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Houston innovator tackles tire waste with hot new plant launching in 2025

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Vibhu Sharma, founder and CEO of InnoVent Renewables, saw a huge opportunity for cleaner tire waste. Photo via LinkedIn

Vibhu Sharma observed a huge sustainability problem within the automotive industry, and he was tired of no one doing anything about it.

"Globally, humans dispose 1 billion tires every year," Sharma says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "It's a massive environmental and public health problem because these tires can take hundreds of years to break down, and what they start doing is leaking chemicals into the soil."

Today, 98 percent of all tires end up in landfills, Sharma says, and this waste contributes to a multitude of problems — from mosquito and pest infestation to chemical leaks and fire hazards. That's why he founded InnoVent Renewables, a Houston-based company that uses its proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology to convert waste tires into valuable fuels, steel, and chemicals.

While the process of pyrolysis — decomposing materials using high heat — isn't new, InnoVent's process has a potential to be uniquely impactful. As Sharma explains on the show, he's targeting areas with an existing supply of waste tires. The company's first plant — located in Monterrey, Mexico — is expected to go online early in the new year, an impressive accomplishment considering Sharma started his company just over a year ago and bootstrapped the business with only a friends and family round of funding.

"It's about 16 months or so from start to commercial operations, which is phenomenal when you consider what it takes to build and operate a chemical or petrochemical facility," Sharma says.

Currently, with the facility close to operations, Sharma is looking to secure customers for the plant's products — which includes diesel, steel, and carbon black — and he doesn't have to look too far out of the automotive industry for his potential customer base. Additionally, the plant should be net zero by day one, since Sharma says he will be using the output to fuel operations.

While the first facility is in Mexico, Sharma says they are already looking at potential secondary locations with Texas at the top of his list. Houston, where Sharma has worked for 26 years, has been a strategic headquarters for InnoVent.

"When it came to doing the research and development, we were able to work with experts in the Houston and Texas areas to test out our idea and validate it," Sharma says. "One thing that gets under appreciated about Houston is how well it's connected to the rest of the world. There are so many direct connections between Houston and Latin America, as well as Europe, Middle East, and Asia."

"I also find that the Houston ecosystem is very supportive of new companies and helping them grow," he adds.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Anwar Sadek of Corrolytics joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss his company's growth and move to Houston. Photo courtesy

This Houston innovator's innovative corrosion detection tech is vital to the future of energy

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Houston-based Corrolytics approach is to help revolutionize and digitize microbial corrosion detection — both to improves efficiency and operational cost for industrial companies, but also to move the needle on a cleaner future for the energy industry.

"We are having an energy transition — that is a given. As we are bringing new energy, there will be growth of infrastructure to them. Every single path for the energy transition, corrosion will play a primary role as well," Anwar Sadek, co-founder and CEO of Corrolytics, says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

The technology Sadek and his team have created is a tool to detect microbial corrosion — a major problem for industrial businesses, especially within the energy sector. Sadek describes the product as being similar to a testing hit a patient would use at home or in a clinic setting to decipher their current ailments.



Users of the Corrolytics test kit can input their pipeline sample in the field and receive results via Corrolytics software platform.

"This technology, most importantly, is noninvasive. It does not have to be installed into any pipelines or assets that the company currently has," Sadek explains. "To actually use it, you don't have to introduce new techniques or new processes in the current operations. It's a stand-alone, portable device."

Corrolytics hopes to work with new energies from the beginning to used the data they've collected to prevent corrosion in new facilities. However, the company's technology is already making an impact.

"Every year, there is about 1.2 gigaton of carbon footprint a year that is released into the environment that is associated with replacing corroded steel in general industries," Sadek says. "With Corrolytics, (industrial companies) have the ability to extend the life of their current infrastructure."

Despite having success in taking his technology from lab to commercialization, Sadek made the strategic decision to move his company, Corrolytics, from where it was founded in Ohio to Houston.

"Houston is the energy capital of the world. For the technology we are developing, it is the most strategic move for us to be in this ecosystem and in this city where all the energy companies are, where all the investors in the energy space are — and things are moving really fast in Houston in terms of energy transition and developing the current infrastructure," Sadek says.

And as big as a move as it was, it was worth it, Sadek says.

"It's been only a year that we've been here, but we've made the most developments, the most outreach to clients in this one last year."

Sadek says his move to Houston has already paid off, and he cites one of the company's big wins was at the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards, where Corrolytics won two awards.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Dianna Liu of ARIX Technologies joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to share her entrepreneurial journey — and why Houston was the right place to start her company. Photo courtesy of ARIX

Pipeline robotics: How this Houston startup is revolutionizing corrosion monitoring

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After working for years in the downstream energy industry where safety and efficiency were top priorities, Dianna Liu thought there was a way technology could make a huge difference.

