A Houston-based chemicals tech startup has signed an agreement to demonstrate its technology at North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, continuing a trajectory toward commercialization of its clean fuels technology.
Syzygy Plasmonics announced an agreement with the nonprofit RTI International to launch a pilot project for its decarbonization technology on Jan. 24. The 6-month test period will be used in analyses leading to Syzygy’s first commercial e-fuels plant.
Syzygy, which spun out of Rice University, is developing a photocatalytic chemical-reactor platform technology for users in the industrial gas, chemical and energy sectors. Although reactors generally rely on fossil fuels to trigger the chemical reactions necessary to produce plastics, fuels, fertilizers, hydrogen and other chemicals, Syzygy’s photocatalytic reactor instead relies on the light from LEDs.
The pilot will involve an electrified reactor that converts two greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide and methane – into low carbon-intensity fuels such as methanol, Syzygy said. RTI’s contribution to the pilot comes in the form of its synthesis unit, which would be used to produce a variety of fuel grades.
The pilot follows a path to commercial scaling that Syzygy has been moving toward in recent years. The company secured a $76 million Series C round led by Carbon Direct Capital in November 2022, its largest funding round to date. In May 2022, Syzygy moved its headquarters to a 44,800-square-foot building off the Sam Houston Parkway in Pearland, which the company also uses as a research, development and manufacturing site.
Previous Syzygy fund raises include a $23 million Series B round, led by Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, in 2021, and a $5.8 million Series A raise in 2019.
Syzygy’s growth parallels development in e-fuels technology throughout Texas and the energy industry. Interest in the fuel stems from their compatibility with existing vehicle and technology, as opposed to electric vehicle technology which would require additional charging infrastructure.
Chilean energy developer HIF Global tapped Bechtel Energy, Siemens Energy and Topsoe to perform engineering for a $6 billion renewable fuels plant in Matagorda County southwest of Houston. HIF officials told the Houston Business Journal that a first construction date could be as soon as 2024 following the engineering process.
Meanwhile, several energy companies — including oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), and Shell PLC (NYSE: SHEL) — and organizations have joined a local effort vying for billions of dollars in federal funding to develop a clean hydrogen hub on the Gulf Coast. The proposed hub would take advantage of $8 billion in federal funding that the U.S. Department of Energy has earmarked for clean hydrogen hubs.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos committed $12 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to the Houston Energy Transition Initiative for a two-year project aimed at decarbonizing heavy industry and clean transportation across the Houston region and the Texas Gulf Coast.
