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Equinor buys into CCS project, Rice Alliance names energy startup participants, and more trending news

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Who will be presenting at the 20th annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum — and more trending news from the week. Photo via rice.edu

Editor's note: It's been a busy news week for energy transition in Houston, and some of this week's headlines resonated with EnergyCapital readers on social media and daily newsletter. Trending news included Rice Alliance naming its Energy Tech Venture Day participants, Equinor opting in to a CCS project on the Gulf Coast, and more.

Exclusive: Rice Alliance announces participants ahead of 20th annual energy symposium

Next month, 96 startups will pitch at an annual event focused on the future of energy. Here's who will be there. Photo via rice.edu

Dozens of companies will be a part of an upcoming energy-focused conference at Rice University — from climate tech startups to must-see keynote speakers.

The 20th annual Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum will take place on September 21 at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. Anyone who's interested in learning more about the major players in the low-carbon future in Houston and beyond should join the industry leaders, investors, and promising energy and cleantech startups in attendance.

This year's keynote speakers include Christina Karapataki, partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the venture capital fund backed by Bill Gates; Scott Nyquist, vice chairman at Houston Energy Transition Initiative, founded by the Greater Houston Partnership; and Jeff Tillery, COO at Veriten. Read more.

Equinor buys into massive CCS joint venture project near Houston

Through an acquisition, Equinor has joined a joint venture carbon capture and storage project in southeast Texas. Image via Getty Images

A Norwegian energy company with its United States headquarters in Houston has announced it has acquired a significant chunk of a carbon capture and storage joint venture.

Equinor now owns a 25 percent interest in Bayou Bend CCS LLC, which is reported to be one of the largest domestic carbon capture and storage projects. The project — a JV between Chevron, Talos Energy Inc., and now Equinor, is located along the Gulf Coast in southeast Texas. The terms of the deal were not disclosed

“Commercial CCS solutions are critical for hard-to-abate industries to meet their climate ambitions while maintaining their activity," Grete Tveit, senior vice president for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor, says in a news release. "Entering Bayou Bend strengthens our low carbon solutions portfolio and supports our ambition to mature and develop 15-30 million tonnes of equity CO2 transport and storage capacity per year by 2035. Our experience from developing carbon storage projects can help advance decarbonization efforts in one of the largest industrial corridors in the US." Read more.

New Houston company launches to turn recycled materials into fuel

Tired of slow tire decomposition? This Houston company has a solution. Photo via InnoVentRenewables.com

Every year, over a billion tires are disposed of globally, and, while in use, tires are used to reach maximum speed on the road, their decomposition times are inordinately slow.

Houston-based InnoVent Renewables has a solution. The company launched this week to drive renewable energy forward with its proprietary continuous pyrolysis technology that is able to convert waste tires, plastics, and biomass into fuels and chemicals.

“We are thrilled to formally launch InnoVent Renewables and plan to ramp-up operations into early 2024," InnoVent Renewables CEO Vibhu Sharma says in a news release. “Our investors, strategic advisors, and management team are all fully committed to our success as we address the global challenge of waste tires. We firmly believe our proven process, deployed at scale globally, will have a huge positive impact on our climate and fill a clear environment need.” Read more.

French company to acquire Houston-based battery storage startup in $1B deal

Broad Reach Power's battery storage assets piqued a French company's interest. Photo via broadreachpower.com

A French utility company is buying the bulk of Houston-based Broad Reach Power’s battery energy storage business in a deal carrying an equity value of more than $1 billion.

Engie, has agreed to purchase the majority of the startup’s battery storage business from EnCap Energy Transition Fund I and three investment partners — New York City-based Yorktown Partners, Switzerland-based Mercuria Energy, and New York City-based Apollo Infrastructure Funds.

“This acquisition is fully in line with Engie’s strategy: It will contribute to the development of a low-carbon, affordable, and resilient energy system where flexible assets will play a critical role alongside renewables,” says Catherine MacGregor, the utility’s CEO. Read more.

How this 78-year-old Houston chemical company is evolving as an energy tech leader

“When we were founded, we were a chemical company. Today, we have morphed into a technology company,” says Kendra Lee, CEO of Merichem. Photo via LinkedIn

Kendra Lee had no designs on running the family business.

“In fact, I never planned on being a part of Merichem,” Lee recalls.

In 1945, Lee’s grandfather, John T. Files, and a pair of business partners founded the company in Houston. Their goal was to take a potential waste product and turn it into something that would benefit the oil and gas industry — an early attempt at sustainability.

What started as a soap and industrial cleaning company began procuring cresylate, which is a waste from the refineries treating gasoline, to recover spent cresylic acids, which are highly caustic, and refine them so they could be sold into the industrial chemicals market. Read more.

“When we were founded, we were a chemical company. Today, we have morphed into a technology company,” says Kendra Lee, CEO of Merichem. Photo via LinkedIn

How this 78-year-old Houston chemical company is evolving as an energy tech leader

at the helm

Kendra Lee had no designs on running the family business.

