Houston foundation doles out $700K for Texas chemical research

fresh funding

The Welch Foundation has awarded funding through two of its newest grant programs. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston-based The Welch Foundation has issued $700,000 in additional funding to support chemical research through two of its newest grant programs.

The foundation has named the recipients of its Welch eXperimental (WelchX) Collaboration Retreat and Pilot Grants and the Welch Postdoctoral Fellows of the Life Sciences Research Foundation Grants.

The WelchX grants were awarded to teams of two Texas researchers who presented "innovative and collaborative ideas" addressing challenges in the clean energy space, according to the foundation.

Researchers from Texas universities gathered in Houston earlier this summer to discuss the theme “Chemical Research for Grand Challenges." They then paired off into nine teams and submitted proposals for the $100,000 pilot grants. The seven selected teams, several with ties to Houston, and their research topics include:

Yimo Han, Rice University, and Yuanyue Liu, The University of Texas at Austin, “Stabilizing Copper Electrocatalysts for CO2 Conversion”
Ognjen Miljanic, University of Houston, and Indrajit Srivastava, Texas Tech University, “Ping-Pong' Afterglow Luminescence in Self-Assembled Molecular Cubes”
Raúl Hernández Sánchez, Rice University, and Andy Thomas, Texas A&M University, “Accelerating Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agent Discovery via Rapid Injection NMR: Improving the Detection of Lithium for Disease Diagnostics”
Benjamin Janesko, Texas Christian University, and MD Masud Rana, Lamar University, “Cyber Twin Chemical Ensembles for Near-Infrared-Emitting Graphene Quantum Dot Therapeutics”
Ivan Korendovych, Baylor University, and Dino Villagrán, The University of Texas at El Paso, “Selective Bio-Inspired Electrochemical Probes for PFAS Analysis and Degradation”
Samantha Kristufek, Texas Tech University, and Kayla Green, Texas Christian University, “CIRCUIT: Critical Ion Recovery using Conductive and Ultrafiltration Intelligent Technology”
Fang Xu, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Hong Wang, University of North Texas, “Visualize Molecular Adsorption on Supported Ni-porphyrin Model Catalysts via Substitute Effect”

The Welch Postdoctoral Fellows of the Life Sciences Research Foundation provides three-year fellowships to recent PhD graduates to support clinical research careers in Texas.

The foundation previously announced that it would name fellows from Rice University and Baylor University who would receive $100,000 annually for three years. This year's recipients and their research topics include:

Teng Yuan, Rice University, “Unlocking New Chemistry of Nonheme Iron Enzymes for α-Amino Acids and γ-Lactones Synthesis”
Katelyn Baumler, Baylor University, "Crystal Growth of Ln2Fe4Sb5 Phases Toward the Study of Novel Quantum Properties”

“As these programs become more established, it is thrilling to see the new research our awardees are exploring,” Adam Kuspa, president of The Welch Foundation, said in a news release. “The Foundation is very pleased by the applications that we continue to receive describing exciting new research projects to advance chemical research.”

This additional funding comes on the heels of the foundation doling out $27 million for chemical research, equipment and postdoctoral fellowships earlier this summer. The foundation made 85 grants to faculty at 16 Texas institutions at the time. Read more here.

This article originally appeared on our sister site, Innovationmap.com.

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Solar tracking manufacturer opens second Houston facility

now open

PV Hardware USA, a provider of solar tracking and foundation solutions, has announced the opening of its second U.S. manufacturing facility in Houston, which is expected to create more than 100 jobs locally and strengthen domestic production capacity for solar energy facilities.

“Opening our second U.S. manufacturing facility represents an exciting step forward in our growth journey and demonstrates our commitment to the U.S. market,” Rodolfo Bitar, VP of Business Development for PVH USA, said in a news release.

The 95,000-square-foot facility began operations in July and aims to increase production while reducing lead times for customers. The new state-of-the-art building joins the company’s first $30 million U.S. manufacturing facility, which opened in Houston in May 2024 as one of America’s largest solar tracker manufacturing facilities.

Established in 2008 in San Francisco, PVH USA has launched a series of innovative advancements that help solar facilities withstand extreme weather events, generate more energy during overcast weather and expand the types of terrain suitable for solar installations. Its proprietary pre-assembly process can reduce installation times by 40 percent, which helps expand solar power capacity to meet increasing demand for electricity, according to the company. Currently, PVH USA has over 32 gigawatts of solar trackers supplied worldwide, and it operates from advanced manufacturing facilities in Spain, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Its existing Houston facility manufactures solar structures and custom-built solar tracking systems for new solar generation projects.

