ADVERTISEABOUT USSUBMIT A STORYSUBSCRIBETERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY
Visit our family of Brands

Houston tech company lands DARPA grant to develop ocean energy system

fresh funding

Yokogawa Corporation of America will work with eight research institutions to develop a new way to harvest energy from oceans. Photo via Getty Images.

Sugar Land-based advanced tech company Yokogawa Corporation of America, in collaboration with eight research institutions, has been awarded a $7.8 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and test a biologically fueled energy system.

The system known as Persistent Oceanographic Device Power, or PODPower, shows a pioneering advancement in microbial fuel cells (MFCs), a technology that aims to redefine how energy is harvested from oceans.

“Advancements in this area will play a role in our future as we harness this knowledge to address GHG emissions, produce clean energy, and enhance waste treatment,” Amro Hassanein, co-principal investigator and technology strategist, said in a news release.

The grant funds the system's Phase 1 development and deployment, and research is scheduled to continue through the summer of 2026. The company says the project has potential applications in climate monitoring, marine research, national security and clean energy generation.

The initiative will attempt to develop an MFC capable of generating up to 10 watts of continuous power for oceanic research and sensing devices through the use of microorganisms found in ocean water and specific bacteria samples.

“MFCs can process a variety of organic substrates including wastewater, agricultural residues, industrial byproducts, and marine biomass, demonstrating their versatility in applications such as on-site power generation bioremediation and biosensing,” Hassanein said in the news release.

As the only private company in the project, Yokogawa will lead the technical aspect to optimize the MFC technology through precision monitoring, data acquisition and machine learning algorithms.

The project team also includes collaborators from:

  • University of Maryland
  • Harvard University
  • Battelle
  • George Washington University
  • The Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology at the University of Maryland
  • Baltimore County
  • James Madison University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • The University of Delaware.

Yokogawa believes that the system could power ocean sensing devices that provide key information for monitoring climate change, maintaining national security and understanding marine environments. The project plans to integrate bio-inspired organic matter collection systems, advanced fermentation processes and novel electrode designs.

Yokogawa Corporation of America is an affiliate of Tokyo-based manufacturing company Yokogawa. It moved its headquarters to Sugar Land in 2009.
Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Houston clean energy company to develop hybrid renewable project in Port Arthur

power project

Houston-based clean energy company Diligence Offshore Services has announced a strategic partnership with Florida-based floating solar manufacturing company AccuSolar for the development of a renewable energy project in the Port Arthur area.

Known as the Pleasure Island Power Collective, it will be built on 2,275 acres across Pleasure Island and Sabine Lake. It is expected to generate 391 megawatts of clean power, alongside a utility-scale battery energy storage system. It will also feature a 225-megawatt coastal onshore wind farm, with energy produced on-site used to power a data center for adaptive superintelligence, making it entirely self-sustained by renewable sources, according to the company.

AccuSolar will design and manufacture the project and power will be distributed through the Canaan Energy Corridor

“We are incredibly proud to partner with a fellow U.S. company like AccuSolar,” Harry C. Crawford III, founder and managing member of Diligence Offshore, said in a news release. “Their expertise in American manufacturing and floating solar technology is essential to the success of the Pleasure Island Power Collective.”

The project is expected to bring economic growth and a significant number of manufacturing jobs to the area during the construction phase and long-term operations.

Diligence Offshore is pursuing a DPA Title 1 DX rating under the Defense Production Act to help advance the project's development schedule, according to the release, which could lead to immediate manufacturing jobs.

“This partnership not only strengthens our domestic supply chain but also accelerates our vision to bring economic freedom and climate resilience to the Gulf Coast,” Crawford added in the release.

Houston organization proposes Gulf Coast index for hydrogen market

hydrogen index

The Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance has proposed an index aimed at bringing transparency to pricing in the emerging hydrogen market.

