Gold H2 harvests clean hydrogen from depleted California reservoirs in first field trial

breakthrough trial

Houston biotech company Gold H2's proprietary biotechnology has generated hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs in a California field trial. Photo courtesy Gold H2.

Houston climatech company Gold H2 completed its first field trial that demonstrates subsurface bio-stimulated hydrogen production, which leverages microbiology and existing infrastructure to produce clean hydrogen.

Gold H2 is a spinoff of another Houston biotech company, Cemvita.

“When we compare our tech to the rest of the stack, I think we blow the competition out of the water," Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Gold H2 Sekhon previously told Energy Capital.

The project represented the first-of-its-kind application of Gold H2’s proprietary biotechnology, which generates hydrogen from depleted oil reservoirs, eliminating the need for new drilling, electrolysis or energy-intensive surface facilities. The Woodlands-based ChampionX LLC served as the oilfield services provider, and the trial was conducted in an oilfield in California’s San Joaquin Basin.

According to the company, Gold H2’s technology could yield up to 250 billion kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen, which is estimated to provide enough clean power to Los Angeles for over 50 years and avoid roughly 1 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

“This field trial is tangible proof. We’ve taken a climate liability and turned it into a scalable, low-cost hydrogen solution,” Sekhon said in a news release. “It’s a new blueprint for decarbonization, built for speed, affordability, and global impact.”

Highlights of the trial include:

First-ever demonstration of biologically stimulated hydrogen generation at commercial field scale with unprecedented results of 40 percent H2 in the gas stream.
Demonstrated how end-of-life oilfield liabilities can be repurposed into hydrogen-producing assets.
The trial achieved 400,000 ppm of hydrogen in produced gases, which, according to the company,y is an “unprecedented concentration for a huff-and-puff style operation and a strong indicator of just how robust the process can perform under real-world conditions.”
The field trial marked readiness for commercial deployment with targeted hydrogen production costs below $0.50/kg.

“This breakthrough isn’t just a step forward, it’s a leap toward climate impact at scale,” Jillian Evanko, CEO and president at Chart Industries Inc., Gold H2 investor and advisor, added in the release. “By turning depleted oil fields into clean hydrogen generators, Gold H2 has provided a roadmap to produce low-cost, low-carbon energy using the very infrastructure that powered the last century. This changes the game for how the world can decarbonize heavy industry, power grids, and economies, faster and more affordably than we ever thought possible.”

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Permascand USA's new Houston facility will manufacture high-performance electrodes from new and recycled materials. Photo via Getty Images

DOE grants $13.7M tax credit to power Houston clean hydrogen project

power move

Permascand USA Inc., a subsidiary of Swedish manufacturing company Permascand, has been awarded a $13.7 million tax credit by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to expand across the country, including a new clean hydrogen manufacturing facility in Houston.

The new Houston facility will manufacture high-performance electrodes from new and recycled materials.

"We are proud to receive the support of the U.S. Department of Energy within their objective for clean energy," Permascand CEO Fredrik Herlitz said in a news release. "Our mission is to provide electrochemical solutions for the global green transition … This proposed project leverages Permascand’s experience in advanced technologies and machinery and will employ a highly skilled workforce to support DOE’s initiative in lowering the levelized cost of hydrogen.”

The funding comes from the DOE’s Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit program, which focuses on clean energy manufacturing, recycling, industrial decarbonization and critical materials projects.

The Permascand proposal was one of 140 projects selected by the DOE with over 800 concept papers submitted last summer. The funding is part of $6 billion in tax credits in the second round of the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit program that was deployed in January.

So far credits have been granted to approximately 250 projects across more than 40 states, with project investments over $44 billion dollars, according to the Department of Treasury. Read more here.

Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed and is home to 20 percent of the overall U.S. solar fleet. Photo via Getty Images

Texas passes California on national report of top solar states

by the numbers

For the first time, Texas has passed California in the second quarter of 2024 to become the top solar state in the country.

The American Clean Power Association's quarterly market report found that, by adding 3,293 megawatts of new solar year-to-date, Texas has the most utility-scale solar capacity installed, comprising 20 percent of the overall U.S. solar fleet. The American Clean Power Association, which represents over 800 energy storage, wind, utility-scale solar, transmission, and clean hydrogen companies, found that Texas is home to 21,932 megawatts of capacity,

By utilizing clean energy initiatives, Texas included 1.6 gigawatts of new solar, 574 megawatts of storage, and 366 megawatts of onshore wind. With more than 28,000 megawatts, Texas had the highest volume of clean power development capacity in the second quarter. About 163,000 megawatts of capacity overall are in the works throughout the United States. Texas ranks No. 1 for total operating wind capacity and total operating solar capacity, and comes in second for operating storage capacity.

