaking has changed incrementally over generations, but the basic ore-to-steel route remains rooted in technologies developed during the industrial era. Hertha’s goal is considerably more ambitious than improving one piece of that system: the company is attempting to redesign how primary iron and steel can be produced.

For Meroueh, that means trying to prove that lowering emissions and strengthening domestic manufacturing do not necessarily have to come at the expense of production economics.

From a Conroe Pilot Plant to Chalyx

Hertha has already moved well beyond laboratory-scale experimentation.

Its process has been demonstrated at a continuous tonne-per-day scale using commercial-grade equipment at its Conroe facility. The company has at times referred to the site more broadly as its Houston-area pilot operation, but Hertha identifies its operating facility as being in Conroe, Texas.

The next challenge is much larger.

Hertha’s planned commercial facility, Chalyx, is expected to produce high-purity iron for rare-earth magnet manufacturers and move the company beyond its current demonstration-scale operation.

The Houston Chronicle has reported that the project represents an approximately $100 million investment in Conroe, near Hertha’s existing facility.

If completed as planned, Chalyx would be Hertha’s first attempt to translate its technology into sustained commercial production.

Moving from a tonne-per-day pilot process into thousands of tons of annual production introduces an entirely different set of challenges, including construction, equipment integration, reliability, workforce development, quality control and customer qualification.

To help manage that transition, Hertha has hired longtime steel industry executive Alec Glenn as vice president of operations.

Glenn most recently served as vice president of reliability at JSW Steel USA. His previous experience includes AM/NS Calvert, where he helped bring a greenfield facility online, and six years with Nucor Steel. Hertha says he brings approximately three decades of steel industry experience to the Chalyx project.

The company has also engaged Mark1, an organization focused on helping emerging industrial technologies move into first-of-a-kind commercial projects.

Created by RMI, Third Derivative and Deep Science Ventures, Mark1 works with companies developing capital-intensive industrial technologies on engineering, planning and commercialization.

Hertha says Chalyx is expected to break ground later in 2026.

Hertha Has Much Bigger Production Goals Beyond Its Pilot Plant

Chalyx is not intended to be the end of Hertha’s expansion.

In public statements connected with Meroueh’s Reuters recognition, the company said it was laying the groundwork to produce more than 9,000 tons annually by 2027, with a longer-term path toward 500,000 tons of annual production by 2030.

Hertha has since described its near-term goal as approximately 10,000 tons by the end of 2027, while continuing to identify commercial modules of up to 500,000 tons as its longer-term target.

Those numbers put the scale of the company’s ambitions into perspective.

Hertha’s current Conroe demonstration operation proves the process at a tonne-per-day level. A facility producing more than 9,000 to 10,000 tons annually represents the next major step. Reaching 500,000 tons annually would place the technology in an entirely different category of industrial production.

Hertha previously announced plans for a production facility capable of more than 9,000 tonnes per year, initially aimed at supplying high-purity iron to the U.S. rare-earth magnet market, followed eventually by steelmaking capacity of roughly 500,000 tonnes annually.

Whether Hertha can make those jumps in scale while maintaining the purity, cost and emissions advantages demonstrated at its pilot operation will be one of the most important questions surrounding the company over the next several years.

The Timing Matters for U.S. Defense Manufacturing

Hertha’s move toward commercial production is happening as the federal government places greater emphasis on domestic sources of materials used in permanent magnets.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, Department of Defense procurement restrictions involving certain neodymium-iron-boron magnets expand to cover additional portions of the supply chain, including restrictions tied to iron and other materials originating in specified covered countries, subject to federal regulations and exceptions.

That deadline has added urgency to efforts to establish domestic sources for both the raw materials and processing capacity behind rare-earth permanent magnets.

The Department of Defense has separately invested in developing what it calls a domestic “mine-to-magnet” supply chain, with rare-earth permanent magnets used in aircraft, submarines, missiles, radar systems and other defense technologies.

Hertha’s achievement does not by itself establish a complete American magnet supply chain. What it potentially addresses is one less-discussed part of that chain: producing the high-purity iron required to make those magnets within the United States.

That broader national effort helps explain why an industrial technology being developed along FM 3083 in Conroe could eventually matter far beyond Montgomery County.

Why Hertha Metals’ Growth Matters for Conroe

For local residents, the story is about more than a metallurgy milestone or another industrial construction project.

Conroe and Montgomery County have spent years absorbing rapid residential, commercial and population growth. Much of that change is easy to see in new neighborhoods, retail centers, schools and roads.

Hertha represents a different piece of the region’s growth.

Its expansion brings advanced manufacturing, engineering, materials science and heavy industrial technology into the local economy — sectors that can create highly specialized jobs and attract additional investment around them.

If the reported $100 million Chalyx investment moves forward as planned, it would represent a significant industrial investment in the Conroe area while giving the city a role in a larger effort to rebuild portions of the U.S. manufacturing supply chain.

Hertha has also begun introducing itself to the next generation of the local workforce. The company has participated in Conroe-area career initiatives, giving students exposure to engineering, manufacturing and industrial career paths that may not immediately come to mind when they think about jobs close to home.

There are still substantial hurdles ahead.

Producing material at pilot scale is different from operating a commercial plant continuously, meeting customer specifications shipment after shipment and competing on cost with established international suppliers.

Hertha itself has acknowledged that distinction.

But that is also what makes the next phase important for Conroe. The technology no longer exists only as a laboratory concept. It is being tested, produced and prepared for commercial scale locally.

What Happens Next for Hertha Metals in Conroe

Hertha has now demonstrated its Flex-HERS process at pilot scale and says it has reached the 99.95% iron purity specification required by major rare-earth magnet manufacturers.

The next milestones will be more visible.

The company expects to break ground on Chalyx later this year as Glenn leads operations planning and Mark1 supports engineering and project development.

From there, attention will turn toward construction, hiring, customer qualification, startup and Hertha’s ability to move from tonne-per-day production toward the thousands of tons envisioned for its next stage.

For Meroueh, who has gone from developing a new steelmaking process to earning recognition among Reuters Events’ Trailblazing Women, the next test is also the biggest one yet: proving the technology can work not only in an innovative Conroe pilot plant, but as a commercially competitive American manufacturing business.

And for Conroe, a company operating relatively quietly along FM 3083 is beginning to connect the community to much larger conversations about American steelmaking, rare-earth magnet supply chains, advanced manufacturing and the future of lower-emission industrial production.

My Neighborhood News will continue following Hertha Metals and the Chalyx project, including groundbreaking, construction, hiring and other developments as the company expands its Conroe operations.

By Tiffany Krenek, My Neighborhood News 

Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.

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