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Energy transition cos. collaborate, SAF biz to expand in Houston, and more top news from the week

Here's what Houston energy transition news trended this week. Photo via Getty Images

Editor's note: From Oxy's new sequestration partner to a podcast with a Houston electric vehicles leader, these are the top headlines that resonated with EnergyCapital readers on social media and daily newsletter this week.

Houston hydrogen company partners to test tech with O&G business

Dumore Enterprises will test and deploy HNO International's innovative Hydrogen Carbon Cleaner and hydrogen-diesel blending technology on Dumore's extensive fleet of vehicles and equipment. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-based hydrogen-focused clean energy technologies company HNO International Inc. has announced a partnership.

The company has teamed up with oilfield and industrial services provider Dumore Enterprises, which will aim to test and deploy HNO International's innovative Hydrogen Carbon Cleaner and hydrogen-diesel blending technology on Dumore's extensive fleet of vehicles and equipment, according to HNO.

"We are thrilled to partner with Dumore Enterprises to push the boundaries of hydrogen's potential in fuel systems," Chairman of HNO International Donald Owens says in a news release. Continue reading.

California SAF co. raises $3M, plans to open Houston lab

Unifuel’s technology consists of a series of chemical reactions that convert various sustainable materials into sustainable aviation fuels. Photo via Unifuel

Armed with a fresh $3 million round of seed funding, Los Altos, California-based Universal Fuel Technologies is establishing a lab in Houston for production of sustainable aviation fuel samples.

TO VC led the round, with participation from Alchemist Accelerator, Claire Technologies, and World Star Aviation.

Unifuel’s Flexiforming technology consists of a series of chemical reactions that convert various sustainable materials — such as ethanol, methanol, and liquified petroleum gas — into high-quality SAF that’s similar in chemical composition to traditional jet fuel. Continue reading.

Oxy, Enterprise Products Partners to collaborate on carbon dioxide pipeline system for Texas project

Under its deal with Occidental, pipeline company Enterprise Products Partners will create a carbon dioxide pipeline system for 1PointFive’s Bluebonnet Sequestration Hub. Photo via 1pointfive.com

Occidental Petroleum’s carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) subsidiary has tapped another Houston-based company to develop a carbon dioxide pipeline and transportation network for one of its CCUS hubs.

Under its deal with Occidental, pipeline company Enterprise Products Partners will create a carbon dioxide pipeline system for 1PointFive’s Bluebonnet Sequestration Hub, which will span more than 55,000 acres in Chambers, Liberty, and Jefferson counties. The hub will be able to hold about 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. The new pipeline network will be co-located with existing pipelines. Continue reading.

Houston innovator drives EV adoption with unique approach to car leasing, smart tech

Chris George, United States co-lead at Octopus Electric Vehicles, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Octopus

Switching from a gas-powered car to an electric one can be a big change, but a Houston-based company has made things a lot easier for its customers.

Octopus Electric Vehicles US, a spinout of United Kingdom-based retail energy provider Octopus Energy, matches its users with their perfect EV lease and sets them up with smart electricity technology for at-home charging.

"We do a couple of really unique things that are not only first of its kind but really innovative," Octopus EV's US Co-Lead Chris George says on the Houston Innovators Podcast, pointing out specifically Octopus Energy's Intelligent Octopus, a smart feature for customers that automates energy usage to lower cost.

"We launched an Intelligent Octopus for EVs service. Instead of operating in a very narrow window — overnight — it operates dynamically," he continues. Continue reading.

Houston tech company expands platform to include renewable certificates

Molecule Software made enhancements to its product, called Hive, to enable its clients to manage their energy portfolio and renewable credits together in one scalable platform. Image via molecule.io

A Houston-based energy trading risk management software company announced enhancements to its platform that will simplify the process of managing and allocating renewable energy certificates — a tool to help to meet demand obligations.

Molecule Software made these new enhancements to its product, called Hive, to enable its clients to manage their energy portfolio and renewable credits together in one scalable platform. With Hive, users simplify massive data stacks and reduce manual workloads while preventing errors.

“Renewables are still a new frontier, and one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen is modeling all their nuances in a way that makes sense for informing retirement and predicting the market,” says Sameer Soleja, founder and CEO of Molecule, in a news release. “Another major challenge is the sheer volume of data associated with modeling certificates and their individual serial numbers.” Continue reading.

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A View From HETI

A rendering of a Quaise Energy geothermal plant. Rendering via quaise.com

Houston-based Quaise Energy, a producer of utility-scale geothermal power, raised $134 million in a Series B round to advance its “superhot” geothermal power plant.

Climate-focused San Francisco-based investment firm Prelude Ventures led the round, with participation from JERA Co., Japan’s largest power generation company, and Idemitsu Kosan, one of Japan’s largest energy companies. Nearly all existing investors, including cleantech-focused investment firm Safar Partners, participated in the round.

“We have backed Quaise since the beginning because we believed accessing superhot rock would unlock geothermal energy at a scale the world has never seen,” Mark Cupta, managing director at Prelude Ventures, said in a press release.

The startup expects more equity and debt deals to close “imminently.” Quaise has raised $230 million since its founding in 2018.

Quaise says some of the fresh funding will go toward building the world’s first commercial-scale “superhot” geothermal power plant —Project Obsidian in central Oregon. In addition, Quaise is earmarking money for continued development and commercialization of its millimeter-wave drilling system toward depths exceeding 5 kilometers (about 16,400 feet).

Quaise uses a millimeter-wave drilling system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to remove rock at depths and temperatures that aren’t economically feasible with conventional drilling. With this technology, Quaise can reach rock at temperatures of around 570 degrees to 930 degrees in most places worldwide, enabling construction of geothermal systems that rival fossil fuels and nuclear energy in power density and that rival renewables in cost.

“Our ambition is to power civilization with Earth's most compelling energy source. This round takes us from field-proven technology to first commercial revenues,” Carlos Araque, co-founder, president and CEO of Quaise, added in the release.

Quaise has demonstrated the capability of its millimeter-wave drilling system at its Central Texas test site, drilling more than about 330 feet through granite in 2025—the first time the technology penetrated basement rock at full scale in the field. The company is approaching a depth of about 3,300 feet at the same site.

Construction of Project Obsidian is underway at Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest. The project, which has the potential to generate gigawatt-scale power, is slated to deliver electricity to the Pacific Northwest grid by 2030.

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