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Meet Cemvita's new VP of industrial biotechnology

Dr. Nádia Skorupa Parachin has been named Cemvita’s new VP of Industrial Biotechnology. Photo via HETI

Houston-based biosolutions company Cemvita has announced a new addition to its leadership team that will further advance the company’s mission to transform the sustainable oil industry.

Dr. Nádia Skorupa Parachin has been named Cemvita’s new VP of Industrial Biotechnology. Joining Cemvita from Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston, where she held the role of Senior Director of Principal Organism Engineering, Parachin brings extensive expertise in synthetic biology, bioprocess development and strategic leadership.

Prior to her tenure at Ginkgo Bioworks, she spent nine years as a professor at the Universidade de Brasília and co-founded the Brazilian start-up Integra Bioprocessos, which is dedicated to developing biotechnological pathways that yield high-value products.

Parachin’s addition to the Cemvita team coincides with the company’s intensified focus on commercializing its capability to manufacture bio-oil from carbon waste. Cemvita has recently achieved a major milestone, now producing up to 500 barrels of sustainable oil per day—reaching the target years ahead of the original projection set for 2029. In her role, Parachin will continue their innovative work, advancing microbial productivity efficiency.

“Cemvita has built an incredible waste carbon to oil process by training microbes with peak efficiency,” said Cemvita CEO Moji Karimi in a statement. “Adding Nadia’s experience is the natural next step in commercializing this remarkable science. Her background prepared her to bring the best out of the scientists at the inflection point of commercialization – really bringing things to life.”

Echoing this enthusiasm, Parachin expressed her excitement about her new role at Cemvita.

“I’ve joined Cemvita to lead the team working on developing and improving the technologies for our bio-oil production,” she stated. “It’s a fantastic moment as we’re poised to take our prototyping to the next level, and all under the innovative direction of our co-founder, Tara Karimi. We will be bringing something truly remarkable to market and ensuring its cost effective.”

Parachin’s role comes at a strategic time, following Cemvita’s recent announcement of a significant partnership with United Airlines. Under this agreement, Cemvita will provide United with up to 50 million gallons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) derived from CO2 annually over the next 20 years. The company’s energy transition subsidiary, Gold H2, has also recently formed a significant partnership with ChampionX. This collaboration aims to advance Gold H2’s technology designed to produce hydrogen from depleted or uneconomical oil reservoirs.

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This article originally ran on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog. HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

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A View From HETI

Ten climatetech startups were named most-promising at this annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum. Photo courtesy Rice Alliance.

Investors at the Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum have named the 10 most-promising startups among the group of 100 clean tech companies participating in the event.

The 22nd annual event was held yesterday, Sept. 18, at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and was part of the second Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week.

The most-promising startups will receive $7,000 in in-kind legal services from Baker Botts.

The 10 most-promising companies included:

  • Houston-based Xplorobot, which has developed laser gas imaging technology for the first handheld methane detection device approved by the EPA as an alternative test method
  • Seattle-based Badwater Alchemy, a desalination company that uses nano materials to purify saline water at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods
  • San Francisco-based Ammobia, which is developing a clean ammonia production process
  • Illinois-based Celadyne Technologies, which is building hydrogen for industrial decarbonization with durable and efficient fuel cells and electrolyzers
  • Massachusetts-based MacroCycle Technologies, which converts plastic waste in the form of bottles, food trays and polyester textiles into virgin-grade mPET resin
  • Yorkshire, England-based AtoMe, a global developer of zero-carbon fertiliser products
  • Colorado-based Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (ATS) Energy, a renewable energy semiconductor manufacturing company
  • North Carolina-based Lukera Energy, which is converting waste methane into high-value fuel
  • Midland, Texas-based AI Driller, a company that uses AI and machine learning to enable remote operations and provide historical drilling data for survey management, anti-collision monitoring and iob reporting
  • New York-based Fast Metals Inc., which has developed a chemical process to extract valuable metals from complex toxic mine tailings that is capable of producing iron, aluminum, scandium, titanium and other rare earth elements using industrial waste and waste CO2 as inputs

Arculus Solutions won the People's Choice Award. The New Jersey-based company retrofits natural gas pipelines for safe hydrogen transportation. It also won Track A: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, Buildings, Water, & Other Energy Solutions at the Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek earlier this year.

The 100 energy technology ventures selected to participate in the forum were named earlier this year. See the full list here.

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