Syzygy Plasmonics is going to be competing in Gastech's new startup competition. Photo via Getty Images

A global natural gas, LNG, hydrogen, low-carbon solutions, and climate technology convention is coming to Houston next month — but only one Houston startup is geared up for the event's new startup competition.

Gastech invited 20 promising companies for its inaugural Gastech Start-Up Competition, and 11 companies have signed on to participate so far. Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics, which created and is scaling a sustainable photocatalytic reactor, is currently the only local company among the participants.

“Gastech's focus on creating a low-carbon, affordable energy future aligns perfectly with Syzygy's drive to produce low-carbon, low-cost hydrogen, liquid fuels, and syngas," Syzygy Plasmonics CEO Trevor Best says. "We can't wait to represent Houston as the only startup from the area to be included among the 11 finalists in the Gastech Climatetech Global Entrepreneur Competition.”

It's the first year Gastech, which was announced to be returning to Houston last year, is hosting the competition, which invited startups from the Gastech Hydrogen and Climatetech & AI hubs. The program will allow the participants to promote their projects, benchmark in a competitive setting, and receive critical feedback from experts.

The selected companies are innovating scalable solutions across technologies in climatetech, alternative fuels, industrial decarbonization, AI, hydrogen, and more. Each company will have five minutes to pitch and three minutes of feedback. The winner receives the Gastech 2024 Leading Start-up Trophy.

“We were very impressed by the ability of Syzygy to provide deep decarbonization technology which hit the mark on each of the requirements above – we hadn’t seen it before at Gastech and there is real potential to deliver at scale,” Simon Ford, vice president at Gastech, says.

The other selected and confirmed companies are:

  • General Galactic
  • Element One
  • Stars Technology
  • Modcon System
  • Fluid-7
  • Divigas
  • Gusty.ai
  • Omega Black
  • Kayrros
  • Mitis

The competition is in partnership with Houston Energy Transition Initiative and will take place beginning at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, September 18. Networking will follow the competition. Judges include Jane Stricker of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Mahdi Aladel and/or Bruce Niven of Aramco Ventures, and Daniel Palmer of Climate Investment.

Here's what student-founded startups are leaving CERAWeek with fresh funding. Photo courtesy of HETI

Houston clean tech startup pitch competition awards prizes at annual CERAWeek event

big winners

For the third year, the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Institute hosted its startup pitch competition at CERAWeek by S&P Global. A dozen startups walked away with recognition — and three some with cash prizes.

HETI joined partners Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and TEX-E for the 2024 Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek on Wednesday, March 20. Forty-two companies, which have collectively raised over $265 million in investment funding already, pitched to judges. Nine startups won awards across three tracks.

TEX-E, a Texas nonprofit that supports student-founded upstarts, had five of its companies pitch and three winners walked away with monetary prizes. Teams that competed in the TEX-E Prize track, many of which come from Houston universities, include:

  • AirMax, University of Texas at Austin
  • BeadBlocker, University of Houston
  • Carvis Energy Solutions, Texas A&M University
  • Coflux Purification, Rice University
  • Solidec, Rice University

Solidec, which is working on a platform to produce chemicals from captured carbon, won first place and $25,000. The company also recently scored a $100,000 grant from Rice's One Small Step Grant program, as well as a voucher from the DOE. Coflux Purification, which has a technology that destroys PFAS in filtration, won second place and$15,000. The company also secured a One Small Step Grant to the tune of $80,000. AirMax, which focuses on optimizing sustainability for air conditioning equipment, won third place and $10,000.

Last year, Houston-based Helix Earth Technologies took home the top TEX-E price and $25,000 cash awards. The venture, founded by Rawand Rasheed and Brad Husick from Rice University, developed high-speed, high-efficiency filter systems derived from technology originating at NASA.

The rest of the companies that pitched competed for non-monetary awards. Here's what companies won:

  • Group A (CCUS, oilfield solutions, analytics and minerals):
    • First place: Ardent
    • Second place: Vaulted Deep
    • Third place: Mitico
  • Group B (batteries, renewables, water, and grid technology):
    • First place: SungreenH2
    • Second place: FeX Energy
    • Third place: Mercurius Biorefining
  • Group C (Mobility, Materials, and hydrogen solutions)
    • First place: Thiozen
    • Second place: Power2Hydrogen
    • Third place: Arolytics
  • People's choice: Decimetrix
HETI, Rice Alliance, and TEX-E celebrated the winners at a private reception on Wednesday evening.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Houston-based WellWorth was selected as the winner of this year’s Houston Startup Showcase. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston energy SaaS startup wins local pitch competition

no. 1

The Ion hosted its annual startup pitch competition, and one company walked away with a win.

WellWorth, a financial modeling and analysis software-as-a-service company for the upstream energy sector, won the Houston Startup Showcase + Expo and secured a $5,000 prize. The startup's technology introduces a more streamlined approach to NAV modeling or corporate financial modeling for its users.

“Having worked in investment banking, I have seen firsthand how the limitations of Excel models and a lack of bespoke tools have led to inefficient workflows in upstream Oil & Gas finance," says Samra Nawaz, CEO and Co-founder of WellWorth, in a statement. "We decided to solve this problem by building a cloud-based platform that helps energy finance leaders improve decision-making around raising, managing, and deploying capital.”