Texas again led in production levels with clean power construction projects nationally, which boasts more than 19,000 megawatts worth of clean power energy currently under construction. With almost 28.3 gigawatts in advanced development or under construction, Texas continues to come in at No.1, as California is next with over 16.4 gigawatts in the state’s project pipeline.

California added more than 1,900 megawatts of new clean power capacity in the second quarter, with its clean energy development behavior leaning more towards adding storage, which amounts to 60 percent of California’s year-to-date clean power installations.

According to the report from SmartAsset, the Lone Star State has the most clean energy capacity at 56,405 megawatts due to its sheer size for solar capacity, but continues to trail states with similar geographic characteristics in overall clean energy prevalence.

Another report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, says Texas will make up 35 percent of new utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. this year, followed by California (10 percent) and Florida (6 percent).

While Texas’ solar efforts have shown positive trends, the state ranked No. 38 in a report by WalletHub that determined it was the thirteenth least green state.

Gold H2 has aligned itself with an oil and gas company, making its Black 2 Gold microbial technology available for the first time. Photo via cemvita.com

Houston clean hydrogen producer teams up with O&G for series of pilots

piling on pilots

Gold H2, a Houston-based producer of clean hydrogen, is teaming up with a major U.S.-based oil and gas company as the first step in launching a 12-month series of pilot projects.

The tentative agreement with the unnamed oil and gas company kicks off the availability of the startup’s Black 2 Gold microbial technology. The technology underpins the startup’s biotech process for converting crude oil into proprietary Gold Hydrogen.

The cleantech startup plans to sign up several oil and gas companies for the pilot program. Gold H2 says it’s been in discussions with companies in North America, Latin America, India, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The pilot program is aimed at demonstrating how Gold H2’s technology can transform old oil wells into hydrogen-generating assets. Gold H2, a spinout of Houston-based biotech company Cemvita, says the technology is capable of producing hydrogen that’s cheaper and cleaner than ever before.

“This business model will reshape the traditional oil and gas industry landscape by further accelerating the clean energy transition and creating new economic opportunities in areas that were previously dismissed as unviable,” Gold H2 says in a news release.

The start of the Black 2 Gold demonstrations follows the recent hiring of oil and gas industry veteran Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon as CEO.

“With the proliferation of AI, growth of data centers, and a national boom in industrial manufacturing underway, affordable … carbon-free energy is more paramount than ever,” says Rayyan Islam, co-founder and general partner at venture capital firm 8090 Industries, an investor in Gold H2. “We’re investing in Gold H2, as we know they’ll play a pivotal role in unleashing a new dawn for energy abundance in partnership with the oil industry.”

Bracewell announced that Jennifer Speck has joined the firm's tax department as a partner in the Houston office. Photo via LinkedIn

Energy-focused law firm names new Houston partner

new hire

A law and government relations firm serving energy, infrastructure, finance, and technology industries has named a new Houston partner.

Bracewell announced that Jennifer Speck has joined the firm's tax department as a partner in the Houston office. Speck will advise clients on energy transition tax incentives.

Some of her experiences include onshore and offshore wind, solar, carbon capture, clean hydrogen and clean fuel projects. She recently served as senior manager of tax and regulatory compliance at Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC. She graduated in 2010 with a B.F.A. in mental health psychology from Northeastern State University, and received her J.D., with honors, from The University of Tulsa College of Law in 2012.

"Jenny has significant experience in critical tax credits for carbon capture and other energy transition projects," Elizabeth L. McGinley, chair of Bracewell's tax department, says in a news release. "Her knowledge of these, and other, tax incentives strengthens our ability to help clients take full advantage of the tax benefits available under the Inflation Reduction Act."

Nationally recognized, Bracewell's tax department is known for its experience involving tax matters related to the energy industry. Bracewell has also led the development of one of the country's largest multidisciplinary energy transition legal teams.

