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Empowering the next generation: Q&A with Ramanan Krishnamoorti

THE VIEW FROM HETI

The Houston Energy Transition Initiative spoke with Ramanan Krishnamoorti about the future of energy. Image via htxenergytransition.org

College students stand at the intersection of youth climate activism and emerging academic research that has the power to reshape the future of energy. Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti believe that college students have the power to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues in energy, if given the opportunity. Krishnamoorti serves as University of Houston Vice President for Energy and Innovation and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering is leading the university’s efforts to establish education, research and outreach partnerships to address energy and innovation challenges.

HETI sat down with Dr. Krishnamoorti to learn more about his journey in the energy industry, the importance of engaging the youth in climate change and how community partners can give college students a seat at the energy transition table.

Q: You have a passionate way of speaking about the energy transition and the mission to get to net zero by 2050. Tell us about your background in the energy industry.

My journey in the energy industry began in academia as a chemical engineer, where my early scientific focus revolved around polymeric materials, which are closely tied to the industrial and societal applications of oil and gas beyond traditional fuels.

During the early 2000s, when our society faced an energy shortage and was grappling with pressing challenges, my interest in the broader energy landscape began to take shape. It was during that time that I assumed the role of chair of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Houston, which provided me the remarkable opportunity to establish the petroleum engineering program (eventually department), fostering close collaboration with industry stakeholders.

This experience granted me invaluable insights into the intricate operations of the energy industry as a whole, which ultimately led to me becoming the chief energy officer at UH. Over the past decade, my deep engagement across the energy industry has allowed me to fully grasp the immense value of energy and the critical challenges we face in ensuring that it remains affordable, reliable and sustainable.

Q: When it comes to the renewable energy workforce, you’ve spoken about the need to engage current K-12 students in STEM to ensure a robust talent pool in the future. What are some ways we can help students recognize their potential as change agents in the energy transition?

In today’s rapidly evolving energy landscape, success hinges on attracting a diverse and talented workforce, whether it be in the conventional oil and gas sector, the decarbonization realm (energy transition) or the renewable energy industry. Creating a broad and inclusive pathway that appeals to students from middle school onwards is crucial. We must vividly demonstrate the transformative power of their actions and the power of learning by doing. This would inspire them to explore the fundamental disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. By connecting these academic foundations to real world challenges, we can show them the immense impact they could have in shaping a sustainable and advancing future.

Energy is the lifeblood of modern society, and providing reliable, affordable and sustainable energy for all is our collective responsibility. We must convey to students the robust career opportunities available within the industry as a whole. The skills and knowledge gained in this field are highly transferable, enabling individuals to navigate various sectors and contribute to positive change across the entire energy spectrum but also help transform the world to one of opportunities for humanity.

Q: At the recent Future of Global Energy conference presented by Chevron, you spoke about the importance of empowering young leaders to act and influence decisions around energy, climate change and sustainability. How can leading energy companies give students and recent graduates a seat at the energy transition table?

Energy companies need to recognize the passion and impatience of this new generation and tap into it. These young individuals are eager to be part of the solution and are driven by a desire for tangible success in the challenge of building an equitable and sustainable energy sector. By providing opportunities for hands-on experience and learning-by-doing, energy companies can channel their enthusiasm and leverage their digital native mindset to develop scalable solutions for the grand challenge of energy solutions across the world.

Moreover, fostering a culture of mentorship and giving back is essential. Students and recent graduates have a strong inclination to make a positive societal impact. By offering organized mentorship programs within K-12 schools and higher education institutions, they can provide avenues for young talent to contribute meaningfully and gain valuable insights and guidance from industry professionals.

Lastly, it’s crucial for energy companies to recognize and embrace the inherent consideration of environmental, social and governance issues by the new generation of entrants. When confronted by complex engineering challenges, these young leaders naturally bring a constructive perspective that incorporates ESG considerations. By actively engaging with their perspectives, companies can benefit from fresh ideas and contribute to the overall advancement of sustainable practices.

Q: Do you believe that actions and initiatives put in place by young people have the power to trigger the momentum needed to help scale energy transition related businesses?

Absolutely! The energy transition demands innovative approaches to rapidly scale up technologies, while simultaneously addressing regulatory, financial and communication engagement challenges that may lag.

The new generation of students and industry entrants have demonstrated their ability to navigate bureaucratic systems that are two steps behind the problems they face, making them adept problem solvers. By empowering and supporting them, we can leverage their strengths to confront energy transition challenges head on. This team effort, combining their fresh perspectives with the necessary resources, will accelerate momentum and drive the scaling of energy transition-related businesses.

Q: Do students today recognize the importance of the energy transition?

Today’s students not only recognize the importance of the energy transition, but they are actively driving it and making choices that clearly indicate that they are meaningfully contributing to the change. They embrace risk-taking and innovative approaches to solve real-world energy challenges –– they are comfortable in a world where they understand the issue of bottlenecks (as is common in the complex energy systems) and the need for trade-offs.