The Houston-based alliance said the Gulf Coast Hydrogen Index, based on real-time data, would provide more clarity to pricing in the global market for hydrogen. The benchmarking effort is being designed to benefit clean hydrogen buyers, sellers and investors. The index would help position the U.S. “as the trading anchor for hydrogen’s next chapter as a globally traded commodity,” the alliance said.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global market for clean hydrogen was valued at $200 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $700 billion by 2040.

John Flory, president of the alliance, said the lack of a pricing index has relegated hydrogen to niche-market status.

“Capital is waiting. Buyers are ready. But until now, there’s been no credible, transparent pricing signal to guide clean hydrogen investing or contracting,” Edward Morse, co-chairman of the Clean Hydrogen Transaction Advisory Committee, said in a news release.

The index would treat the Gulf Coast as the primary delivery hub for pipeline-grade hydrogen in three categories: basic, low-carbon and ultra-low-carbon. It would be similar to the Henry Hub index for pricing of natural gas.

Roger Ballentine, co-chairman of the clean energy advisory committee, said the hydrogen index would build confidence in this energy source among government agencies, companies and investors. A Henry Hub-style benchmark for hydrogen “provides clarity, reduces risk, and lays the foundation for clean energy to become a globally traded commodity critical to decarbonization,” he said.

The Gulf Coast, with Texas as the focal point, is key to the evolution of the U.S. clean hydrogen economy, according to the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association.

At the core of the Gulf Coast’s role is the U.S. Department of Energy's selection of the Gulf Coast as one of the country’s seven regional hubs for clean hydrogen. However, the DOE has proposed cutting funding for the HyVelocity Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, a $1.2 billion development in Texas and Louisiana by AES, Air Liquide, Chevron, ExxonMobil, MHI Hydrogen Infrastructure and Ørsted, according to a new list of proposed DOE funding cancellations.

2 Houston energy giants appear on Fortune’s inaugural AI ranking

AI Leaders

Two Houston-area energy leaders appear on Fortune’s inaugural list of the top adopters of AI among Fortune 500 companies.

They are:

  • No. 7 energy company ExxonMobil, based in Spring
  • No. 47 energy company Chevron, based in Houston

They are joined by Spring-based tech company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, No. `9.

All three companies have taken a big dive into the AI pool.

In 2024, ExxonMobil’s executive chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, explained that AI would play a key role in achieving a $15 billion reduction in operating costs by 2027.

“There is a concerted effort to make sure that we're really working hard to apply that new technology to the opportunity set within the company to drive effectiveness and efficiency,” Woods told Wall Street analysts.

At Chevron, AI tools are being used to quickly analyze data and extract insights from it, according to tech news website VentureBeat. Also, Chevron employs advanced AI systems known as large language models (LLMs) to create engineering standards, specifications and safety alerts. AI is even being put to work in Chevron’s exploration initiatives.

Bill Braun, Chevron’s chief information officer, said at a VentureBeat-sponsored event in 2024 that AI-savvy data scientists, or “digital scholars,” are always embedded within workplace teams “to act as a catalyst for working differently.”

The Fortune AIQ 50 ranking is based on ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index, an annual measurement of how prepared organizations are to adopt and scale AI. To evaluate how Fortune 500 companies are rolling out AI and how much they value AI investments, Fortune teamed up with Enterprise Technology Research. The results went into computing an AIQ score for each company.

At the top of the ranking is Alphabet (owner of Google and YouTube), followed by Visa, JPMorgan Chase, Nvidia and Mastercard. Aside from ExxonMobil, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Chevron, two other Texas companies made the list: Arlington-based homebuilder D.R. Horton (No. 29) and Austin-based software company Oracle (No. 37).

“The Fortune AIQ 50 demonstrates how companies across industry sectors are beginning to find real value from the deployment of AI technology,” Jeremy Kahn, Fortune’s AI editor, said in a news release. “Clearly, some sectors, such as tech and finance, are pulling ahead of others, but even in so-called 'old economy' industries like mining and transport, there are a few companies that are pulling away from their peers in the successful use of AI.

---

This article originally appeared on InnovationMap.com.

View All Listings