Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum names most-promising startups

big winners

Ten climatetech startups were named most-promising at this annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum. Photo courtesy Rice Alliance.

Investors at the Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum have named the 10 most-promising startups among the group of 100 clean tech companies participating in the event.

The 22nd annual event was held yesterday, Sept. 18, at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and was part of the second Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week.

The most-promising startups will receive $7,000 in in-kind legal services from Baker Botts.

The 10 most-promising companies included:

Houston-based Xplorobot, which has developed laser gas imaging technology for the first handheld methane detection device approved by the EPA as an alternative test method
Seattle-based Badwater Alchemy, a desalination company that uses nano materials to purify saline water at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods
San Francisco-based Ammobia, which is developing a clean ammonia production process
Illinois-based Celadyne Technologies, which is building hydrogen for industrial decarbonization with durable and efficient fuel cells and electrolyzers
Massachusetts-based MacroCycle Technologies, which converts plastic waste in the form of bottles, food trays and polyester textiles into virgin-grade mPET resin
Massachusetts-based AtoMe, which uses nano-ceramics to develop ultra-durable metals for 3D printing
Colorado-based Advanced Thermovoltaic Systems (ATS) Energy, a renewable energy semiconductor manufacturing company
North Carolina-based Lukera Energy, which is converting waste methane into high-value fuel
Midland, Texas-based AI Driller, a company that uses AI and machine learning to enable remote operations and provide historical drilling data for survey management, anti-collision monitoring and iob reporting
New York-based Fast Metals Inc., which has developed a chemical process to extract valuable metals from complex toxic mine tailings that is capable of producing iron, aluminum, scandium, titanium and other rare earth elements using industrial waste and waste CO2 as inputs

Arculus Solutions won the People's Choice Award. The New Jersey-based company retrofits natural gas pipelines for safe hydrogen transportation. It also won Track A: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, Buildings, Water, & Other Energy Solutions at the Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek earlier this year.

The 100 energy technology ventures selected to participate in the forum were named earlier this year. See the full list here.

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20-plus companies will pitch at Energy Tech Nexus' Pilotathon during Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week. Photo via Getty Images.

Energy Tech Nexus announces international startups to pitch at Pilotathon

Ready, Set, Pitch

Energy Tech Nexus will host its Pilotathon and Showcase as part of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week next Tuesday, Sept. 16, featuring insightful talks from industry leaders and pitches from an international group of companies in the clean energy space.

This year's event will center around the theme "Energy Access and Resilience." Attendees will hear pitches from nine Pilotathon pitch companies, as well as the 14 companies that were named to Energy Tech Nexus' COPILOT accelerator earlier this year.

COPILOT partners with Browning the Green Space, a nonprofit that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the clean energy and climatetech sectors. The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory backs the COPILOT accelerator, where companies are tasked with developing pilot projects for their innovations.

The nine Pilotathon pitch companies include:

Ontario-based AlumaPower, which has developed a breakthrough technology that converts the aluminum-air battery into a "galvanic generator," a long-duration energy source that runs on aluminum as a fuel
Calgary-based BioOilSolv, a chemical manufacturing company that has developed cutting-edge biomass-derived solvents
Atlanta-based Cultiv8 Fuels, which creates high-quality renewable fuel products derived from hemp
Newfoundland-based eDNAtec Inc., a leader in environmental genomics that analyzes biodiversity and ecological health
Oregon-based Espiku Inc., which designs and develops water treatment and mineral extraction technologies that rely on low-pressure evaporative cycles
New York-based Fast Metals Inc., which has developed a chemical process to extract valuable metals from complex toxic mine tailings that is capable of producing iron, aluminum, scandium, titanium and other rare earth elements using industrial waste and waste CO2 as inputs
New Jersey-based Metal Light Inc., which is building a circular, solid metal fuel that will serve as a replacement for diesel fuel
Glasgow-based Novosound, which designs and manufactures innovative ultrasound sensors using a thin-film technique to address the limitations of traditional ultrasound with applications in industrial, medical and wearable markets
Calgary-based Serenity Power, which has developed a cutting-edge solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology

The COPILOT accelerator companies include:

Accelerate Wind
Aquora Biosystems Inc.
EarthEn
Electromaim
EnKoat
GeoFuels
Harber Coatings Inc.
Janta Power
NanoSieve
PolyQor Inc.
Popper Power
Siva Powers America
ThermoShade
V-Glass Inc.

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Houston startup launches groundbreaking mineral hydrogen pilot

pilot project

Houston climatech company Vema Hydrogen recently completed drilling its first two pilot wells in Quebec for its Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH) pilot. The company says the project is the first EMH pilot of its kind.

Vema’s EMH technology produces low-cost, high-purity hydrogen from subsurface rock formations. It has the capacity to support e-fuel and clean mobility industries and the shipping and air transport markets. The pilot project is the first field deployment of the company’s technology.