“In fact, I never planned on being a part of Merichem,” Lee recalls.

In 1945, Lee’s grandfather, John T. Files, and a pair of business partners founded the company in Houston. Their goal was to take a potential waste product and turn it into something that would benefit the oil and gas industry — an early attempt at sustainability.

What started as a soap and industrial cleaning company began procuring cresylate, which is a waste from the refineries treating gasoline, to recover spent cresylic acids, which are highly caustic, and refine them so they could be sold into the industrial chemicals market.

“When we were founded, we were a chemical company,” says Lee. “Today, we have morphed into a technology company.”

That transformation began in the 1970s. By 1997, when Merichem put the chemical end of their business into a joint venture with Sasol, the focus had transferred to Merichem Process Technology and Merichem Caustic Services, while Sasol took over the chemical branch.

Merichem Process Technology designs and fabricates equipment for sulfur removal, while Merichem Caustic Services works with companies to handle spent caustic for beneficial reuse rather than waste. The innovative company has more than 1,200 units licensed globally for operation in a myriad of applications. Those allow the 78-year-old company to further push sustainability as a priority.

Lee began her career with Merichem more than 20 years ago as an entry-level laboratory technician.

“I’ve never left, and I kept getting opportunities — now here I am,” she says.

Where she is is at the top of the ladder. Lee became chairman of the board in 2012 and CEO in 2014. But doesn’t think of Merichem as a family business. Lee is only the third member of the family to work at the company, including Files and the cousin who followed him as CEO.

Lee says that she seldom spoke to her grandfather about the business. He worked at Merichem until the day he died in 2002, but Lee recalls that, as a low-level employee, she didn’t have a single meeting with him before that time.

“Our interactions were very normal family dinners,” she explains.

Since her transition into leadership, Lee says, “My focus has really been on continuing the legacy my grandfather and cousin created. We’re very employee-focused and community-focused. Part of our role as part of our industry is to provide livelihoods and be good stewards in communities in which we operate.”

She adds that she’s also focused on innovation.

“That was a big part of who my grandfather was. That’s how we transitioned from being a chemical company to a technology company” she says. That means looking for new methods not only in the research facility, but in every segment of the company.

That eye toward the next big discovery will likely see a significant payoff in one to three years, when a new product, designed to improve on hydrogen sulfide removal — with a new catalyst that is regnerable — will be commercially available. But right now, customers can take advantage of the company’s new Standard LO-CAT® system. The product is the result of continuous improvements from the previous system and boasts low operating costs, no liquid waste streams, and significant turndown capability.

And what will follow for the Houston born-and-based company? Merichem has plans to push further into the renewables field, says Lee, adding that there is a continued need for Merichem’s technology as we transition into other types of energy, including geothermal. More than three quarters of a century after its founding, Merichem is still a company on the forefront.

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Houston subsea firm Zupt acquired in offshore tech deal

m&a activity

Houston-based Zupt LLC, a provider of advanced metrology, inspection, and engineering services for offshore energy and renewable projects, has been acquired by Columbus, Ohio-based Rosenxt Holding USA for an undisclosed amount.

Rosenxt says the deal, which closed July 21, represents another step in its long-term strategy to build a portfolio of technology and engineering capabilities for the subsea market in the energy sector.

“Our ambition has always been to think decades ahead,” Hermann Rosen, chairman of Switzerland-based Rosenxt Group, the parent company of Rosenxt Holding USA, said in a news release.

“The future of subsea and offshore industries will be shaped by intelligent technologies that fundamentally change how critical infrastructure is explored, installed, inspected and operated,” he added. “Zupt is another important building block in this vision.”

Rosenxt says offshore operators and installation contractors face pressure to execute subsea projects more efficiently amid workforce shortages, weather concerns, tougher safety standards, and rising capital and operating expenses.

“The offshore sector continues to embrace technologies that enhance data quality, reduce operational risk, and improve decision-making across the asset lifecycle,” Houston M&A attorney Amelia Zhang, who led law firm Norton Rose Fulbright’s representation of Zupt, added in the release.

Rosenxt provides services for the subsea market that combine sensing, robotics, AI, analytics and engineering. Zupt complements those services with offerings for operations, such as high-resolution 3D inspection, digital twin generation, and inspection and engineering technologies for subs.

Zupt President Keith Vickery founded the company in 2005.

Vickery says Zupt “has focused on solving some of the subsea industry’s most demanding marine construction and inspection challenges through innovative engineering, operational experience, and close collaboration with our customers.”

Mordor Intelligence estimates the value of the subsea market will climb from $19.75 billion this year to $25.03 billion in 2031. North America represents the largest segment of the global market.

Houston energy tech company Molecule makes gas operations acquisition

software acquisition

Houston-based energy trading risk management (ETRM) software company Molecule has announced the acquisition of Dallas-based Trilogy Energy Solutions.