What sets them apart is their dedication to promoting justice and equity. In fact, a recent poll conducted in collaboration with the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs revealed that many UH students prioritize companies committed to addressing societal and environmental issues, even if it means a sacrifice in salary. Their commitment speaks volumes about their desire to drive change.

Q: Looking toward the future of energy, how can universities and community partners provide support that fuels innovation and energy expertise in the youth today?

To fuel innovation and cultivate energy expertise in today’s youth, universities, industry leaders and community partners must collaborate. At the University of Houston, where approximately half of students are first-generation, it is our responsibility as educators to provide vital support. This includes facilitating connections, showcasing role models and expanding their awareness of opportunities. As the energy university located in Houston, a city rich in diverse talent, we have a unique advantage of continuing to build on Houston’s global leadership and demonstrating solutions at scale. By fostering this collaboration, we can inspire and empower the next generation.

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This article originally ran on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog. HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

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Rising temps could result in rolling brownouts this summer–unless we work together to reduce the strain on the electric grid. Photo via Shutterstock

NERC warns of summer energy shortfalls–what you can do now

THINGS ARE HEATING UP

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) issued a warning with the 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment yesterday – energy shortages could be coming this summer for two-thirds of North America if temperatures spike higher than normal.

“Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of reliability assessments says in the release. “However, generator retirements continue to increase the risks associated with extreme summer temperatures, which factors into potential supply shortages in the western two-thirds of North America if summer temperatures spike.”

For Texans, the combined risk of drought and higher-than-normal temperatures could stress ERCOT system resources, especially in the case of reduced wind. But before there’s a mad rush on generators, keep in mind, electricity consumers can take simple actions to minimize the possibility of widespread shortfalls.

Electricity demand begins rising daily around 2 P.M. in the summer and peaks in the final hours of daylight. These hours are generally not only the warmest hours of the day but also the busiest. People return from work to their homes, crank down the air conditioner, turn on TVs, run a load of wash, and prepare meals using multiple electric-powered appliances.

If everyone takes one or two small steps to avoid unnecessary stress on the grid in the hours after coming home from work, we can prevent energy shortfalls. Modify routines now to get into the habit of running the dishwasher overnight, using the washer and dryer before noon or after 8 pm and pulling the shades down in the bright afternoon hours of the day.

Try to delay powering up devices – including EVs – until after dark. Turn off and unplug items to avoid sapping electricity when items are not in use. And if you can bear it, nudge that thermostat up a couple of degrees.

Energy sustainability demands consistent collaboration and coordination from every consumer of energy. Let’s get in the habit of acting neighborly now with conservative electricity practices before we start seeing temperatures–of both the literal and figurative kind–flare.

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Houston battery recycling company secures $32M in financing

fresh funding

Houston-based Ace Green Recycling has raised $32 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing to support its future plans for growth.

The battery recycling technology company secured the financing with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company that Ace previously announced it plans to merge with. Once the merger is completed, Ace will become a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "AGXI."

Ace says the financing will be used to complete the merger and scale the company.

“This investment accelerates our mission to redefine battery recycling at a global scale,” Ace CEO Nischay Chadha said in a news release. “At Ace, we are deploying Greenlead® and LithiumFirst™ as a new standard–fully electrified, Scope 1 emissions-free solutions designed to replace legacy processes and unlock a cleaner supply chain for critical materials. We believe that the future of electrification depends on how efficiently and sustainably we recover these resources, and this milestone brings us meaningfully closer to that future.”

Ace says the funding will also be primarily used to fund capital expenditures related to the development of its planned flagship recycling facility, located outside of Beaumont, Texas. According to a February investor presentation, the facility is expected to launch in 2027. It will recycle lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.

Ace agreed to a 15-year battery material supply agreement with Miami-based OM Commodities last year, in which OM Commodities would supply Ace with at least 30,000 metric tons of lead scrap to be recycled annually. Switzerland-based Glencore plc agreed to a 15-year offtake agreement to purchase up to 100 percent of ACE’s products from four of its planned lead-acid and lithium-ion battery recycling parks back in 2022.

Ace also reported that the funding will be put toward "supporting the expansion of operations and to fund the purchase of other companies," in the release.

Houston AI startup rolls out platform to reshape oil and gas workflows

AI for energy

Houston-based Collide is looking to solve AI issues in the energy industry from within.

Co-founded by former oil roughneck Collin McLelland, the company has developed AI software for operators and field teams, shaped by firsthand oilfield experience. Its AI-native platform “retrieves and synthesizes data from authoritative sources to deliver accurate, cited, and energy-focused insights to oil and gas professionals,” according to the company.

“Oil and gas has a graveyard full of technology that was technically impressive and operationally useless,” McLelland tells Energy Capital. “The reason is almost always the same: the people who built it didn't understand what they were actually solving for. When you're an outsider, you see workflows and try to automate them. When you're an insider, you understand why those workflows exist—the regulatory constraints, the physical realities, the liability concerns, the trust dynamics between operators and service companies.”

