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TEX-E names New Climate Ventures as latest expert in residence

energy mentors

Taylor Chapman, investment principal at New Climate Ventures, and Sandy Guitar, executive director of TEX-E. Photo via LinkedIn

Texas Exchange for Energy & Climate Entrepreneurship (TEX-E) has named its latest expert in residence.

The Houston-based energy transition nonprofit recently announced that New Climate Ventures will join the newly established program. The Expert-in-Residence partnership aims to connect TEX-E Fellows with "the people and organizations shaping the future of energy and entrepreneurship," the nonprofit previously announced.

Taylor Chapman, an investment principal at New Climate Ventures, sits on TEX-E's board of directors. New Climate Ventures invests in early-stage startups building next-gen technologies in the energy, materials and fuels sectors. The venture capital firm's portfolio includes Houston-based clean energy startups like Solidec, Syzygy Plasmonics and Rheom Materials.

“If you know me, you know that I'm passionate about ensuring that my beloved hometown, Houston, is the energy capital of the future — not just of the past," Chapman said in a LinkedIn post. "TEX-E is building a key piece to ensure that's the case: a strong pipeline of graduate and college students immersed [and] versed in the world of energy [and] climate entrepreneurship."

TEX-E says the partnership with New Climate Ventures will allow its fellows opportunities to learn from investors that work with emerging companies and understand how they evaluate new technologies.

TEX-E announced Houston-based geothermal unicorn Fervo Energy and venture capital firm Mercury Fund as its first experts in residence in August. At the time, it said the partnerships would allow its fellows to network and work with Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo; Sarah Jewett, COO of Fervo; and Blair Garrou, managing partner of Mercury Fund.

The nonprofit was founded in 2022 through partnerships with MIT Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and Greentown Labs. It works with university students from six schools: Rice University, University of Houston, Prairie View A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University and MIT.

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Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, Hewlett-Packard and HPE, has joined the Fervo board as lead independent director. Photo courtesy of U.S. State Department

Fervo Energy adds former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, other leaders to board

power players

As it prepares for a highly anticipated IPO, Houston-based geothermal power provider Fervo Energy has added four heavyweights to its board of directors.

The most notable new board member is Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, Hewlett-Packard, and Spring-based HPE, and former U.S. ambassador to Kenya. She joined the Fervo board as lead independent director.

One of the other high-profile new board members at Fervo is Jessica Uhl. She was chief financial officer of Shell from 2017 to 2022 and spent a little over a year as president of GE Vernova, a GE energy spinoff. She is a former board member of GE, Goldman Sachs and Shell. Today, Uhl advises investment firms on energy matters.

Another energy industry veteran, Trey Lowe, also joined the Fervo board. Lowe is senior vice president and chief technology officer at oil and gas producer Devon Energy, a Fervo investor that’s moving its headquarters from Oklahoma City to Houston. Before Devon, Lowe worked in the U.S. and Norway for Houston-based energy technology company SLB.

The fourth new director at Fervo is Robert Keehan, who spent 37 years at professional services firm PwC. He most recently was PwC’s chief global auditor and earlier was a partner in the firm’s energy practice.

Keehan and Uhl will serve as independent directors, which are non-executive governance and oversight roles, while Lowe is a non-independent director, which is a more hands-on role.

With the four new directors, Fervo has seven board members.

The arrival of the four new board members comes at a monumental time for Fervo, a provider of utility-scale geothermal energy:

“Energy markets are demanding dependable, carbon-free power at an unprecedented scale, and Fervo is uniquely positioned to supply it,” Tim Latimer, co-founder and CEO of Fervo, said in December.
EnergyTech Nexus will move into Greentown Labs and plans to open an investor lounge on-site. Photo courtesy Greentown Labs.

Greentown and EnergyTech Nexus announce ecosystem partnership

green team

Two of Houston’s leading energy transition organizations are joining forces.

Climatetech incubator Greentown Labs and founder community EnergyTech Nexus announced a "strategic ecosystem partnership," aimed at accelerating growth for clean energy startups. EnergyTech Nexus will move into Greentown Labs and plans to open an investor lounge on-site.

“Greentown Labs is the nexus for the energy transition, where startups can gather, collaborate and grow. Positioning our own extended community within the hallowed walls of Greentown will further foster the creation of authentic connections between founders and reduce friction to critical resources, bringing the village together will only accelerate the flywheel on innovation here in Houston, Texas,” Jason Ethier, EnergyTech Nexus founding partner, said in a news release.

