“Partnering with Zhuhai Topower represents a significant milestone in our mission to expand the global reach of our hydrogen production and refueling solutions,” Don Owens, Chairman and CEO of HNO International, said in the news release.
The collaboration plans to use HNO’s innovative SHEP technology to install hundreds of low-cost modular hydrogen production and refueling infrastructure projects, according to the company. HNO’s SHEP hydrogen energy system is known to require less than 3,000 square feet of space to operate while producing 5,000 kilograms of hydrogen per day.
Both companies plan to set a precedent for scalable and sustainable energy solutions in China.
Zhuhai Topower has investments totaling $340.63 million in new energy holdings for power generation, including a 100-megawatt wind power project and a 50-megawatt photovoltaic power generation project.
“This collaboration not only underscores the versatility of our SHEP technology, but also aligns with our commitment to supporting sustainable energy initiatives worldwide,” Owens added in the news release.
Dumore Enterprises will test and deploy HNO International's innovative Hydrogen Carbon Cleaner and hydrogen-diesel blending technology on Dumore's extensive fleet of vehicles and equipment. Photo via Getty Images
Houston-based hydrogen-focused clean energy technologies company HNO International Inc. has announced a partnership.
The company has teamed up with oilfield and industrial services provider Dumore Enterprises, which will aim to test and deploy HNO International's innovative Hydrogen Carbon Cleaner and hydrogen-diesel blending technology on Dumore's extensive fleet of vehicles and equipment, according to HNO.
"We are thrilled to partner with Dumore Enterprises to push the boundaries of hydrogen's potential in fuel systems," Chairman of HNO International Donald Owens says in a news release.
The goal will be to provide better real-world data on how hydrogen can improve fuel economy,reduce emissions, enhance engine cleaning, and lower maintenance costs. Dumore's fleet includes diesel trucks, forklifts, and industrial equipment. The fleet will undergo a 30-day testing period at its Trinidad operations.
"Partnering with HNO International allows us to be at the forefront of hydrogen's role in reducing emissions," Managing Director of Dumore Enterprises Alex Jodhan adds. "We are excited to test and showcase the benefits of hydrogen carbon cleaning on our fleet and look forward to sharing the results with our industry partners and customers."
The findings from work hopes to provide insights into the adoption of hydrogen technologies in commercial fleets and heavy equipment industries. The companies hope the test results will lead to a large-scale deployment of HCC and hydrogen-blending technology globally.
"By deploying our hydrogen carbon cleaning system on Dumore's fleet, we aim to showcase how hydrogen can transform engine performance, improve efficiency, and reduce emissions at an unprecedented scale,” Owens continues.
The project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. Graphic courtesy of HNO
"This collaboration represents a major milestone in our commitment to sustainable energy solutions," Donald Owens, chairman at HNO International, says in a news release. "The development of the 500kg per day green hydrogen production facility in Houston is a testament to our dedication to advancing sustainable hydrogen infrastructure.
"This facility is just the beginning, as we have plans for additional installations in 2024, 2025, and beyond, further solidifying our position as leaders in the hydrogen energy infrastructure sector," he continues.
The facility will install HNO International's Scalable Hydrogen Energy Platform, or SHEP, a hydrogen energy system that's designed to produce, store, and dispense green hydrogen from water using a 1.25 megawatt electrolyzer. SHEP is scalable, modular, and compact, requiring less than 3,000 square feet of space.
For 60 years, Pneumatic and Hydraulic Co. has worked in the compressed gas industry with its hydrogen division Total Hydrogen Solutions, serving a range of industries, including notable aerospace clients like SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA,
Element One Energy designs and manufactures electrolyzers and solid-state hydrogen storage systems with over 20 years of engineering experience with cryogenic storage and high pressures.
Greentown Labs announced the six startups to join its Houston community in Q2 of 2025.
The companies are among a group of 13 that joined the climatetech incubator, which is co-located in Houston and Boston, in the same time period. The companies that joined the Houston-based lab specialize in a number of clean energy applications, from long-duration energy storage systems to 3D solar towers.
The new Houston members include:
Encore CO2, a Louisiana-based company that converts CO2 into ethanol, acetate, ethylene and other sustainable chemicals through its innovative electrolysis technology
Janta Power, a Dallas-based company with proprietary 3D-solar-tower technology that deploys solar power vertically rather than flatly, increasing power and energy generation
Licube, an Austin-based company focused on sustainable lithium recovery from underutilized sources using its proprietary and patented electrodialysis technology
Newfound Materials, a Houston-based company that has developed a predictive engine for materials R&D
Pix Force, a Houston-based company that develops AI algorithms to inspect substations, transmission lines and photovoltaic plants using drones
Wattsto Energy, a Houston-based manufacturer of a long-duration-energy-storage system with a unique hybrid design that provides fast, safe, sustainable and cost-effective energy storage at the microgrid and grid levels
Seven other companies will join Greentown Boston's incubator. See the full list here.
Greentown Houston also added five startups to its local lab in Q1. Read more about the companies here.
