ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) is an emerging leader in industrial combustion technology, but are they finally turning their patented emissions-reduction solutions into a sustainable business model? You see a company that just reported Q3 2025 revenue of $1.03 million, a figure that, while modest, reflects the growing commercial traction of their ClearSign Core™ and ClearSign Eye™ technologies in the critical decarbonization and energy efficiency markets. We need to look past the current net loss of $1.4 million for the quarter and understand how their strategic partnerships, like the co-branded Zeeco CS5 Hydrogen Burners, are defintely positioning them to capture value in the stringent US regulatory environment. The real question is: does their unique approach to controlling industrial flames-which enables sub 5 ppm Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions-offer a competitive moat strong enough to drive the forecasted earnings per share (EPS) growth to $0.01 next year?

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) History

You're looking for the foundational story of ClearSign Technologies Corporation, and it's a classic tale of a technology firm pivoting from early-stage development to commercialization in a tough, capital-intensive industry. The company's history isn't just a timeline; it's a clear map of their shift from a broad combustion control idea to a focused, decarbonization-driven product line-specifically their ultra-low emissions burner technology.

The core takeaway is this: ClearSign Technologies Corporation started as a pure R&D play, but its trajectory has been fundamentally shaped by two things: the 2012 Initial Public Offering (IPO) that provided essential capital, and the strategic decision to partner with industry giants like Zeeco in 2025 to finally scale their technology into the industrial market.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Founding Timeline

Year established

ClearSign Technologies Corporation was formally incorporated in Washington on January 23, 2008.

Original location

The company was initially headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Founding team members

The initial leadership was anchored by Richard Rutkowski, who served as the first Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Rutkowski brought a history of co-founding other technology companies, including Microvision and Lumera.

Initial capital/funding

While the company secured an early Seed round of $1.06 million in February 2011, the major initial capital injection came from its 2012 Initial Public Offering (IPO), which raised approximately $13.8 million. This capital was crucial, allowing the company to delay adopting some costly accounting standards by leveraging exemptions in the JOBS Act designed for development-stage companies.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Evolution Milestones

A company's evolution is best tracked by the moments it commits to a new direction. Here's a look at the key events that defined ClearSign Technologies Corporation's path, from its earliest technology to its current focus on hydrogen and decarbonization solutions in 2025.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Transformative Moments

The company's most transformative moments revolve around product simplification and strategic market entry. You can't build a business on great lab results; you need to make it easy to install and sell, and that's where the company changed its game.

The move from the complex Duplex architecture to the simpler, retrofit-friendly ClearSign Core technology was defintely a turning point. It allowed them to move from complicated engineering projects to more straightforward product replacements.

Also, the 2025 strategic push into hydrogen and sensing technology is a clear pivot toward the future of industrial energy. The DOE grant and the Zeeco partnership map directly to this. For example, the first commercial installation commitment for their ClearSign Eye Sensor at a supermajor refinery, announced in Q1 2025, shows a tangible shift into the higher-margin sensing and control space. This is a smart move to diversify revenue beyond just burner hardware.

Here's the quick math on their recent performance, which highlights the challenge of commercialization: For the third quarter of 2025, the company reported consolidated revenues of $1.03 million, resulting in a net loss of $1.42 million. This shows they are generating revenue but still burning cash to capture market share and fulfill their pipeline. As of September 30, 2025, their cash and cash equivalents stood at $10.49 million, which is the liquidity that keeps the engine running while they execute on these new partnerships.

• Simplifying the Product: The development of the ClearSign Core technology from the older Duplex design made their solutions easier to retrofit, which is crucial for selling into existing industrial facilities.
• Strategic Partnerships: The co-branded burner launch with Zeeco in 2025 immediately expanded their sales reach globally, something a small firm couldn't do alone.
• Focusing on Decarbonization: The January 2025 $400,000 DOE grant solidified their position in the high-growth industrial hydrogen and decarbonization market.

If you want to understand the strategic rationale behind these moves, you should review their forward-looking statements in Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR).