“By expanding our presence in Houston, we are not only investing in local economic development but also ensuring we can better serve our customers with faster turnaround times and the highest quality products that are 100% domestically made,” Bitar added in the release.

Rice University team finds economical way to recycle data center heat into power

waste not

As data centers expand, their energy demands rise as well. Researchers at Rice University have discovered a way to capture low-temperature waste heat from data centers and convert it back into usable power.

The team has introduced a novel solar thermal-boosted organic Rankine cycle (ORC)—a power system that uses a safe working fluid to make electricity from heat. The design incorporates low-cost rooftop flat-plate solar collectors, which warm the data center’s coolant stream before it enters the ORC. The findings, published in Solar Energy, show that the additional “solar bump” helps surpass the technical roadblocks with data center waste, which has typically been too cool to generate power on its own.

The research was supported by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“There’s an invisible river of warm air flowing out of data centers,” Laura Schaefer, the Burton J. and Ann M. McMurtry Chair of Mechanical Engineering at Rice and co-author of the paper, said in a news release. “Our question was: Can we nudge that heat to a slightly higher temperature with sunlight and convert a lot more of it into electricity? The answer is yes, and it’s economically compelling.”

Traditionally, electric heat pumps have been used to raise temperatures before recovery, but the benefits were limited because the pumps consumed significant extra power.

Kashif Liaqat, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Rice, and Schaefer achieved a "temperature lift” by using solar energy to create thermoeconomic models. They modeled affordable, low-profile rooftop solar collectors that fed into an ORC and tied into a liquid-cooling loop. The collectors were validated against industry tools and tested at some of America’s largest data center hubs in Ashburn, Virginia, and Los Angeles, which provided varying climate challenges.

The system recovered 60 percent to 80 percent more electricity annually from the same waste heat, with a 60 percent boost in Ashburn and an 80 percent boost in Los Angeles, according to Rice. It also achieved over 8 percent higher ORC efficiency during peak hours, and an increase in annual average efficiency. The approach also lowered the cost of electricity from the recovered power by 5.5 percent in Ashburn and by 16.5 percent in Los Angeles.

“What the industry considers a weakness becomes a strength once you add solar,” Liaqat said in a news release. “That’s great news for modern data centers.”

Next up, the team will look to pilot its hybrid system in operational sites and explore thermal storage, which the researchers hope could bank solar heat during the day to assist with energy recovery efforts at night.

Greentown and EnergyTech Nexus announce ecosystem partnership

green team

Two of Houston’s leading energy transition organizations are joining forces.

Climatetech incubator Greentown Labs and founder community Energy Tech Nexus announced a "strategic ecosystem partnership," aimed at accelerating growth for clean energy startups. EnergyTech Nexus will move into Greentown Labs and plans to open an investor lounge on-site.

“Greentown Labs is the nexus for the energy transition, where startups can gather, collaborate and grow. Positioning our own extended community within the hallowed walls of Greentown will further foster the creation of authentic connections between founders and reduce friction to critical resources, bringing the village together will only accelerate the flywheel on innovation here in Houston, Texas,” Jason Ethier, EnergyTech Nexus founding partner, said in a news release.

Additionally, EnergyTech Nexus will launch Cephyron IRM, an AI-driven investor platform that will help founders of early-stage technologies connect with sources of capital. Greentown members will be granted early access to the platform.

According to the organizations, the ecosystem partnership represents years of collaboration. Ethier, whose startup Dynamo Micropower was one of the first to join Greentown's Cambridge, Massachusetts, incubator, previously served on Greentown's board of directors and in other leadership positions. He and Juliana Garaizar, a fellow founding partner of EnergyTech Nexus, were also instrumental in bringing Greentown Labs to Houston. Garaizar has also held numerous leadership roles at Greentown Houston.

“This partnership has been a long time coming—our organizations are kindred spirits that need to be working together to enhance the entrepreneurial support systems available to climate innovators in Houston,” Lawson Gow, Greentown’s Head of Houston, added in the release. “Capital is a top priority for climate and energy founders, and this team-up will directly address this challenge.”

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