Houston hydrogen company partners to test tech with O&G business

teamwork

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.

Ford Motor Company and TXU Energy are partnering to create a first-of-its-kind retail energy offering for Ford electric SUV and truck customers in Texas via the TXU Free EV Miles program. Photo courtesy of Ford

Texas energy company partners with Ford for first-of-its-kind deal

EV deal

Buckle up, Ford drivers and TXU Energy customers — you're going to want to speed toward this deal.

Ford Motor Company and TXU Energy are partnering to create a first-of-its-kind retail energy offering for Ford electric SUV and truck customers in Texas via the TXU Free EV Miles program.

The program offers Ford EV customers the opportunity to charge their vehicle at home for free during an 18-hour window. Enrollment for the “Free EV Miles program” is open to interested Ford and TXU Energy customers.

“This partnership with Ford fits squarely into TXU Energy’s broader strategy of educating customers on the benefits of owning an EV, removing barriers to making the switch, and increasing grid resiliency,” Sam Sen, vice president of energy transition solutions for TXU Energy, says in a news release. “We are proud to support Ford’s Texas EV customers with flexible, free charging hours and the significant cost savings that come with it.”

Ford EV customers will receive a credit on their TXU Energy bill for all home energy used for vehicle charging during all year free charging hours from 7 p.m an 1 p.m. The program hopes to help support grid reliability efforts and clean energy usage since it will encourage energy consumption during off-peak hours.

According to Ford, around 80 percent of charging takes place at home. Charging can even be scheduled through the Preferred Charge Times feature in the FordPass app or in-vehicle touchscreen. If customers need to charge outside of the free hours, they will pay a fixed rate, which is the same rate as the rest of their home according to Ford.

“Encouraging our electric vehicle customers to charge at off-peak hours through programs like Free EV Miles helps to save them money while supporting a more sustainable, resilient electrical grid,” Bill Crider, senior director, global charging and energy services at Ford, says in a news release. “Ford electric SUV and trucks already have a lower operating and maintenance cost compared to gas-powered vehicles, and at-home charging offers additional financial perks and future vehicle-to-grid services never before possible, which Ford is committed to leading for our customers.”

The program will allow Ford F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and Escape Plugin Hybrid customers to benefit from bill credits when they enroll in the Free EV Miles energy plan. They can also earn additional benefits from both Ford and TXU Energy like a $100 welcome bonus from Ford and a $250 bonus from TXU Energy. Enrolled customers will begin receiving automatic rebates for at-home charging costs during the free charging hours.

Carbon Clean says its tentative partnership with Merrill, Wisconsin-based AGRA Industries should speed up adoption of Carbon Clean’s CaptureX technology in the biofuel industry. Photo via CarbonClean.com

Houston co. enters new carbon capture collaboration focused on biofuels industry

cleaning up

Carbon Clean, a carbon capture company whose North American headquarters is in Houston, has forged a deal with a contractor to build modular carbon capture containers for the agricultural sector.

The company, based in the United Kingdom, says its tentative partnership with Merrill, Wisconsin-based AGRA Industries should speed up adoption of Carbon Clean’s CaptureX technology in the biofuel industry.

Carbon Clean’s technology has been installed at 49 sites around the world. Eighty percent of the sites have prefabricated modular carbon-capture containers, reducing construction and installation time.

The partnership will enable customers to capture CO2 released during the biofuel fermentation stage, enabling the production of fuels with lower carbon-intensity ratings. This will improve the ability of biofuel producers to claim federal tax credits, Carbon Clean says.

“Carbon Clean’s collaboration with AGRA Industries is a win-win for biofuel producers. Customers will benefit from the expertise of a leading agricultural engineering specialist and our modularized, innovative carbon capture technology that is cost-effective and simple to install,” Aniruddha Sharma, chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, says in a news release.

Carbon Clean’s customers include companies in the cement, steel, refinery, and energy-to-waste sectors.

Among the investors in Carbon Clean, founded in 2019, are Chevron, Samsung Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, and WAVE Equity Partners. To date, the company has raised $260 million in funding, according to data platform Tracxn.

Empact Technologies announced a multi-year agreement with Ampliform, which originates, builds, develops, and operates utility-scale solar and solar plus storage projects. Photo courtesy of Empact

Houston software company to manage IRA compliance for solar, storage company with national presence

tapping into tech

Houston company's Inflation Reduction Act compliance management software has scored a new partner.

Empact Technologies announced a multi-year agreement with Ampliform, which originates, builds, develops, and operates utility-scale solar and solar plus storage projects. The Empact platform uses a combination of software and services to ensure projects meet IRS regulatory requirements, which focus on wage and apprenticeship, domestic content, and energy and low-income community incentives. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed

Empact will partner specifically with Ampliform’s project Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) firms, subcontractors, and key suppliers of steel and iron products. In addition, they will work through a project’s life cycle for EPC’s solar modules, trackers, and inverters to manage prevailing wage & apprenticeship, domestic content, and other tax incentive qualification and compliance.