Despite loving her company and her job, she took a leap of faith to start a robotics company to create technology to more safely and efficiently monitor corrosion in pipelines. ARIX Technologies has developed software and hardware solutions for its customers with pipelines in downstream and beyond.

"Overall, this industry is an industry that really harps on doing things safely, doing things well, and having all the data to make really informed decisions," Liu says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Because these are huge companies with huge problems, it takes a lot of time to set up the right systems, adopt new things, and make changes."

But it's an industry Liu knows well, so she founded ARIX in 2017 and created a team of engineers to create the first iteration of the ARIX robot, which was at first made of wood, she says. Now, years later, the much-evolved robot moves up and down the exterior of the pipe, using its technology to scan the interior to evaluate corrosion. The technology works with ARIX's software to provide key data analysis.

With customers across the country and the world, ARIX has a strong foothold in downstream, but has garnered interest from other verticals as well — even working with NASA at one point, Liu says.

"Staying in downstream would be nice and safe for us, but we've been very lucky and have had customers in midstream, upstream, and even outside oil and gas and chemicals," she says. "We've gotten inquiries ranging from cosmetics plants to water or wastewater — essentially anything that's round or a pipe that can corrode, we can help with."

Liu, who goes into detail on the show about how critical establishing a positive company culture has been for ARIX, shares a bit about what it's been like growing her company in Houston.

"Houston being the Energy Capital of the World opens a lot of doors to both customers, investors, and employees in a way that's unparalleled. It is a great place to build a company because of that — you have all this expertise in this city and the surrounding areas that's hard to find elsewhere," she says. "Being such a hub — not only for energy, but in terms transportation — means it's easy for us to get to our customers from around the world."

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Chris George, United States co-lead at Octopus Electric Vehicles, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Octopus

Houston innovator drives EV adoption with unique approach to car leasing, smart tech

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Switching from a gas-powered car to an electric one can be a big change, but a Houston-based company has made things a lot easier for its customers.

Octopus Electric Vehicles US, a spinout of United Kingdom-based retail energy provider Octopus Energy, matches its users with their perfect EV lease and sets them up with smart electricity technology for at-home charging.

"We do a couple of really unique things that are not only first of its kind but really innovative," Octopus EV's US Co-Lead Chris George says on the Houston Innovators Podcast, pointing out specifically Octopus Energy's Intelligent Octopus, a smart feature for customers that automates energy usage to lower cost.

"We launched an Intelligent Octopus for EVs service. Instead of operating in a very narrow window — overnight — it operates dynamically," he continues.

Pulling from the success of its British EV leasing business, Octopus EV helps Texans find their ideal car to lease from the available pre-owned EVs in the state. The process is hands on, George says, and he and his team are constantly working directly with customers to find them their right make, model, mileage, and more, then setting them up for free home charging with Octopus. All this for as low as $200 a month — perfect for both EV veterans and newbies alike.

"We serve a lot of people. What we're aiming to do is to drive adoption, and we're finding that for most people this is their first EV," George says, explaining that accessibility has been an issue for aspiring EV owners.

The company is rolling out a new process this week. In addition to providing its service in a match-making capacity, now Octopus EV will be showcasing EVs so that customers can browse, test drive, and really get to see what all they like before deciding on a car. George says this new process will be a bit of an experiment.

"We're gong to be showcasing inventory around Houston so customers can see the physical car, the lease price, test drive, and get the car you want," George says. "It's going to look and feel a little different from our current product, but it's going to serve customers just the same."

On the show, George, who previously led EV adoption-focused nonprofit Evolve Houston, shares a bit about the EV industry and what he's closely watching, including growth of charging stations, multifamily charging opportunities, battery technology for EVs and resilience, and perfecting messaging for new and returning customers.

"I'm always trying to think about where are the other things where we can unlock innovation, unlock ideas that help our industry and help Houstonians," George says.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Zimri T. Hinshaw, founder and CEO of Rheom Materials, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Rheom

Podcast: Houston bio-based materials founder rebrands, evolves future-focused sustainability startup

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At first, Zimri T. Hinshaw just wanted to design a sustainable, vegan jacket inspired by bikers he saw in Tokyo. Now, he's running a bio-based materials company with two product lines and is ready to disrupt the fashion and automotive industries.

Hinshaw founded Rheom Materials (née Bucha Bio) in 2020, but a lot has changed since then. He moved the company from New York to Houston, built out a facility in Houston's East End Maker Hub, and rebranded to reflect the company's newest phase and extended product lines, deriving from dozens of different ingredients, including algae, seaweed, corn, other fruits and vegetables, and more.