Additionally, EnergyTech Nexus will launch Cephyron IRM, an AI-driven investor platform that will help founders of early-stage technologies connect with sources of capital. Greentown members will be granted early access to the platform.

According to the organizations, the ecosystem partnership represents years of collaboration. Ethier, whose startup Dynamo Micropower was one of the first to join Greentown's Cambridge, Massachusetts, incubator, previously served on Greentown's board of directors and in other leadership positions. He and Juliana Garaizar, a fellow founding partner of EnergyTech Nexus, were also instrumental in bringing Greentown Labs to Houston. Garaizar has also held numerous leadership roles at Greentown Houston.

“This partnership has been a long time coming—our organizations are kindred spirits that need to be working together to enhance the entrepreneurial support systems available to climate innovators in Houston,” Lawson Gow, Greentown’s Head of Houston, added in the release. “Capital is a top priority for climate and energy founders, and this team-up will directly address this challenge.”

Interim CEO Joseph Mills, CEO of Samson Resources II since March 2017, joined Talos as a board member in March. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston energy CEO steps down, interim named

transition moves

Houston-based Talos Energy Inc. announced its transition plans for it's top executive position.

Tim Duncan stepped down from his role as president and CEO, the company announced last week. Duncan, who held the position since 2012, will be replaced by board member, Joseph A. Mills, who will serve as interim president and CEO as the Talos board of directors searches for a successor.

"On behalf of the Board and the entire Talos team, I want to express our gratitude to Tim for his invaluable contributions to the Company," Neal P. Goldman, chairman of Talos' Board of Directors, says in a news release. "We have complete confidence in Joe's capabilities to carry out Talos' strategy as we search for a new CEO to lead Talos into the future and unlock further value. Mills brings a wealth of industry experience and knowledge, boasting over 42 years in senior leadership positions and serving on the boards of both public and private companies in the oil and gas sector."

Mills, CEO of Samson Resources II since March 2017, joined Talos as a board member in March. He has 42 years of experience in oil in gas.

"I'm honored to step in as interim CEO of Talos," Mills adds. "The Board has played an active role guiding and evaluating our strategic approach, and I am confident about Talos's direction and strategy. Our commitment remains firm in delivering compelling value for our shareholders. I look forward to working closely with the Board and leadership team, drawing on their extensive knowledge to advance our strategic priorities during this transitional period."

Talos Energy is an upstream exploration and production business operating in the United States Gulf of Mexico and offshore Mexico. Talos is a part owner of the Bayou Bend CCS LLC joint venture, a carbon capture and storage project. Earlier this year, Talos made a $1.29 billion acquisition to expand deepwater assets.

The newly named interim Greentown Labs CEO is based in Boston. Photo via Greentown

Greentown Labs names interim leader as hunt for CEO continues

at the helm

Greentown Labs, after announcing its CEO is stepping down at the end of the month, has named the climatetech incubator's interim leader.

Kevin Dutt, a recently named member of Greentown's board of directors based in the Boston area, has been appointed interim CEO. The decision, made by the board, is effective July 8. Dutt is a management consultant at Sustainable Edge Consulting, as well as an environmental entrepreneur, executive, and adviser with 25 years of experience.

"We continue to believe deeply in Greentown and are proud to have one of our board members step into this role before our next long-term CEO is identified," the nonprofit writes in the announcement. "We are confident Kevin is best suited to lead Greentown through this time of transition—his experience in climate and sustainability, philanthropy, and venture will play a key role in helping seamlessly guide Greentown in the coming months."

Dutt will lead the organization, which has dual locations in Houston and Somerville, Massachusetts, following outgoing CEO and President Kevin Knobloch. Knobloch announced in May that he will be stepping down after less than a year in the position. He was named CEO last September, previously serving as chief of staff of the United States Department of Energy in President Barack Obama’s second term.

The news of Knobloch's departure came just over a month after the organization announced that it was eliminating 30 percent of its staff, which affected 12 roles in Boston and six in Houston.

Dutt is the fourth person to take the help of Greentown since Emily Reichert, who held the position from 2013 to 2022, stepped down. Prior to Knobloch's appointment, Greentown's Co-Founder Jason Hanna and former CFO Kevin T. Taylor, who each served in an interim capacity.

