green fuels

Houston company to build renewable gasoline production facility in California

The facility is expected to produce approximately 7 million gallons of renewable gasoline and sequester over 100,000 metric tons of CO2 a year by 2027. Photo via verdecleanfuels.com

A Houston company has announced a new agreement to construct a renewable gasoline production facility on the West Coast. Once up and running, the site is expected to produce approximately 7 million gallons of renewable gasoline and sequester over 100,000 metric tons of CO2 a year by 2027.

Houston-based Verde Clean Fuels (Nasdaq: VGAS), which specializes in fuel production from renewable feedstocks or natural gas, shared earlier this month that it has entered into an agreement to build a gasoline production facility that will use sequestered carbon dioxide to produce about 21,000 gallons per day of renewable gasoline, according to a news release.

The Carbon Dioxide Management Agreement, or CDMA, is between Verde and a joint venture company called Carbon TerraVault, a subsidiary of California Resources Corp. (NYSE: CRC) and Brookfield Renewable (NYSE: BEP). The facility will be built at CRC’s existing Net Zero Industrial Park in Kern County, California. The agreement provides Verde 50 acres of leased space for the facility at CRC’s Net Zero Industrial Park at Elk Hills field on which to construct its facility.

“Traditional gasoline used today is refined from crude oil and makes up over half of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the U.S. transportation sector, the largest contributor to GHG emissions,” Ernest Miller, CEO of Verde, says in the release. “We believe our proprietary technology and scientific approach will further enable California’s consumers of gasoline to seamlessly and materially participate in the critical decarbonization of our atmosphere and help achieve California’s climate goals.

"Our partnership with CTV marks a significant step towards fulfilling our domestic growth ambitions and represents a concrete pathway to decarbonizing the transportation sector," he continues. "By teaming up with the leading carbon management business in the U.S., we are poised to make a substantial impact.”

According to the release, the impact of the production of 21,000 gallons per day of renewable gasoline is equivalent to removing around 22,000 cars off the road.

“Doubling the CO2 storage opportunities under CDMAs at our Net Zero Industrial Park at Elk Hills in a matter of eight months further underscores CRC’s carbon management strategy and dedication to energy transition in California,” Francisco Leon, CRC’s President and CEO, says in the release. “This new agreement between CTV JV and Verde Clean Fuels provides an innovative approach to renewable fuels at the heart of energy development in the state, and further validates CRC’s decarbonization efforts by a publicly traded company looking to expand in California.”

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A View From HETI

Houston-based Mati Carbon won the global XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, funded by The Musk Foundation. Photo via LinkedIn.

Houston-based Mati Carbon has won the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, backed by Elon Musk’s charitable organization, The Musk Foundation.

Mati was selected in 2024 as one of 20 global finalists. The company removes carbon through its Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) program that works with agricultural farms in Africa and India.

The 3-year-old startup accelerates the natural process of rock weathering (ERW) by applying pulverized basalt to croplands of partnered smallholder farmers, free of charge. Mati says the farmers it partners with are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“Winning this XPRIZE competition is an incredible honor and a definitive validation of our research and development, and building out the infrastructure needed to impact millions of farmers while delivering verifiable carbon dioxide removal at a gigaton scale,” Mati Carbon Founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal, said in a news release. “I couldn’t be prouder, not just of the Mati team, but of our collaborators, research partners and the thousands of smallholder farmers who let us be part of their lives. This XPRIZE recognition will allow us to collaborate with local partners to accelerate the use of enhanced rock weathering across the Global South.”

Mati reports that it plans to use the award to “scale its efforts working with smallholder farmers worldwide.” Apart from the XPRIZE funding, Mati plans to grow its model through the sale of CDR credits. According to the company, it counts Shopify, Stripe, and H&M among its early carbon credit buyers.

“Mati Carbon’s deployments bolster farmers’ livelihoods through improved soil health, reduced agricultural inputs, and increased income at zero cost to them. Mati Carbon’s team has developed a scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification, and excelled across each of XPRIZE’s prize evaluation criteria – operational, sustainability, and cost metrics – giving the XPRIZE judges the highest confidence in Mati Carbon’s solution’s long-term scalability,” the XPRIZE judges wrote.

Houston-based Vaulted Deep took home the second-runner-up prize in the competition and $8 million for its organic waste storage process. The company provides permanent carbon storage by injecting nonhazardous organic waste deep underground. It spun off with $8 million in seed funding from Advantek Waste Management Services in 2023.

"Our approach is grounded in geomechanical injection techniques that have been safely deployed globally for decades by our team and predecessors," Omar Abou-Sayed, co-founder and executive chairman of Vaulted, said in a separate release. "XPRIZE recognized that this is a proven approach—already in use, delivering impact, and built on the kind of reliability the industry needs to scale responsibly."

Launched in 2021, the four-year XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition challenged global innovators to deploy scalable solutions for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans. More than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competed. XPRIZE finalists were required to remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO2 over a one-year demonstration period.

French company NetZero took home the first-runner-up prize of $15 million, and London-based UNDO came in as third-runner-up with a $5 million prize.

Since the announcement of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has cut climate funding for agencies, projects and research. While the Musk Foundation sponsored the XPRIZE event, it is not affiliated with the California-based organization, according to the Associated Press.

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