"As a company, we pivoted our technology from growing kombucha sheets to grinding up bacteria nanocellulose from kombucha into our products and then we moved away from that entirely," Hinshaw says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Today, we're designing different materials that are more sustainable, and the inputs are varied."

Now, in addition to Rheom's leather-like alternative, Shorai, the company has a plastic-like material, Benree, that's 100 percent bio based.

"The scope of what we were doing — both on what raw materials we were using and what we were creating just kept expanding and growing," Hinshaw says.

With that major evolution past just kombucha-based textiles, it was time for a new name, ideated by the company's technical team. "Rheom" is the combination of "rheology" — the study of how polymers flow — and "form."

Rheom has also built a state-of-the-art chemicals testing lab at its new facility after moving into it early last year.

"We've got a ton of capabilities now — and we've been growing those since the beginning," Hinshaw says. "Now we have all this testing equipment — things that pull materials apart, things that test the flexibility of materials."

Next up, Rheom, which is backed by Houston-based New Climate Ventures, among other VCs, will raise a series A funding round to continue supporting its growth.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Ana Amicarella, CEO of EthosEnergy, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the company's growth amid the energy transition. Photo courtesy of EthosEnergy

How this Houston business leader is promoting diversity, nimbleness amid energy transition

voices of energy

For most of her career, Ana Amicarella has been the only person in the room who looks like her. But as CEO of Houston-based EthosEnergy, she's changing that.

"The energy sector for sure is highly dominated by men, but I think it's such an exciting environment," Amicarella says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "What I try to do at every job that I go to is I try to increase representation — diverse representation and females in the company. And I measure that when I started and when I end. I want to be able to make a difference."

Amicarella joined EthosEnergy — which provides rotating equipment services and solutions to the power, oil and gas, and industrial markets — as CEO in 2019 a few years after it was in 2014 as a joint venture between John Wood Group PLC and Siemens Energy AG. Prior to her current role, she served in leadership roles at Aggreko an GE Oil and Gas.

Recently, EthosEnergy announced it's being acquired by New York private equity firm, One Equity Partners, which Amicarella says is very interested in investing into EthosEnergy and its ability to contribute to the energy transition.

"What One Equity Partners will bring is tremendous decisiveness. They won't delay in deciding what is good for the company — I've already seen examples," Amicarella says, adding that the deal hasn't get been finalized. "They are going to make decisions and trust the management team, I think our pace of change will be enormous compared to what it used to be."

While EthosEnergy has customers from traditional oil and gas, she says she leads the company with the energy transition at the top of her mind, and that means being able to grow and evolve.

"One of the behaviors we look to have at EthosEnergy is an ability to be nimble," Amicarella says, "because we know market conditions change. Think of all the things we've had to go through in the last five years."

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

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Houston energy tech company breaks ground on low-cost green hydrogen pilot plant

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Houston’s Lummus Technology and Advanced Ionics have broken ground on their hydrogen pilot plant at Lummus’ R&D facility in Pasadena.

The plant will support Advanced Ionics’ cutting-edge electrolyzer technology, which aims to deliver high-efficiency hydrogen production with reduced energy requirements.

“By demonstrating Advanced Ionics’ technology at our state-of-the-art R&D facility, we are leveraging the expertise of our scientists and R&D team, plus our proven track record of developing breakthrough technologies,” Leon de Bruyn, president and CEO of Lummus, said in a news release. “This will help us accelerate commercialization of the technology and deliver scalable, cost-effective and sustainable green hydrogen solutions to our customers.”

Advanced Ionics is a Milwaukee-based low-cost green hydrogen technology provider. Its electrolyzer converts process and waste heat into green hydrogen for less than a dollar per kilogram, according to the company. The platform's users include industrial hydrogen producers looking to optimize sustainability at an affordable cost.

Lummus, a global energy technology company, will operate the Advanced Ionics electrolyzer and manage the balance of plant systems.

In 2024, Lummus and Advanced Ionics established their partnership to help advance the production of cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen technology. Lummus Venture Capital also invested an undisclosed amount into Advanced Ionics at the time.

“Our collaboration with Lummus demonstrates the power of partnerships in driving the energy transition forward,” Ignacio Bincaz, CEO of Advanced Ionics, added in the news release. “Lummus serves as a launchpad for technologies like ours, enabling us to validate performance and integration under real-world conditions. This milestone proves that green hydrogen can be practical and economically viable, and it marks another key step toward commercial deployment.”

Houston Energy Transition Initiative releases 2025 year in review

The View From HETI

The Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI) concludes another impactful year by reaffirming our commitment to positioning Houston as the global leader in the energy transition – delivering more energy with fewer emissions. HETI continues to be focused on advancing key regional priorities, driving economic development and talent recruitment.

