$13.8M Data Center Option

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Emissions-control companies design and manufacture systems that capture, filter, and reduce harmful air pollutants from industrial processes, power generation, and engines.

Of those pollutants, nitrogen oxides (NOx), which form smog, face some of the strictest limits, and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is the equipment that removes them.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls SCR a widely adopted NOx control for the utility boilers, industrial furnaces, and gas turbines that have to meet those limits.

So why does a NOx rule matter to an investor?

Because the more gas turbines that get built to power AI data centers, the more SCR equipment gets sold.

I'm sure you're familiar with how power-hungry these data centers are. They need enormous amounts of power, faster than the grid can supply. And data centers aren't going anywhere—the IEA expects global data center electricity use to roughly double to about 945 TWh by 2030.

And with grid interconnection queues stretching five years or longer (see my Fluence write-up), developers are starting to build their own power.

As of May 2026, RBC counts about 101 GW of announced behind-the-meter natural gas capacity across the US, with equipment already ordered for more than 57 GW. Every one of those gas turbines needs a NOx permit, and because they run full-time, only SCR can achieve compliance.

Now look at this table of equipment suppliers tied to this buildout:

Besides Babcock, which trades cheaply because it’s debt-laden and unprofitable, Fuel Tech (Nasdaq: FTEK) trades at just 1.6x sales (below every premium name), and it carries no debt.

It makes the SCR systems that AI data center gas turbines need, plus SNCR (the non-catalytic version) and fuel chemicals for coal and oil plants.

On EV/sales the discount is bigger. Fuel Tech sits at 0.9x, versus 2.9-5.8x for the premium names.

Strip out the $29.6M of cash and investments sitting on the balance sheet, $0.95/share and ~70% of the price, and the operating business is worth ~$13.8M (~0.5x sales).

Fuel Tech ran from $0.92 in February 2025 to $3.63 that September (up 295%), as management talked up SCR orders for data center gas turbines.

Then it round-tripped to $1.19 by March 2026 (down 67%), when no data center order landed. It popped to $2.21 in late June on Russell Microcap Index inclusion, then drifted back.

Since that March low, five events stand out:

At $1.39/share, you’re paying just over its $1.20/share book value, and getting the data center pipeline as a free option.

So that’s the central thesis. But just because an industry is growing and a stock is trading below its peers, barely above its cash floor, doesn’t mean you should be buying. That call takes the rest of this 4,000-word deep dive.