These five Houston-based energy transition research news articles trended this year on EnergyCapital. Image via Getty Images

From carbon studies to hydrogen solutions, here's what Houston energy research news trended in 2023

Year in Review

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, EnergyCapital is looking back at the year's top stories in Houston energy transition. When it comes to the future of energy, Houston has tons of forward-thinking minds hard at work researching solutions to climate change and its impact on Earth. The following research-focused articles that stood out to readers this year — be sure to click through to read the full story.

New study from Houston research team looks at how the Earth cycles fossil carbon

A Rice University professor studied the Earth's carbon cycle in the Rio Madre de Dios to shed light on current climate conditions. Photo courtesy of Mark Torres/Rice University

Carbon cycles through Earth, its inhabitants, and its atmosphere on a regular basis, but not much research has been done on that process and qualifying it — until now.

In a recent study of a river system extending from the Peruvian Andes to the Amazon floodplains, Rice University’s Mark Torres and collaborators from five institutions proved that that high rates of carbon breakdown persist from mountaintop to floodplain.

“The purpose of this research was to quantify the rate at which Earth naturally releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and find out whether this process varies across different geographic locations,” Torres says in a news release. Click here to continue reading article from November.

Rice University team breaks records with new sunlight-to-hydrogen device

Rice University engineers have created a device that absorbs light, converts it into electricity, and then uses the electricity to split water molecules and generate hydrogen. Photo courtesy Gustavo Raskoksy/Rice University

A team of Rice University engineers have developed a scalable photoelectrochemical cell that converts sunlight into clean hydrogen at a record-setting pace.

The lab led by Aditya Mohite, an associate professor at Rice, published the findings in a study in Nature Communications late last month, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is backed by the Department of Energy. In it, the team details how they created a device that absorbs light, converts it into electricity, and then uses the electricity to split water molecules and generate hydrogen.

Austin Fehr, a chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student at Rice and one of the study’s lead authors, says in a statement that the device "could open up the hydrogen economy and change the way humans make things from fossil fuel to solar fuel." Click here to continue reading article from August.

Houston research shows how much hydrogen-powered vehicles would cost at the pump

Researchers at the University of Houston are proposing that supplying hydrogen for transportation in the greater Houston area could also be profitable. Photo via UH.edu

It's generally understood that transitioning away from gas-powered vehicles will help reduce the 230 million metric tons of carbon dioxide gas released each year by the transportation sector in Texas.

Now, researchers at the University of Houston are proposing that supplying hydrogen for transportation in the greater Houston area could also be profitable.

The research team has done the math. In a white paper, "Competitive Pricing of Hydrogen as an Economic Alternative to Gasoline and Diesel for the Houston Transportation Sector," the team compared three hydrogen generation processes—steam methane reforming (SMR), SMR with carbon capture (SMRCC), and electrolysis using grid electricity and water—and provided cost estimates and delivery models for each. Click here to continue reading article from November.

Houston university to lead new NSF-back flooding study

A Rice University study will consider how "design strategies aimed at improving civic engagement in stormwater infrastructure could help reduce catastrophic flooding." Photo via Getty Images

Houston will be the setting of a new three-year National Science Foundation-funded study that focuses on a phenomenon the city is quite familiar with: flooding.

Conducted by Rice University, the study will consider how "design strategies aimed at improving civic engagement in stormwater infrastructure could help reduce catastrophic flooding," according to a statement.

The team will begin its research in the Trinity/Houston Gardens neighborhood and will implement field research, participatory design work and hydrological impact analyses.

Rice professor of anthropology Dominic Boyer and Rice's Gus Sessions Wortham Professor of Architecture Albert Pope are co-principal investigators on the study. They'll be joined by Phil Bedient, director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center at Rice, and Jessica Eisma, a civil engineer at the University of Texas at Arlington. Click here to continue reading article from October.

Research team lands DOE grant to investigate carbon storage in soil

Two Rice University researchers just received DOE funding for carbon storage research. Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University

Two researchers at Rice University are digging into how soil is formed with hopes to better understand carbon storage and potential new methods for combating climate change.

Backed by a three-year grant from the Department of Energy, the research is led by Mark Torres, an assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences; and Evan Ramos, a postdoctoral fellow in the Torres lab. Co-investigators include professors and scientists with the Brown University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

According to a release from Rice, the team aims to investigate the processes that allow soil to store roughly three times as much carbon as organic matter compared to Earth's atmosphere.

“Maybe there’s a way to harness Earth’s natural mechanisms of sequestering carbon to combat climate change,” Torres said in a statement. “But to do that, we first have to understand how soils actually work.” Click here to continue reading article from September.