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Ownership Structure

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's ownership structure, as of late 2025, is primarily held by retail and institutional investors, which is typical for a publicly traded technology company focused on commercialization. The company is governed by a small, focused board of directors and an executive team with deep expertise in industrial combustion and finance.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Current Status

ClearSign Technologies Corporation is a publicly traded entity on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol CLIR. This status means its shares are available for purchase by the general public, and the company is subject to the rigorous reporting and transparency requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As of November 2025, the company's market capitalization was approximately $55.57 million, reflecting its stage as an emerging leader in industrial combustion and sensing technologies. Its shares outstanding are around 52.43 million, which helps define the total equity base. You can find a detailed analysis of the company's strategic direction and core values here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR).

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Ownership Breakdown

The company's equity is distributed across three main categories of shareholders: institutions, company insiders, and the public. This breakdown is crucial because it tells you who holds the most sway in shareholder votes and strategic decisions. Institutional ownership, while not the majority, is a significant block, and it includes some of the world's largest asset managers.

Here's the quick math: nearly three-quarters of the company is held by the public, but the 24.03% held by institutions represents powerful, concentrated voting power. For instance, Otter Capital LLC is one of the largest single holders, with a reported 16.09% stake as of May 2025. This is why you defintely need to track their filings.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Leadership

The company is steered by a lean executive team and a Board of Directors that was recently realigned to support its new phase of commercialization and growth. As of August 2025, the Board size was reduced to five directors, following two voluntary resignations. This small board structure can allow for faster decision-making, but it also concentrates power.

The executive leadership, which manages day-to-day operations and strategy, includes:

• Dr. Jim Deller: Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Deller joined the team in 2019 and holds a doctorate in flame chemistry, bringing a deep technical background to the top role.
• Brent Hinds: VP of Finance. He brings 16 years of finance experience, including 7 years in financial reporting and strategy management.
• Matthew Martin: Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He has over 20 years of experience in combustion-related industries, focusing on product development.
• Jeff Lewallen: VP of Burners. His role is critical, given his 27 years of experience in the burner industry, directly overseeing a core product line.

The leadership team's strong technical background-with a CEO holding a Ph.D. in flame chemistry-shows a clear commitment to technology-first development. This is a crucial factor for a company whose value is tied to patented, low-emission combustion systems.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Mission and Values

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's purpose is fundamentally centered on environmental stewardship and industrial efficiency, aiming to make heavy industry cleaner and safer. Their core values-innovation, efficiency, integrity, and excellence-drive the development of combustion and sensing technologies that directly reduce harmful emissions.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Core Purpose

You're looking beyond the balance sheet to understand the company's long-term DNA, and honestly, ClearSign Technologies Corporation's mission is baked right into its product portfolio. The company exists to solve a critical, expensive problem: industrial emissions and fuel flexibility. It's a technology play with a clear environmental mandate.

Official mission statement

The company's mission is to design and develop products and technologies that achieve decarbonization and substantially improve the performance of industrial and commercial systems. This includes a multi-faceted focus, which is why it's a compelling long-term play for investors. One key product, the co-branded Zeeco CS5 and Zeeco Hydrogen CS5 Burners, demonstrates this by firing on 100% natural gas or 100% hydrogen while keeping Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions below 5 parts per million (ppm).

• Improve operational performance and energy efficiency.
• Dramatically reduce industrial emissions.
• Enhance safety and overall cost-effectiveness.
• Enable the use of cleaner fuels, including hydrogen.

For a deeper dive into the financial implications of this mission, you should check out Breaking Down ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Vision statement

The vision is about market leadership in a highly regulated, high-stakes sector, which means their technology has to be defintely best-in-class. Their focus is on enabling global refining, petrochemical, and boiler industries to meet the most stringent environmental toxic emissions regulations while simultaneously increasing operational efficiency.

Here's the quick math on why this matters: meeting regulations often means costly retrofits or reduced output, but ClearSign Technologies Corporation's technology aims to do both-comply and boost efficiency. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, the company reported an operating loss of $1.75 million, showing the ongoing investment in R&D and commercialization to realize this vision.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation slogan/tagline

While the company doesn't use a single, snappy slogan, their consistent public messaging acts as their functional tagline, positioning them as a leader in a critical environmental niche. They are an emerging leader in industrial combustion and sensing technologies that support decarbonization.

• Focus on innovation, efficiency, integrity and excellence.
• Commercializing advanced combustion solutions.
• Securing first commercial installation of 'ClearSign Eye' Sensor at a supermajor refinery in 2025.