Nawaz explains how impactful the opportunity to pitch has been on WellWorth, which aims to raise funding early next year accelerate customer acquisition and product development.

“By getting involved in the Ion’s innovation ecosystem, we’ve been able to not only network with many entrepreneurs and innovators in the Houston community, but also find opportunities to scale our growth,” continues Nawaz. “We’re thrilled to have brought a few more customers onboard recently, and are working closely with them to optimize our product pipeline."

The company pitched alongside the other five finalists, which included Tierra Climate, MRG Health, BeOne Sports, Trez, and Mallard Bay. Mallard Bay, a booking platform for hunting and fishing trips, secured the people's choice award, which was decided by the crowd.

“Our flagship event, Houston Startup Showcase, not only connects startups and entrepreneurs with top business leaders but also provides them an opportunity to pitch their innovations to the technology ecosystem,” says Jan Odegard, executive director of the Ion, in a news release. “We extend our congratulations to WellWorth and the company’s innovative SaaS platform for energy industry finance teams, as well as Mallard Bay, the People’s Choice winner. These companies are exemplifying the exciting new technologies being developed in Houston today.”

In addition to the pitches, several companies showcased at the event, including Nanotech, manufacturer of thermal management materials for the built environment; last year's winner Unytag, a universal toll tag that provides drivers the ability to pass through tolls anywhere in the nation; and Softeq, provides early-stage innovation, technology business consulting, and full-stack development solutions to enterprise companies and innovative startups.

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Chevron names inaugural cohort of energy transition graduate students at Rice University

ready to innovate

A new program from Rice University and Chevron has named its inaugural cohort.

Funded by Chevron, the Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship will provide $10,000 each to 10 Rice graduate students for the current academic year, which supports research in energy-related fields.

The Rice Sustainability Institute (RSI) hosted the event to introduce the inaugural cohort of the Rice Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship at the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. Director of the RSI and the W. Maurice Ewing Professor in Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Carrie Masiello presented each fellow with a certificate during the ceremony.

“This fellowship supports students working on a wide range of topics related to scalable innovations in energy production that will lead to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions,” Masiello says in a news release. “It’s important that we recognize the importance of intellectual diversity to the kind of problem-solving we have to do as we accomplish the energy transition.”

The work of the students focuses on creating "real-world, scalable solutions to transform the energy landscape,” per the Rice release. Recipients of the fellowship will research solutions to energy challenges that include producing eco-friendly hydrogen alternatives to fossil fuels and recycling lithium-ion batteries.

Some of the fellows' work will focus on renewable fuels and carbon-capture technologies, biological systems to sequester carbon dioxide, and the potential of soil organic carbon sequestration on agricultural land if we remove the additionality constraint. Xi Chen, a doctoral student in materials science and nanoengineering, will use microwave-assisted techniques to recycle lithium-ion batteries sustainably.

Rice President Reginald DesRoches began the event by stressing the importance of collaboration. Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research at Rice, echoed that statement appearing via Zoom to applaud the efforts of doing what is right for the planet and having a partner in Chevron.

“I’m excited to support emerging leaders like you all in this room, who are focused on scalable, innovative solutions because the world needs them,” Chris Powers, vice president of carbon capture, utilization and storage and emerging at Chevron New Energies and a Rice alum, says at the event. “Innovation and collaboration across sectors and borders will be key to unlocking the full potential of lower carbon energies, and it’s groups like you, our newest Chevron Fellows, that can help move the needle when it comes to translating, or evolving, the energy landscape for the future.”

To see a full list of fellows, click here.

Houston energy company backs decarbonization startup's $12M series A

money moves

A fresh $12 million round of funding will enable Houston-based Citroniq Chemicals to propel planning, design, and construction of its first decarbonization plant.

An unidentified multinational energy technology company led the series A round, with participation from Houston-based Lummus Technology Ventures and cooperation from the State of Nebraska. The Citroniq plant, which will produce green polypropylene, will be located in Nebraska.

“Lummus’ latest investment in Citroniq builds on this progress and strengthens our partnership, working together to lower carbon emissions in the plastics industry,” Leon de Bruyn, president and CEO of Lummus Technology, says in a news release.

Citroniq is putting together a decarbonization platform designed to annually capture 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions at each plant. The company plans to invest more than $5 billion into its green polypropylene plants. Polypropylene is a thermoplastic resin commonly used for injection molding.

The series A round “is just the first step in our journey towards building multiple biomanufacturing hubs, boosting the Nebraska bioeconomy by converting local ethanol into valuable bioplastics,” says Kelly Knopp, co-founder and CEO of Citroniq.

Citroniq’s platform for the chemical and plastics industries uses technology and U.S.-produced ethanol to enable low-cost carbon capture. Citroniq’s process permanently sequesters carbon into a useful plastic pellet.

Lummus Technology licenses process technologies for clean fuels, renewables, petrochemicals, polymers, gas processing and supply lifecycle services, catalysts, proprietary equipment, and digital transformation.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.