Molecule CEO Patrick Smith called the deal a "defining moment" for the company, as it allows Molecule's platform to expand to include physical gas operations.

“For years, this industry has drawn the ETRM box too small, creating inefficient silos by treating trading and physical operations as separate budgets and separate problems, when the real cost lives in the handoffs between them," Smith said in a news release. "Trilogy’s domain expertise in physical gas operations closes that gap. Together, we can give producers, midstream operators, and trading desks something the market has been asking for: a single, integrated view from wellhead to trading desk, without the manual reconciliation, spreadsheet workarounds, and legacy handoffs that slow the industry down.”

Trilogy, founded in 2014, is a provider of cloud-based software for the day-to-day logistics of physical natural gas operations. The platform allows users—including producers, marketers, midstream companies, pipeline operators and others—to manage activities such as pipeline nominations, gas gathering operations and more. Thus far, Molecule's platform has focused on energy trading and managing financial and commercial activities.

Through the acquisition, the combined company will now offer a full-stack enabled ETRM and energy operating system. Users of both platforms can expect continuity of service, according to the companies.

“Molecule has always been about meeting trading teams where they actually work, focused on being fast, accurate, and deeply integrated into their day-to-day workflow,” Sameer Soleja, founder and president of Molecule, added in the release. “Bringing Trilogy into the Molecule family extends that mission from the trading desk into the physical operations of the gas business. The two platforms complement each other exceedingly well, and the combined product will be able to offer all-in-one capabilities that lead the ETRM market, both in its tech-forward nature, and in its depth.”

Molecule expects the combined platform to help users reduce manual month-end close work, cut costs, and improve data accuracy and decision-making.

Trilogy's Chief Product Officer Jeremy Frye will join the Molecule team, along with others from Trilogy.

“Trilogy has spent decades building the trust of companies across the physical natural gas industry by delivering software that stands up to the demands of physical gas operations... It’s a rare combination that brings the best of both worlds, and I’m energized about what our teams will build together,” Frye added in the release.

California-based Sundance Growth, an existing investor in Molecule, supported the acquisition. The software growth equity firm raised a $125 million debut fund in 2025 and focuses on B2B SaaS companies.

Sundance led Molecule's Series B round, which closed last summer for an undisclosed amount. At the time, Soleja said the funding would allow Molecule to "double down on product innovation, grow our team, and reach even more markets."

Houston private equity firm's nuclear acquisition tops energy news to know

Trending Topics

Editor's note: The biggest energy transition headlines to close out July include a major acquisition and Department of Energy investments in Houston-led projects. Below are the five most-read stories published on EnergyCapitalHTX, July 15-31, 2026:

1. Houston PE firm makes latest nuclear industry acquisition

Houston-based private equity firm Pelican Energy Partners has acquired California-based Veridiam for an undisclosed amount in an effort to further increase the firm’s focus on the nuclear energy sector. Veridiam is a strategic manufacturer that specializes in the precision fabrication of components and assemblies made from exotic metals or advanced alloys for the nuclear, aerospace, defense, space and medical fields. Continue reading.

2. 4 Houston researchers awarded projects in DOE's Genesis Mission

The U.S. Department of Energy has named the nearly 300 projects selected under the Trump Administration's Genesis Mission, which aims to address some of the largest science and technology challenges in the country. The group features four projects from Houston universities and companies. The initiative aims to unite government, industry, academia and philanthropy to lead to breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security. Continue reading.

3. Shell strikes $1.8B deal to offload solar and wind assets in India

Reflecting its ongoing de-emphasis of renewable energy, oil and gas giant Shell has agreed to sell its solar and wind power business in India for $1.8 billion. Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd. (ABRen) is the pending buyer of Solenergi Power Private Ltd., including the Sprng Energy group of companies. Sprng Energy develops, owns and operates utility-scale solar and wind power facilities in India. Shell, whose U.S. headquarters is in Houston, acquired Solenergi in 2022 for $1.55 billion. Continue reading.

4. Houston company lands first deal from new Blackstone energy transition fund

Asset manager Blackstone has agreed to buy Houston-based Dresser Utility Solutions from Connecticut private equity firm First Reserve for an undisclosed amount. First Reserve has a major presence in Houston. The deal represents the first investment from Blackstone Energy Transition Partners V. “Blackstone’s deep resources and experience in the utility sector make them an ideal partner as we continue to invest in innovation, expand our product portfolio, and deliver value for our customers,” Dresser CEO David Evans said. Continue reading.

5. KBR appoints C-suite duo to lead forthcoming spinoff

In advance of the spinoff of its Mission Technology Solutions unit, Houston-based KBR has made two C-suite hires for the new business. Michael LaRouche is coming aboard as president and CEO of the spinoff, currently called SpinCo, on Sept. 26. Nicholas Veasey joined as executive vice president and chief financial officer on July 1. Continue reading.

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