The fact that their cash and cash equivalents stood at $10.5 million as of September 30, 2025, shows they have the working capital to push these new commercial installations forward. That's the real-world commitment to their mission.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) How It Works

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) designs and sells advanced combustion and sensing technologies that dramatically reduce industrial emissions, primarily nitrogen oxides (NOx), while also improving energy efficiency and enabling the use of cleaner fuels like hydrogen. The company operates by licensing its patented technology, such as the ClearSign Core™, to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and selling direct-to-customer burner systems for both retrofit and new-build projects.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Product/Service Portfolio

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Operational Framework

The company's operational model is centered on technology development and commercialization through strategic partnerships, which helps manage capital expenditure. It's a lean approach, but it works.

• Technology Commercialization: ClearSign Technologies develops patented combustion and sensing technologies, like the ClearSign Core™, and embeds them into established OEM products or sells them as complete burner systems.
• Channel Partner Sales: Sales often flow through established heater manufacturers and distributors, such as Devco Process Heaters, which promotes and installs the ClearSign Core™ M-Series process burners into facilities like New Mexico gas processing plants.
• Value Creation: Value is created by providing a compliance solution-customers meet strict environmental toxic emissions regulations (like achieving sub 5 ppm NOx) while also gaining energy efficiency and the ability to use cleaner fuels, which is defintely a win-win.
• Financial Snapshot (Q3 2025): The company reported revenue of $1.03 million for the quarter, with a gross margin of 35.8%. Here's the quick math: the operating loss was still significant at $1.75 million in Q3 2025, but the technology is gaining traction with key engineering orders, like the one for a 32-burner retrofit at a major California refinery.

You can see the focus is on getting those first operational references out in the field to drive broader adoption. Exploring ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Strategic Advantages

The key to ClearSign Technologies' market success isn't just low emissions; it's the ability to achieve those levels while maintaining stable combustion and fuel flexibility, which is a hard technical problem to solve.

• Patented Ultra-Low NOx Performance: The ClearSign Core™ technology consistently achieves emissions levels, like sub 5 ppm NOx, that are often below the most stringent global regulatory requirements, giving customers a future-proof compliance solution.
• Hydrogen Fuel Readiness: The M-Series is explicitly designed for 100% hydrogen firing while maintaining ultra-low emissions, positioning the company directly in the rapidly expanding industrial decarbonization and clean energy transition market.
• Retrofit and OEM Integration: The technology is engineered for both new equipment and easy retrofit into existing industrial heaters and boilers, which significantly expands the addressable market by avoiding costly full-system replacements.
• Sensing and Safety Edge: The ClearSign Eye™ and SGM™ sensor suite provide a critical safety and operational advantage by offering real-time, in-situ (in place) flame and gas diagnostics, reducing risk and improving efficiency.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) How It Makes Money

ClearSign Technologies Corporation generates revenue primarily by selling its proprietary, ultra-low-emissions combustion products-like the ClearSign Core™ burners-to industrial customers in energy and manufacturing sectors. They make money on the upfront sale and installation of these high-margin, specialized systems, plus a smaller but growing stream from engineering services and sensor technology.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Revenue Breakdown

The company's revenue is highly project-dependent, meaning a single large order can skew the quarterly breakdown. Based on the product-centric nature of their business and recent announcements, the revenue streams for the most recent periods are heavily weighted toward equipment sales.

In Q3 2025, ClearSign Technologies Corporation reported consolidated revenues of $1.03 million, a significant drop from the $1.86 million reported in Q3 2024, reflecting a slowdown in major product deliveries.

Business Economics

The core economic model revolves around selling a high-value, high-margin solution that solves a critical regulatory and operational problem for large industrial clients, namely reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to single-digit parts per million (ppm). This isn't a volume business; it's a specialized, high-ticket, project-by-project model.