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Houston-area solar farm to move forward with $394M in construction financing

solar funding

Project SunRope, a 347-megawatt solar project outside of Houston, has landed $394 million in construction financing.

The project, located in Wharton County, about 60 miles outside of Houston, is slated to begin commercial operation in Q3 2027 and aims to support emission reductions, grid reliability and affordability in one of the highest electricity-demand regions in Texas and the U.S. It’s being developed through a joint venture between San Antonio-based OCI Energy and leading Israeli solar company Arava Power. New York-based ING Capital underwrote the financing package.

“The close of construction financing for Project SunRoper represents an important milestone for OCI Energy and our partners,” Sabah Bayatli, resident of OCI Energy, said in a news release. “This transaction reflects our continued commitment to deliver high-quality, utility-scale solar projects that strengthen grid reliability and provide affordable energy infrastructure.”

The construction financing is supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement with a Fortune 100 company, according to the release. Other collaborators include BHI and Bank of Hapoalim, which provided financing support and letters of credit to support the development of the project.

This is the second transaction between OCI Energy and ING, as they previously worked together on financing for the Alamo City Battery Energy Storage System, a 120-megawatt battery energy storage system under development in Bexar County.

“This project exemplifies the high‑quality renewable infrastructure we seek to finance – a strong sponsor partnership, a long‑term contracted revenue profile, and a well‑located asset in one of the most dynamic power markets in the United States,” Sven Wellock, managing director at ING, added in the release. “We are proud to build on our existing relationship with OCI Energy and to partner with Arava Power on its continued expansion in the U.S. market, advancing a project that will deliver reliable, affordable clean energy for years to come.”

OCI Energy operates several utility-scale solar and battery energy storage system projects outside of the San Antonio area, as well as in Georgia and New Jersey. It has five other projects under construction outside of San Antonio and Waco, with more than 20 under development throughout the state.

Energy expert reviews Texas' big strides in winter grid resilience

guest column

Many Houstonians were holding their breath during the hard freezes that occurred in late January. While Winter Storm Uri was five years ago, the massive blackouts remain a fresh memory.

During that storm, 4.5 million Texans lost power, the state suffered over $80 billion in economic losses, and more than 200 people lost their lives.

During the most recent freeze events, Texas did not experience large-scale blackouts across the state like those in 2021. Regional power outages occurred due to infrastructure issues, including ice on trees and power lines. Since Uri, we have not seen the same sustained weather conditions to test the grid, but there have been significant improvements.

What Has Changed Since Uri

The ERCOT grid has changed significantly since the storm in 2021:

Senate Bill 3 required generators to winterize their equipment, treated the natural gas supply chain as critical infrastructure, and imposed fines of up to $1 million for falling short. More than 300 power units have already been weatherized, and regulators have issued clearer standards to help keep the grid running during extreme cold.
There has been significant progress with monitoring the grid and preparing for emergencies. ERCOT has improved in spotting problems before they turn into outages. Operators now have stronger real-time visibility into generator performance and fuel supplies, improved coordination with natural gas providers, and more advanced forecasting tools that help predict energy availability.
The Texas Energy Fund authorized more than $10 billion for reliability projects across the state. The funds support four programs that aim to increase energy generation and dispatch capacity during periods of grid strain.

Signs of Progress

The grid's performance from 2022 to 2026 shows measurable improvements in how the system handles extreme cold.

ERCOT has implemented conservation alerts to help reduce grid load and prevent major blackouts.
Operators monitor the reserve margin, essentially the buffer between supply and demand. When that cushion holds, the grid has more flexibility to keep power flowing.
Stronger coordination between generators, transmission operators and utilities is also improving overall system resilience.

Additionally, Texas has built one of the largest smart-meter networks in the country, enabling better predictive analysis of electricity demand and usage. These smart meters have been installed in 90% of Texas residential homes, providing a much more accurate picture of energy consumption.

Finally, energy companies are helping customers understand how small changes in usage can ease grid strain. Individually, those adjustments may seem minor, but across millions of homes, they can meaningfully lower demand and help reduce the risk of outages.

Remaining Vulnerabilities and Possible Risks

Despite the progress, Grid Strategies assigned the Texas power grid a D-minus rating this year. A major factor in the rating is Texas’s lack of connections to neighboring power grids. While the state earned a B for legislative engagement, delayed transmission projects contributed to a lower C-minus outcome score.