Three climatetech experts have joined Greentown's board. Photo via Greentown Labs

Greentown Labs names 3 new board members

onboarding

With dual locations in the Houston and Boston areas, Greentown Labs has added three new members of its board of directors.

The climatetech incubator has added the following individuals to its board:

All three of the new board members are based in the Boston area, joining 10 existing members, which includes Houstonians Barbara Burger, Dawn James, and Nisha Desai.

“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we enthusiastically welcome Kevin, Elizabeth, and John to Greentown Labs’ Board,” James, who serves as the board chair, says in a news release. “They each bring impressive experience and deep expertise across the climate and energy transition ecosystem that will play an important role as we chart Greentown’s next chapter of impact.”

The nonprofit has seen some big changes this year, announcing that its CEO and President Kevin Knobloch will be stepping down at the end of July. Knobloch assumed his role last September, previously serving as chief of staff of the United States Department of Energy in President Barack Obama’s second term.

The news of Knobloch's departure came several weeks after the organization announced that it was eliminating 30 percent of its staff, which affected 12 roles in Boston and six in Houston.

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Houston researchers develop heating method to recover critical minerals from e-waste

hot new research

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new technique to efficiently recycle electronic waste and harvest critical minerals using rapid heating.

Most electronic devices use flame-retardant plastic. The plastic is formulated from a critical metal called antimony.

However, recapturing antimony is typically a challenging task since it first has to be released from the plastic. As it is released, other compounds can form, such as organic bromides, which are toxic and difficult to capture. However, the organic bromides can also be reused and have applications in industrial chemicals when safely captured.

“Conventionally heating the plastic releases the antimony in a volatile and difficult-to-collect form as well as creating and releasing hazardous organic bromide compounds,” Leo Haoxin Ye, first author of the paper and a graduate student at Rice, said in a news release. “Other options are risky or more impractical, such as using strong acids, organic solvents or multistep treatment options.”

To address this issue, leading Rice chemistry professor James Tour, Ye and their team adapted Tour’s flash Joule heating technique, which heats materials to hundreds of degrees Celsius in milliseconds, according to Rice.

The team ground up flame-retardant plastic waste and placed it between two sheets of electrically heated carbon paper before using what’s known as isothermal-clamped flash Joule heating to release and collect the antimony.

The team found that limiting the time the plastic spent in the high temperature range dramatically reduced the production of the hazardous organic bromide compounds. The plastic remained between 200 degrees and 500 degrees Celsius for only 9.4 milliseconds, according to Rice.

Through the process, the team recovered 90 percent of antimony from tested materials and converted 83 percent of the bromide into hydrogen bromide. Their findings were published this month in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.

“Isothermal-clamped flash Joule heating could improve the speed, safety and practicality of antimony recovery from discarded flame-retardant plastics,” Tour added in the release. “This represents an important step forward to conserving and reusing our critical antimony supply while also regenerating bromide salts for reuse.”

The study noted that the world is currently trending toward producing 82 million metric tons of flame-retardant plastic waste by 2030, which adds to the fact that e-waste is the fastest-growing solid waste stream in the world.

The research was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Tesla unveils new Roadster sports car, which can thrust itself in the air

Tesla Talk

Tesla has unveiled its new Roadster sports car, which can thrust itself in the air, among other engineering bells and whistles. But drivers shouldn't expect to take it for a spin anytime soon.

Elon Musk's electric car company rolled out its second-generation Roadster at a Thursday event, showing off a set of cold gas thrusters and a “multi-mode” suction system that can fling the car in the air for short spurts and spin the vehicle mid-flight.

“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Musk, Tesla's CEO, wrote on his social media platform X shortly after.

That future could be a ways off, however, given the regulatory hurdles for flying vehicles and the tangle of state rules that still need to be met.

“I’m not sure every state is going to allow a driver in the middle of traffic to suddenly elevate himself and fly," said David Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor and former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “There is going to be a long process to let anything like that on a road.”

Thursday's event was hosted at the Texas rocket testing and development center for SpaceX — Musk's publicly-traded rocket company — and Tesla's executives noted that they “borrowed” some SpaceX technology to get the new Roadster in the air. Beyond quick jumps and flips, Tesla also said the car can accelerate from zero to 60 miles (96.6 km) an hour in less than a second.

This launch arrived after years of delays and anticipation around the new Roadster — and Tesla shares climbed in morning trading on Friday before falling amid a sell-off in companies tied to artificial intelligence.