“This pilot will provide the critical data needed to validate Engineered Mineral Hydrogen at commercial scale and demonstrate that Quebec can lead the world in this emerging clean energy category,” Pierre Levin, CEO of Vema Hydrogen, said in a news release.

Levin added that the sample collected thus far in the pilot is “exactly what we expected, and is very promising for hydrogen yields.”

Through the pilot, Vema will collect core samples and begin subsurface analysis to evaluate fluid movement and monitor hydrogen production from the wells. The data collected from the pilot will shape Vema's plans for commercialization and provide documentation for proof of concept in the field, according to the news release.

“Vema Hydrogen perfectly embodies the spirit of the grey to green movement: transforming mining liabilities into drivers of innovation and ecological transition,” Ludovic Beauregard, circular economy commissioner at the Thetford Region Economic Development Corporation, added in the release.

“This project demonstrates that it is possible to reconcile the revitalization of mining regions, clean energy and sustainable economic development for these areas.”

In addition to its pilot in Canada, Vema also recently signed a 10-year hydrogen purchase and sale agreement with San Francisco-based Verne Power to supply clean hydrogen for data centers across California. The company was selected as a Qualified Supplier by The First Public Hydrogen Authority, which will allow it to supply clean hydrogen at scale to California’s municipalities, transit agencies and businesses through the FPH2 network.

Vema aims to produce Engineered Mineral Hydrogen for less than $1 per kilogram. The company, founded in 2024, is working toward a gigawatt-scale hydrogen supply in North America.

Houston startup wins funding through new Bezos Earth Fund initiative

global winner

A Houston-based climatech startup is one of the first 16 companies in the world to receive funding through a new partnership between The Bezos Earth Fund and The Earthshot Prize.

Mati Carbon will receive $100,000 through the Bezos Earth Fund’s Acceleration Initiative. The initiative will provide $4.8 million over three years to support climate and nature solutions startups. It's backed by The Bezos Earth Fund, which was founded through a $10 billion gift from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and aims to "transform the fight against climate change."

The Acceleration Initiative will choose 16 startups each year from The Earthshot Prize’s global pool of nominations that were not selected as finalists. The Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William, awards £1 million to five energy startups each year over a decade.

"The Earthshot Prize selects 15 finalists each year, but our wider pool of nominations represents a global pipeline of innovators and investable solutions that benefit both people and planet. Collaborating with the Bezos Earth Fund to support additional high-potential solutions is at the heart of commitment to working with partners who share our vision," Jason Knauf, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, said in a news release. "By combining our strengths to support 48 carefully selected grantees from The Earthshot Prize’s pool of nominations, our partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund means we will continue to drive systemic change beyond our annual Prize cycle, delivering real-world impact at scale and speed.”

Mati Carbon was founded in 2022 by co-directors Shantanu Agarwal and Rwitwika Bhattacharya. It removes carbon through its Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) program and works with agricultural farms in Africa and India. Mati Carbon says the farmers it partners with are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

"As one of the first 16 organizations selected, this support enables us to expand our operations, move faster and think bigger about the impact we can create," the company shared in a LinkedIn post.

The other grantees from around the world include:

Air Protein Inc.
Climatenza Solar
Instituto Floresta Viva
Forum Konservasi Leuser
Fundación Rewilding Argentina
Hyperion Robotics
InPlanet
Lasso
Mandai Nature
MERMAID
Asociación Conservacionista Misión Tiburón
Simple Planet
Snowchange Cooperative
tHEMEat Company
UP Catalyst

Mati Carbon also won the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, backed by Elon Musk’s charitable organization, The Musk Foundation, last year.

Texas' oil and gas foundation could boost its geothermal future, UH says

future of geothermal

Equipped with the proper policies and investments, Texas could capitalize on its oil and gas infrastructure and expertise to lead the U.S. in development of advanced geothermal power, a new University of Houston white paper says.

Drilling, reservoir development and subsurface engineering are among the Texas oil and gas industry’s capabilities that could translate to geothermal energy, according to a news release. Furthermore, oil and gas skills, data, technology and supply chains could help make geothermal power more cost-effective.

Up to 80 percent of the investment required for a geothermal project involves capacity and skills that are common in the oil and gas industry, the white paper points out.

Building on its existing oil-and-gas foundation, Texas could help accelerate production of geothermal energy, lower geothermal energy costs and create more jobs in the energy workforce, according to the news release.

The paper also highlights geothermal progress made by Houston-based companies Fervo Energy, Quaise Energy and Sage Geosystems, as well as Canada-based Eavor Technologies Inc.

UH’s Division of Energy published the white paper, Advanced Geothermal: Opportunities and Challenges, in partnership with the C.T. Bauer College of Business’ Gutierrez Energy Management Institute.

“Energy demand, especially electricity demand, is continuing to grow, and we need to develop new low-carbon energy sources to meet those needs,” Greg Bean, executive director of the institute and author of the white paper, said of geothermal’s potential.

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