Editor's note: Dive headfirst into the new week with three quick things to catch up on in Houston's energy transition.
Apply now: Greentown Labs, Evonik launch accelerator to boost sustainability in personal care products
Greentown Labs and Evonik have launched the Greentown Go Make 2025 accelerator to support startups developing sustainable technologies for the personal care industry. Photo via Evonik.us
Greentown Labs and its corporate partner, Germany-based chemicals company Evonik, are calling for submissions to a new program geared at accelerating more sustainable personal care products.
The Greentown Go Make 2025 accelerator, which is based in both Greentown's Houston and Boston-area locations and open to companies from around the world, as launched applications now through January 23.
"Designed to accelerate startup-corporate partnerships to advance climatetech, this Greentown Go program is focused on increasing sustainability within the personal-care industry through the development, introduction, and commercialization of technologies that reduce products’ manufacturing-related emissions and end-of-life environmental impact," reads a news release from Greentown. Read more.
Big deal: Houston company's $2B carbon-negative fuel project to rise in Southeast Texas
Pathway Energy has announced a major sustainable aviation fuel project in Port Arthur, Texas. Rendering courtesy of Pathway Energy
Houston developer of ultra carbon-negative fuels projects Pathway Energy announced a series of commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facilities with the first being based in Port Arthur, Texas.
The project, estimated to be valued at $2 billion, will be one of the largest decarbonization projects in the world.
Pathway plans to bring commercial SAF to market with its years of experience in waste and biomass conversion processes and technologies that include biomass gasification, Fischer-Tropsch, biomass power generation, and complex biorefinery and industrial processes. Pathway will be working with companies like Sumitomo SHI FW, who will supply the project with gasification process technology packages and power production. Pathway Energy also announced a strategic partnership with Drax Global, which is a biomass feedstock provider.
"We are happy to debut with the best technology and industrial partners in the industry on a market opportunity with global significance," Steve Roberts, CEO of Pathway Energy, says in a news release. "With the ultra negative carbon intensity achieved through our process, Pathway Energy is poised to lead a global market for ultra negative fuels, driving large scale emission reductions across the aviation sector." Read more.
Listen in: This Houston innovator's innovative corrosion detection tech is vital to the future of energy
Anwar Sadek of Corrolytics joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss his company's growth and move to Houston. Photo courtesy
Houston-based Corrolytics approach is to help revolutionize and digitize microbial corrosion detection — both to improves efficiency and operational cost for industrial companies, but also to move the needle on a cleaner future for the energy industry.
"We are having an energy transition — that is a given. As we are bringing new energy, there will be growth of infrastructure to them. Every single path for the energy transition, corrosion will play a primary role as well," Anwar Sadek, co-founder and CEO of Corrolytics, says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.
The technology Sadek and his team have created is a tool to detect microbial corrosion — a major problem for industrial businesses, especially within the energy sector. Sadek describes the product as being similar to a testing hit a patient would use at home or in a clinic setting to decipher their current ailments. Read more.
Pieremanuele Canepa, Robert Welch assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH, is leading a research project that can change the effectiveness of sodium-ion batteries. Photo courtesy of UH