The wait isn't completely over. Musk said production for consumers won't begin until 2028. Tesla also didn't immediately set a price tag on its latest EV.

Tesla was taking reservations for Roadster “rocket” car purchases on its website Friday morning, though the fine print said there was no guarantee when the vehicle would be delivered — or whether it would be delivered at all.

Bryant Walker Smith, former vice chair of a Department of Transportation advisory group on innovation, was unimpressed — though he did note Musk's ability to keep Tesla's stock high.

“This was a demonstration of a one-off car using a technology around for many years and will not be coming to public roads in 2028," said Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. “Tesla pretty uniquely has been able to sell itself on a future that is an order of magnitude greater than reality.”

Musk has repeatedly said that the future of driving will be autonomous — and Austin-based Tesla has focused much of its business on building out self-driving features for its vehicles and, more recently, launching its own (still limited) robotaxi business.

But the company maintains that the Roadster will be made to have humans behind the wheel, calling the EV the “best of the last human-driven cars.”

Thursday's demo was technically autonomous “to make sure we don’t kill anyone,” Musk noted. But long-term, he said, the new Roadster will be “the only manually driven car that Tesla makes.”

“This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car,” Musk later added, met by laughter from the audience. But “it takes the fun meter to 11 out of 10.”

Tesla's first Roadster was launched back in 2008. And in 2018, Musk went as far as placing one on a rocket — with a mannequin dubbed “Starman” in the driver's seat — and launching it into space.

Again, the second-generation Roadster isn't immediately hitting the market. And whether the ambitious new vehicle boosts the company's bottom line remains to be seen.

In second-quarter earnings reported over the summer, Tesla's profits fell as the company spent more on research and development for its robotaxi and robotics businesses — which cut into money made from an otherwise sharp increase in vehicle sales. Net income totaled $1.11 billion for the period, while revenue climbed to $28.24 billion.

Rice University spinouts named among 50 top cleantech companies to watch

green team

Two Rice University spinouts, Coflux Purification and DexMat, appear on a new list of the world’s 50 cleantech companies to watch.

Cleantech Group’s 2026 Cleantech 50 to Watch list recognizes early-stage companies “creating groundbreaking solutions to address some of the world’s most pressing environmental and sustainability challenges.”

Cleantech Group, a market research, consulting, and events company, selects the 50 honorees based on insights from analysts and early-stage innovators, along with public nominations.

Destroying “forever chemicals”

Coflux, founded in 2024, offers an onsite treatment system that captures and destroys manufactured “forever chemicals”—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—in water and wastewater. It’s a member of Greentown Houston.

Alec Ajnsztajn, CEO; Jeremy Daum, chief technology officer; and Dana Vazquez, chief commercial officer, co-founded Coflux. Ajnsztajn and Daum earned doctoral degrees from Rice, and Vazquez earned an MBA from the university.

Coflux spun out of Rice labs directed by professors Rafael Verduzco and Pulickel Ajayan.

Last year, Coflux received a $175,000 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The startup has also raised more than $500,000 in non-dilutive funding, including $80,000 awarded in 2024 by Rice’s One Small Step Grant program.

Promoting an alternative to copper

DexMat, founded in 2015, produces carbon nanotube products such as fibers, yarns, cables, and fabric. The company’s products address demand for materials that can reduce carbon emissions, according to CB Insights.

Its main product, Galvorn, is a copper alternative made of carbon nanotube fibers. CB Insights says Galvorn is engineered to be lighter and stronger than traditional conductive materials like carbon and steel. It’s used in industries such as energy, aerospace, defense, automotive, consumer electronics, and health care.

DexMat emerged from Matteo Pasquali’s Carbon Lab at Rice. Pasquali, co-founder of DexMat, co-invented the company’s technology with the late Nobel Prize-winning chemist Rick Smalley. Smalley was a professor of chemistry, physics, and astronomy at Rice.

Pasquali is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, chemistry, materials science, and nanoengineering at Rice. He co-founded DexMat with Rice graduate Dmitri Tsentalovich, the company’s director of product innovation.

Earlier this year, DexMat raised $5 million in seed funding from Non Sibi Ventures, Governance Partners, Tailwind Futures, BetterWay, Capital Factory, and other investors. The company also secured $3 million in non-dilutive funding.

In 2023, DexMat raised $3 million in a pre-seed round led by Shell Ventures.

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