seeing gold

Sustainable biotech company to test hydrogen production technology with global chemicals leader

Two Houston companies have partnered up to explore gold hydrogen technology. Photo via cemvita.com

Two Houston-area companies have announced a strategic partnership to test a unique hydrogen production technology.

The Woodlands-based ChampionX Corporation (NASDAQ: CHX) and Gold H2 Inc. entered into the partnership on November 9. GH2, a subsidiary of Houston-based Cemvita, provides tailored subsurface microbiology solutions by harnessing the power of microorganisms to enable in-situ hydrogen production from depleted oil and gas wells.

Created with carbon neutrality, the gold hydrogen costs less to create and is more sustainable than its alternatives. Cemvita, a sustainability-focused biotech company, has already seen success from its technology. After successfully completing a pilot test of gold hydrogen in the oil-rich Permian Basin of West Texas, Cemvita raised an undisclosed amount of funding through its Gold H2 spin-out.

ChampionX, a global equipment and services provider for the oil and gas industry, has a suite of services and chemical technologies for optimizing production for reservoirs.

"Could not have asked for a better partner than ChampionX, Victor Keasler and Deric Bryant to helps us bring the Gold H2 technology to life. They are the industry leader in oilfield chemistry and microbiology and we are beyond excited to have them as a collaborator," Cemvita Co-founder and CEO Moji Karimi writes in a LinkedIn post. "I talk about creating a natural resource company of the future and our work at Gold H2 is a perfect example. To learn from subsurface biology and effectively turn the reservoir into a natural bioreactor and proactively biomanufacture end products of interest, integrating upstream with downstream."

Cemvita has had a flurry of corporate partnership announcements this year. In September, the company announced a 20-year off-take agreement with United to provide up to 50 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel a year across 20 years.

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A View From HETI

XGS Energy plans to “aggressively expand” its team in Houston this year thanks to its latest round of investments. Photo via Getty Images

XGS Energy, a California-headquartered geothermal power company with a major presence in Houston, has closed $13 million in new financing that included new investors Aligned Climate Capital, ClearSky, ClimateIC and WovenEarth Ventures, in addition to inside investors.

The company plans to “aggressively expand” its team in Houston this year, according to a news release.

“We are facing global energy supply challenges of unprecedented scale and urgency,” Kevin Kimsa, Managing Partner at ClimateIC, said in the release. “The XGS team is uniquely primed to meet the moment, bringing together innovative technology and leading engineering talent with the deep experience in infrastructure development and financing critical to deploying large-scale energy systems at speed.”

As part of the financing deal, Mano Nazar, ClearSky Senior Advisor and the former Chief Nuclear Officer of NextEra Energy, will join the XGS Energy Board of Directors.

“XGS’s advanced geothermal technology is uniquely positioned to deliver abundant energy to the grid faster than any other baseload energy technology at a time of unprecedented demand for energy resources,” Nazar said in a news release. “We are excited to partner with XGS to deliver on their mission of sustainable, reliable, and scalable geothermal energy.”

XGS is known for its next-gen closed-loop geothermal well architecture. The company saw massive growth in the Houston market last year and recently completed a 100-meter field demonstration in central Texas. The new funding supports the XGS’s multi-gigawatt project pipeline.

The recent financing also builds on an oversubscribed Series A round led by Constellation Technology Ventures, VoLo Earth Ventures, and Valo Ventures that closed last year.

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