• Value-Based Pricing: The company's pricing is tied to the value proposition of regulatory compliance and operational savings, not just manufacturing cost. Their ClearSign Core™ technology, for instance, offers a cost-effective alternative to Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems, which can cost millions to install and operate.
• High Customer Concentration: A significant risk is the high concentration of revenue. In 2024, the two largest customers accounted for 86% of total revenue, meaning project delays with just one client can crater a quarter's results.
• Recurring Revenue Foundation: While the main revenue is transactional, the 'Engineering Services & Parts' stream-which includes spare parts, engineering work, and the ClearSign Eye™ sensor installations-is the foundation for future recurring revenue. This is a critical, sticky component.
• Partnership Leverage: The co-branded product line with Zeeco, Inc. (e.g., the Zeeco CS5 and Zeeco Hydrogen CS5 Burners) is a smart way to use a global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) sales channel without incurring massive internal sales costs.

The business is built on a strong intellectual property (IP) moat, but commercialization velocity is the key challenge. Exploring ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's Financial Performance

As of November 2025, ClearSign Technologies Corporation remains in the commercialization phase, which is reflected in its ongoing operating losses, despite a healthy gross margin for its products.

• Gross Margin Health: The company reported a Q3 2025 gross margin of 35.8%, up from 29.6% in the year-ago quarter. This shows the underlying product economics are sound; they sell a valuable product at a good markup.
• Operating and Net Losses: The primary financial challenge is the high operating expense base relative to its inconsistent revenue. The operating loss for Q3 2025 was $1.75 million, leading to a net loss of $1.4 million. This is a classic profile of a technology company scaling its sales and research efforts.
• Cash Position: Liquidity is the near-term focus. As of September 30, 2025, the company held approximately $10.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. This cash runway is essential to sustain operations while waiting for large, multi-quarter projects to convert into recognized revenue.
• Nine-Month Revenue: For the nine months ending September 30, 2025, total revenue was $1.56 million, a significant drop from the $3.01 million reported for the same period in 2024. This is the number that tells you the commercialization path is defintely not linear right now.

Here's the quick math: The Q3 gross profit was $368,000, but General and Administrative (G&A) expenses alone were $1.81 million. The gap highlights the need for a sustained, multi-million-dollar revenue run rate to reach cash flow breakeven.

ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Market Position & Future Outlook

ClearSign Technologies Corporation's market position in the industrial combustion sector is that of a disruptive technology provider with a tiny, yet highly specialized, market share, but its future outlook is tied to the rapid adoption of its ultra-low nitrogen oxide (NOx) and hydrogen-ready burner technology. The company's focus on regulatory-driven retrofits and new-builds, particularly in the US Gulf Coast and California, positions it for exponential revenue growth, which analysts forecast to be around 77.58% for 2025, significantly outpacing the US Pollution & Treatment Controls industry average of 29.59%.

Competitive Landscape

In the global industrial burner and flare market, valued at approximately $7.09 billion in 2025, ClearSign Technologies Corporation is a niche player competing against established, multi-billion-dollar industrial giants with decades of market presence and massive installed bases. The company's trailing twelve-month revenue of $2.98 million as of Q3 2025 places its estimated market share in the industrial low-NOx burner segment at around 0.2%.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategic initiatives are directly mapped to two major market forces: stringent environmental regulation and the global push for decarbonization (using hydrogen). Still, as a small-cap technology firm, it faces significant execution and financial risks.

Industry Position

ClearSign Technologies Corporation is an emerging technology leader within the niche of ultra-low-emission combustion, not a market share leader in the broader industrial burner space. Its value proposition is simple: solve the toughest emissions problems without the typical trade-offs in efficiency or cost of complex post-combustion systems (like Selective Catalytic Reduction, or SCR). That's a defintely compelling pitch.

• Technology Superiority: The ClearSign Core™ technology consistently achieves sub-2 ppm NOx emissions, a level few competitors can match without expensive, complex post-combustion equipment.
• Focus on Decarbonization: Active development of hydrogen-blend and 100% hydrogen burners keeps the company ahead of the curve in the energy transition.
• Financial Health: While projected revenue growth is high, the company remains pre-profit, with a negative EPS forecast of -$0.14 for 2025, signaling that it is still in the commercialization phase. For a deeper dive, see Breaking Down ClearSign Technologies Corporation (CLIR) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.
• Channel Strategy: Leveraging a major partner like Zeeco for co-branded products is the right move; it provides instant access to a global sales channel that ClearSign could never build on its own.

The company's success hinges entirely on translating its technical superiority into large, repeatable commercial orders in the next 18 months.