There’s a reason “carbon footprint” became a buzzword. It sounds like something we should know. Something we should measure. Something that should be printed next to the calorie count on a label.
But unlike calories, a carbon footprint isn’t universal, standardized, or easy to calculate. In fact, for most companies—especially in energy and heavy industry—it’s still a black box.
That’s the problem Planckton Data is solving.
On this episode of the Energy Tech Startups Podcast, Planckton Data co-founders Robin Goswami and Sandeep Roy sit down to explain how they’re turning complex, inconsistent, and often incomplete emissions data into usable insight. Not for PR. Not for green washing. For real operational and regulatory decisions.
And they’re doing it in a way that turns sustainability from a compliance burden into a competitive advantage.
From calories to carbon: The label analogy that actually works
If you’ve ever picked up two snack bars and compared their calorie counts, you’ve made a decision based on transparency. Robin and Sandeep want that same kind of clarity for industrial products.
Whether it’s a shampoo bottle, a plastic feedstock, or a specialty chemical—there’s now consumer and regulatory pressure to know exactly how sustainable a product is. And to report it.
But that’s where the simplicity ends.
Because unlike food labels, carbon labels can’t be standardized across a single factory. They depend on where and how a product was made, what inputs were used, how far it traveled, and what method was used to calculate the data.
Even two otherwise identical chemicals—one sourced from a refinery in Texas and the other in Europe—can carry very different carbon footprints, depending on logistics, local emission factors, and energy sources.
Planckton’s solution is built to handle exactly this level of complexity.
AI that doesn’t just analyze
For most companies, supply chain emissions data is scattered, outdated, and full of gaps.
That’s where Planckton’s use of AI becomes transformative.
It standardizes data from multiple suppliers, geographies, and formats.
It uses probabilistic models to fill in the blanks when suppliers don’t provide details.
It applies industry-specific product category rules (PCRs) and aligns them with evolving global frameworks like ISO standards and GHG Protocol.
It helps companies model decarbonization pathways, not just calculate baselines.
This isn’t generative AI for show. It’s applied machine learning with a purpose: helping large industrial players move from reporting to real action.
And it’s not a side tool. For many of Planckton’s clients, it’s becoming the foundation of their sustainability strategy.
From boardrooms to smokestacks: Where the pressure is coming from
Planckton isn’t just chasing early adopters. They’re helping midstream and upstream industrial suppliers respond to pressure coming from two directions:
Downstream consumer brands—especially in cosmetics, retail, and CPG—are demanding footprint data from every input supplier.
Upstream regulations—especially in Europe—are introducing reporting requirements, carbon taxes, and supply chain disclosure laws.
The team gave a real-world example: a shampoo brand wants to differentiate based on lower emissions. That pressure flows up the value chain to the chemical suppliers. Who, in turn, must track data back to their own suppliers.
It’s a game of carbon traceability—and Planckton helps make it possible.
Why Planckton focused on chemicals first
With backgrounds at Infosys and McKinsey, Robin and Sandeep know how to navigate large-scale digital transformations. They also know that industry specificity matters—especially in sustainability.
So they chose to focus first on the chemicals sector—a space where:
Supply chains are complex and often opaque.
Product formulations are sensitive.
And pressure from cosmetics, packaging, and consumer brands is pushing for measurable, auditable impact data.
It’s a wedge into other verticals like energy, plastics, fertilizers, and industrial manufacturing—but one that’s already showing results.
Carbon accounting needs a financial system
What makes this conversation unique isn’t just the product. It’s the co-founders’ view of the ecosystem.
They see a world where sustainability reporting becomes as robust as financial reporting. Where every company knows its Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions the way it knows revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA.
But that world doesn’t exist yet. The data infrastructure isn’t there. The standards are still in flux. And the tooling—until recently—was clunky, manual, and impossible to scale.
Planckton is building that infrastructure—starting with the industries that need it most.
Houston as a launchpad (not just a legacy hub)
Though Planckton has global ambitions, its roots in Houston matter.
The city’s legacy in energy and chemicals gives it a unique edge in understanding real-world industrial challenges. And the growing ecosystem around energy transition—investors, incubators, and founders—is helping companies like Planckton move fast.
“We thought we’d have to move to San Francisco,” Robin shares. “But the resources we needed were already here—just waiting to be activated.”
The future of sustainability is measurable—and monetizable
The takeaway from this episode is clear: measuring your carbon footprint isn’t just good PR—it’s increasingly tied to market access, regulatory approval, and bottom-line efficiency.
And the companies that embrace this shift now—using platforms like Planckton—won’t just stay compliant. They’ll gain a competitive edge.
Listen to the full conversation with Planckton Data on the Energy Tech Startups Podcast:
Hosted by Jason Ethier and Nada Ahmed, the Digital Wildcatters’ podcast, Energy Tech Startups, delves into Houston's pivotal role in the energy transition, spotlighting entrepreneurs and industry leaders shaping a low-carbon future.
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.
“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.”