While the grid has become more reliable since 2021, several threats remain that could impede its continued progress.

Population growth remains one of the biggest tests for Texas grid reliability. The state is expected to add roughly 15 million residents over the next three decades.
Data centers, industrial expansion, and corporate relocations continue to drive electricity demand higher. Houston sits at the center of that growth, making it a key region to watch to see whether Texas can keep pace with rising energy needs.
Increased weather volatility in Texas will make demand predictions even more challenging. Currently, Texas supplies almost 45% of its energy needs with natural gas. Natural gas production and extraction are particularly susceptible to cold weather and freezing conditions.

What “No Blackouts” Really Means for Texans

A stronger grid comes with a price tag. Meeting Texas’s growing demand requires major investments in generation, transmission, and emergency preparedness, and those costs ultimately flow to consumers through higher electric bills.

At the same time, Texans are becoming more proactive about managing energy use and protecting against outages, with more homeowners investing in generators, battery storage, and solar as part of long-term energy planning.

Final Thoughts

As lawmakers continue to debate how to recover grid investments, consumers will ultimately bear part of the cost. The challenge moving forward is improving reliability while keeping electricity affordable for Texans.

Texas continues to expand renewable generation to diversify the power mix, and battery storage is quickly becoming a key reliability tool because it can respond almost instantly to demand spikes. At the same time, advanced forecasting technology is helping operators better anticipate grid stress.

The Texas energy market is evolving fast, driven by population growth and rising electricity demand. Lawmakers, regulators, and grid operators will need to stay aligned to keep reliability moving in the right direction, while consumers will play a bigger role in managing how and when they use electricity.

So, is Texas better prepared for winter today? In many ways, yes. But the grid is still vulnerable to extreme weather and rapid demand growth. Maintaining reliability will require continued investment, planning, and coordination to keep the lights on across the state.

———

Sam Luna is director at BKV Energy, where he oversees brand and go-to-market strategy, customer experience, marketing execution, and more.

Houston company raises $100M Series D to scale industrial decarbonization tech

fresh funding

Houston-based Utility Global has raised $100 million in an ongoing Series D round to globally deploy its decarbonization technology at an industrial scale.

The round was led by Ara Partners and APG Asset, according to a news release. Utility plans to use the funding to expand manufacturing, grow its teams and support its commercial developments and partnerships.

“This financing marks a critical step in Utility’s transition from a proven technology to full-scale global commercial execution,” Parker Meeks, CEO and president of Utility Global, said in the release. “Industrial customers are no longer looking for pilots or promises; they need deployable solutions that work within existing assets and deliver true economic industrial decarbonization today that is operationally reliable and highly scalable. Utility’s technology produces both economic clean hydrogen and capture-ready CO2 streams, and this capital enables us to scale and deploy that impact globally with speed, discipline, and rigor.”

Utility Global's H2Gen technology produces low-cost, clean hydrogen from water and industrial off-gases without requiring electricity. It's designed to integrate into existing industrial infrastructure in hard-to-abate assets in the steel, refining, petrochemical, chemical, low-carbon fuels, and upstream oil and gas sectors.

“Utility is tackling one of the most difficult challenges in the energy transition: decarbonizing hard‑to‑abate industrial sectors,” Cory Steffek, partner at Ara Partners and Utility Global board chair, said in the release. “What sets Utility apart is its ability to compete head‑to‑head with conventional fossil‑based solutions on cost and reliability, even as it materially reduces emissions. With this new funding, Utility is well-positioned for its next chapter of commercial growth while maintaining the technical excellence and capital discipline that have defined its development to date.”

Utility Global reached several major milestones in 2025. After closing a $53 million Series C, the company agreed to develop at least one decarbonization facility at an ArcelorMittal steel plant in Brazil. It also signed a strategic partnership with California-based Kyocera International Inc. to scale global manufacturing of its H2Gen electrochemical cells.

The company also partnered with Maas Energy Works, another California company, to develop a commercial project integrating Maas’ dairy biogas systems with H2Gen to produce economical, clean hydrogen.

"These projects were never intended to stand alone. They anchor a deep and growing pipeline of commercial projects now in development globally across steel, refining, chemicals, biogas and other hard-to-abate sectors worldwide, Meeks shared in a 2025 year-in-review note. He added that 2026 would be a year of "focused acceleration to scale."

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