“The team at Ampliform had the leadership and foresight to recognize the significant risks of IRA non-compliance and the need to have third party compliance management in place prior to construction kick-off," Charles Dauber, CEO and founder of Empact, says in a news release. We look forward to helping Ampliform fully leverage the IRA tax incentives to develop and build their project development pipeline.”

Ampliform has approximately 700MW of projects in short-term development. Ampliform also plans 3GW of projects in its development pipeline. Ampliform’s future expansion plans exceed more than 13GWdc in total. Empact will manage the IRA compliance for these projects. According to a Goldman Sachs report, the IRA is estimated to provide $1.2 trillion of incentives by 2032.

Ad Placement 300x100

Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Gold H2 harvests clean hydrogen from depleted California reservoirs in first field trial

breakthrough trial

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.

Gold H2 is a spinoff of another Houston biotech company, Cemvita.

“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.”

Rice University spinout lands $500K NSF grant to boost chip sustainability

cooler computing

HEXAspec, a spinout from Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, was recently awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation grant.

The team says it will use the funding to continue enhancing semiconductor chips’ thermal conductivity to boost computing power. According to a release from Rice, HEXAspec has developed breakthrough inorganic fillers that allow graphic processing units (GPUs) to use less water and electricity and generate less heat.

The technology has major implications for the future of computing with AI sustainably.

“With the huge scale of investment in new computing infrastructure, the problem of managing the heat produced by these GPUs and semiconductors has grown exponentially. We’re excited to use this award to further our material to meet the needs of existing and emerging industry partners and unlock a new era of computing,” HEXAspec co-founder Tianshu Zhai said in the release.

HEXAspec was founded by Zhai and Chen-Yang Lin, who both participated in the Rice Innovation Fellows program. A third co-founder, Jing Zhang, also worked as a postdoctoral researcher and a research scientist at Rice, according to HEXAspec's website.

The HEXASpec team won the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge in 2024. More recently, it also won this year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek in the TEX-E student track, taking home $25,000.

"The grant from the NSF is a game-changer, accelerating the path to market for this transformative technology," Kyle Judah, executive director of Lilie, added in the release.

---

This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Houston renewable energy retailer expands nationally and more news to know

Trending News

Editor's note: The top Houston energy transition news of June 2025 includes Rhythm's national expansion, CenterPoint's grid resiliency efforts, and an exciting research discovery. Get the details on the most-read EnergyCapitalHTX stories from June 15-30 below:

1. Houston's Rhythm Energy expands nationally with clean power acquisition

PJ Popovic, founder and CEO of Houston-based Rhythm Energy, which has acquired Inspire Clean Energy. Photo courtesy of Rhythm

Houston-based Rhythm Energy Inc. has acquired Inspire Clean Energy for an undisclosed amount. The deal allows Rhythm to immediately scale outside of Texas and into the Northeast, Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions.

Inspire offers subscription-based renewable electricity plans to customers in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. By combining forces, Rhythm will now be one of the largest independent green-energy retailers in the country. Continue reading.

2. CenterPoint reaches agreement on SRP to significantly reduce outages

CenterPoint says it will cut storm-related outages by 1 billion minutes with its new Systemwide Resiliency Plan. Photo via Getty Images

CenterPoint Energy has reached a settlement agreement with parties to its 2026-2028 Systemwide Resiliency Plan (SRP), which will represent the largest single grid resiliency investment in CenterPoint's history.

The plan is expected to reduce storm-related outages by 1 billion minutes for its 2.8 million customers by 2029 and build on the first two phases of the company's Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI). This SRP is designed to further address the impacts of extreme weather threats. Continue reading.

3. Enbridge activates first solar power project in Texas

Enbridge Inc. is now generating 130 megawatts of energy from its Orange Grove solar project near Corpus Christi. Photo courtesy Enbridge

Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc., whose gas transmission and midstream operations are based in Houston, has flipped the switch on its first solar power project in Texas.

The Orange Grove project, about 45 miles west of Corpus Christi, is now generating 130 megawatts of energy that feeds into the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Orange Grove features 300,000 solar panels installed on more than 920 acres in Jim Wells County. Construction began in 2024. Continue reading.

4. Texas drivers continue to pump the brakes on EVs, shows new report

Texas falls among the middle of the pack when it comes to EV adoption, according to a new report. Photo via Unsplash

Even though Texas is home to Tesla, a major manufacturer of electric vehicles, motorists in the Lone Star State aren’t in the fast lane when it comes to getting behind the wheel of an EV.

U.S. Department of Energy data compiled by Visual Capitalist shows Texas has 689.9 EV registrations per 100,000 people, putting it in 20th place for EV adoption among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Continue reading.

5. Houston team’s discovery brings solid-state batteries closer to EV use

Houston researchers have uncovered why solid-state batteries break down and what could be done to slow the process. Photo via Getty Images.

A team of researchers from the University of Houston, Rice University and Brown University has uncovered new findings that could extend battery life and potentially change the electric vehicle landscape.

The team recently published its findings in the journal Nature Communications. The work deployed a powerful, high-resolution imaging technique known as operando scanning electron microscopy to better understand why solid-state batteries break down and what could be done to slow the process. Continue reading.

View All Listings

ENERGYCAPITALHTX EMAILS ARE AWESOME