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

PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo. Photo via Getty Images

The venture capital haul for Houston-area startups jumped 23 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

The fundraising total for startups in the region climbed from $1.49 billion in 2023 to $1.83 billion in 2024, PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor data shows.

Roughly half of the 2024 sum, $914.3 million, came in the fourth quarter. By comparison, Houston-area startups collected $291.3 million in VC during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Among the Houston-area startups contributing to the impressive VC total in the fourth quarter of 2024 was geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy. PitchBook attributes $634 million in fourth-quarter VC to Fervo, with fulfillment services company Cart.com at $50 million, and chemical manufacturing platform Mstack and superconducting wire manufacturer MetOx International at $40 million each.

Across the country, VC deals total $209 billion in 2024, compared with $162.2 billion in 2023. Nearly half (46 percent) of all VC funding in North America last year went to AI startups, PitchBook says. PitchBook’s lead VC analyst for the U.S., Kyle Stanford, says that AI “continues to be the story of the market.”

PitchBook forecasts a “moderately positive” 2025 for venture capital in the U.S.

“That does not mean that challenges are gone. Flat and down rounds will likely continue at higher paces than the market is accustomed to. More companies will likely shut down or fall out of the venture funding cycle,” says PitchBook. “However, both of those expectations are holdovers from 2021.”

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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