Collide’s large language model, known as RIGGS, performed well in recent benchmarking results when taking a standardized petroleum engineering (SPE) exam, the company reports. The exam assesses understanding from conceptual terminology to complex mathematical problem-solving.

According to Collide, RIGGS achieved a score of 67.5 percent on a 40-question subset of the SPE petroleum engineering exam, outperforming other large language models like Grok 4 (62.5 percent), Claude Sonnet 4.5 (52.5 percent) and GPT 5.1 (4 percent).

RIGGS completed the test in 15 minutes, while Grok took two hours. Collide hopes over the next few months, RIGGS will receive a score between 75 percent to 80 percent accuracy.

The software could potentially help oil and gas companies produce accurate outputs and automate trivial workflows, which can open up valuable time for engineers and teams to work on other pressing matters, according to McLelland.

“Collide exists because we sat in those seats — we were the engineers, the operators, the field guys,” he says. ”RIGGS scoring higher on the PE exam versus the frontier labs isn't a party trick. It's evidence that the model understands petroleum engineering the way a petroleum engineer does, because it was built by people who do.”

RIGGS was trained on Collide’s Spindletop hardware and is supported by a vast library of information, as well as a reasoning engine and validation layer that uses logic to solve problems.

“Longer term, we see RIGGS as the intelligence layer that sits underneath every operator's workflow — not a chatbot you open in a browser, but something embedded in the tools engineers already use,” McLelland says. “The goal is to give every engineer the knowledge and pattern recognition of a 30-year veteran, on demand."

According to McLelland, Collide is already building toward reservoir analysis and production optimization, automated regulatory compliance (Railroad Commission filings, W-10s, G-10s), workover report generation, and engineering decision support in the field for near-term use cases. In March, Collide and Texas-based oil and gas operator Winn Resources announced a collaboration to automate the time-intensive process of filing monthly W-10 and G-10 forms with the Texas Railroad Commission, completing what’s normally a multi-hour task in under 30 minutes. Collide reports that Winn’s infrastructure now automates regulatory filings and provides real-time visibility into data gaps, which has reduced processing time by over 95 percent.

“Before Collide, I'd spend hours manually keying in filings,” Buck Crum, director of operations, said in a news release. “(In March), we had 50 wells to file and I was done in 20 minutes. It does the majority of the heavy lifting while keeping me in control. That human-in-the-loop approach saves meaningful time and gives us greater confidence in our compliance and reporting.”

Collide was originally launched by Houston media organization Digital Wildcatters as “a professional network and digital community for technical discussions and knowledge sharing.” After raising $5 million in seed funding led by Houston’s Mercury Fund last year, the company said it would shift its focus to rolling out its enterprise-level, AI-enabled solution.

Oxy officially announces CEO transition, names successor

new leader

Houston-based Occidental (Oxy) has officially announced its longtime CEO's retirement and her successor.

Oxy shared last week that Vicki Hollub will retire June 1. Reuters first reported Hollub's plan to retire in March, but a firm date had not been set. Hollub will remain on Oxy's board of directors.

Richard Jackson, who currently serves as Oxy's COO, will replace Hollub in the CEO role.

“It has been a privilege to lead Occidental and work alongside such a talented team for more than 40 years," Hollub shared in a news release. "Following the recently completed decade-long transformation of the company, we now have the best portfolio and the best technical expertise in Occidental’s history. With this strong foundation in place, a clear path forward and a leader like Richard, who has the experience and vision to elevate Occidental, now is the right time for this transition. “I look forward to supporting Richard and the Board through my continued role as a director.”

Hollub has held the top leadership position at Oxy since 2016 and has been with the energy giant for more than 40 years. Before being named CEO, she served as COO and senior executive vice president at the company. She led strategic acquisitions of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019 and CrownRock in 2024, and was the first woman selected to lead a major U.S. oil and gas company.

Hollub also played a key role in leading Oxy's future as a "carbon management company."

Jackson has been with Oxy since 2003. He has held numerous leadership positions, including president of U.S. onshore oil and gas, president of low carbon integrated technologies, general manager of the Permian Delaware Basin and enhanced oil recovery oil and gas, vice president of investor relations, and vice president of drilling Americas.

He was instrumental in launching Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, which focuses DAC, carbon sequestration and low-carbon fuels through businesses like 1PointFive, TerraLithium and others, according to the company. He also serves on the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s Climate Investment Board and the American Petroleum Institute’s Upstream Committee. He holds a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.

Jackson was named COO of Oxy in October 2025. In his new role as CEO, he will also join the board of directors, effective June 1.

“I am grateful to be appointed President and CEO of Occidental and excited about the opportunity to execute from the strong position and capabilities that we built under Vicki’s leadership,” Jackson added in the release. “It means a lot to me personally to be a part of our Occidental team. I am committed to delivering value from our significant and high-quality resource base. We have a tremendous opportunity to focus on organic improvement and execution to deliver meaningful value for our employees, shareholders and partners.”

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