M&A move

Houston energy PE firm acquires nuclear infrastructure company

Pelican Energy has acquired Container Technologies Industries, a manufacturer of containment solutions for the nuclear industry. Photo via containertechnologies.com

A Houston-based private equity firm has made a strategic acquisition.

Pelican Energy has acquired Container Technologies Industries from a group of private shareholders. CTI is a manufacturer of containment solutions for the nuclear industry and a certified HUBZone small-business whose customers include the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense and the commercial-nuclear space. Pelican makes investments in energy equipment and serves oil and gas companies and those in the nuclear sectors.

Pelican also named Danielle Castley as president of CTI. Castley has a PhD in material science with a background in radiation shielding material. She comes with over 10 years of experience in the nuclear industry. In addition to the majority buyout of legacy shareholders, Pelican will invest growth capital into business to expand capacity.

"CTI is a great company with a 20+ year track record of expansion,” Mike Scott, the founding partner of Pelican, says in a news release. “The company's highly-experienced team has a reputation of delivering the highest quality containment solutions, including specialty products and industry-standard containers. The business is well positioned to deliver products for growing customer demand."

The Houston company will now work closely with CTI’s homebase in Helenwood, Tennessee.

“We are excited to continue serving the Department of Energy and the thriving commercial nuclear industry,” Castley says in a news release. “I also look forward to leading CTI to innovate in manufacturing to address the emerging needs of advanced reactors.

"CTI will also expand our production capabilities to support Governor Lee's intent of establishing Tennessee as the leader of America's nuclear supply chain," she continues. "CTI is located in Helenwood, an economic development zone, where CTI will be actively recruiting to employ and train the next generation nuclear manufacturing workforce."

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A View From HETI

Researchers from Rice University say their recent findings could revolutionize power grids, making energy transmission more efficient. Image via Getty Images.

A new study from researchers at Rice University, published in Nature Communications, could lead to future advances in superconductors with the potential to transform energy use.

The study revealed that electrons in strange metals, which exhibit unusual resistance to electricity and behave strangely at low temperatures, become more entangled at a specific tipping point, shedding new light on these materials.

A team led by Rice’s Qimiao Si, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy, used quantum Fisher information (QFI), a concept from quantum metrology, to measure how electron interactions evolve under extreme conditions. The research team also included Rice’s Yuan Fang, Yiming Wang, Mounica Mahankali and Lei Chen along with Haoyu Hu of the Donostia International Physics Center and Silke Paschen of the Vienna University of Technology. Their work showed that the quantum phenomenon of electron entanglement peaks at a quantum critical point, which is the transition between two states of matter.

“Our findings reveal that strange metals exhibit a unique entanglement pattern, which offers a new lens to understand their exotic behavior,” Si said in a news release. “By leveraging quantum information theory, we are uncovering deep quantum correlations that were previously inaccessible.”

The researchers examined a theoretical framework known as the Kondo lattice, which explains how magnetic moments interact with surrounding electrons. At a critical transition point, these interactions intensify to the extent that the quasiparticles—key to understanding electrical behavior—disappear. Using QFI, the team traced this loss of quasiparticles to the growing entanglement of electron spins, which peaks precisely at the quantum critical point.

In terms of future use, the materials share a close connection with high-temperature superconductors, which have the potential to transmit electricity without energy loss, according to the researchers. By unblocking their properties, researchers believe this could revolutionize power grids and make energy transmission more efficient.

The team also found that quantum information tools can be applied to other “exotic materials” and quantum technologies.

“By integrating quantum information science with condensed matter physics, we are pivoting in a new direction in materials research,” Si said in the release.

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