It was a year of changes across the energy landscape, yet HETI continued to collaborate, convene, and deliver measurable progress. Below are some of the year’s key highlights:

Sharing Members’ Impact on Decarbonization and Emissions Reductions

HETI released a report detailing members’ low-carbon initiatives and commitments, showcasing industry momentum and long-term pathways to achieving the dual challenge of meeting growing global energy demand while reducing emissions. Major findings include more than $95 billion in low-carbon investments and 20% reduction in Scope 1 emissions since 2017 by HETI-affiliated companies. The report also recommends strategic pathways for continued emissions reductions.

Advancing CCUS at Commercial Scale

HETI publicly supported efforts to accelerate carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) efforts to commercial scale. Early in the year, HETI and the Houston CCS Alliance commissioned Texas A&M University’s Energy Institute and Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center to research the operational history and safety record of CCUS in the United States. In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted Texas authority to permit CCUS—a significant win that increases the region’s competitiveness in the global energy ecosystem.

Leadership in Resilient Power for Houston’s Growth

In June, HETI hosted its first Resilient Power: Fueling Houston’s Growing Economy summit, bringing together more than 100 business and civic leaders to discuss the role of resilient, reliable power in Houston’s economic development. Cross-sector leaders explored the impacts of rising power demand driven by industrial decarbonization and digitalization, and discussed the essential collaboration between the energy and tech sectors to strengthen long-term resilience through an “all of the above” approach. HETI also published a fact sheet on Houston’s resilient power access, affordability, and reliability as a resource for partners.

Showcasing Houston’s Leadership at CERAWeek 2025

HETI participated in CERAWeek 2025, elevating Houston’s energy leadership on the world stage. The HETI House activation in the Innovation Agora attracted more than 1,000 visitors and generated over 80 economic development leads. In addition, HETI partnered with Rice Alliance and TEX-E for the fourth annual Energy Ventures Pitch Competition at CERAWeek, bringing together students, startups and energy leaders to advance innovation and investment.

Scaling Houston’s Innovation Ecosystem

As Houston’s energy innovation ecosystem continues to grow, HETI plays an important role in shaping its future. During its second year, Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week attracted more than 3,900 attendees from local and global startups, industry leaders, and investors—further solidifying Houston’s status as the world’s leading energy innovation hub.

Strengthening Regional Competitiveness

To advance technology commercialization and support the Gulf Coast’s continued energy competitiveness, HETI hosted its second annual Gulf Coast National Labs Workshop. This year’s event convened more than 120 leaders representing six national laboratories, industry partners, academia, and government stakeholders to accelerate collaboration around the region’s greatest energy and chemical challenges.

HETI’s progress this year is significant, but the work ahead is even more critical. As we move into the new year, HETI remains steadfast in its commitment to convening industry leaders, informing policy, supporting innovation, and driving economic growth across the region. This work strengthens Houston’s core energy economy and accelerates the emerging sectors that will ensure Houston continues to lead the world in energy.

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This article originally appeared 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.

Chevron CEO touts biofuels as part of its renewable energy efforts

Betting on biofuels

As Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth surveys the renewable energy landscape, he sees the most potential in biofuels.

At a recent WSJ CEO Council event, Wirth put a particular emphasis on biofuels—the most established form of renewable energy—among the mix of low-carbon energy sources. According to Biofuels International, Chevron operates nine biorefineries around the world.

Biofuels are made from fats and oils, such as canola oil, soybean oil and used cooking oil.

At Chevron’s renewable diesel plant in Geismar, Louisiana, a recent expansion boosted annual production by 278 percent — from 90 million gallons to 340 million gallons. To drive innovation in the low-carbon-fuels sector, Chevron opened a technology center this summer at its renewable energy campus in Ames, Iowa.

Across the board, Chevron has earmarked $8 billion to advance its low-carbon business by 2028.

In addition to biofuels, Chevron’s low-carbon strategy includes hydrogen, although Wirth said hydrogen “is proving to be very difficult” because “you’re fighting the laws of thermodynamics.”

Nonetheless, Chevron is heavily invested in the hydrogen market:

As for geothermal energy, Wirth said it shows “some real promise.” Chevron’s plans for this segment of the renewable energy industry include a 20-megawatt geothermal pilot project in Northern California, according to the California Community Choice Association. The project is part of an initiative that aims to eventually produce 600 megawatts of geothermal energy.

What about solar and wind power?

“We start with things where we have some reason to believe we can create shareholder value, where we’ve got skills and competency, so we didn’t go into wind or solar because we’re not a turbine manufacturer installing wind and solar,” he said in remarks reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a September interview with The New York Times, Wirth touched on Chevron’s green energy capabilities.

“We are investing in new technologies, like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium and renewable fuels,” Wirth said. “They are growing fast but off a very small base. We need to do things that meet demand as it exists and then evolve as demand evolves.”

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