Amogy, a company focusing on ammonia power solutions, is expanding to Houston with a new manufacturing facility set to open next year.
The company said Sept. 19 it is investing over $40 million to renovate the 53,000-square-foot building, which was formerly used to produce oil and gas equipment. The facility is located at 12221 N. Houston Rosslyn Road off Highway 249.
“We chose Houston as the 'energy capital of the world' (for this facility) because we wanted to be near customers, suppliers, and the right talent as we ramp up operations,” Amogy CEO and co-founder Seonghoon Woo said in the news release. “We are eager to begin manufacturing so we can deliver to customers globally.”
Amogy expects to employ around 200 people at the Houston facility by the end of 2024 and is currently hiring for chemical, mechanical, electrical and system engineers as well as manufacturing, operations and sales professionals.
Founded in 2020 by four graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Amogy produces a “powerpack,” which cracks ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen for use in a fuel cell. The powerpack produces 200 kilowatts of power with an efficiency of 2.1 kilowatt hours per kilogram of ammonia, according to a datasheet available on the company’s website. The technology can be used in shipping container vessels or at a stationary location for power generation.
In addition to its upcoming Houston plant, Amogy has a local office address listed on its website at 10920 W. Sam Houston Parkway N. The company also has an office in New York and one in Norway.
The company announced a two-part Series B funding round in 2023. The round consisted of a $139 million Series B-1 round in March led by South Korea-based SK Innovation Co. Ltd. and an $11 million Series B-2 round in June featuring Marunouchi Climate Tech Growth Fund, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and Synergy Marine as investors.
As Houston seeks to establish itself as a leader in the energy transition, several clean technology companies have chosen the Bayou City for their manufacturing locations. In 2022, Syzygy Plasmonics, a company spun out of Rice University, moved into a new headquarters in Pearland, which also serves as its hub to produce its photocatalytic reactor. Syzygy CEO and co-founder Trevor Best said in a recent interview that the company completed its headquarters build-out in 2023 and was in the process of reaching deals with customers.
Another company that hit a manufacturing milestone in 2023 is Cemvita Corp., which uses bacteria to transform carbon dioxide into an oil that can be made into sustainable fuel. Cemvita launched a pilot plant in April and plans to have full-scale plants ready by 2028 or 2029, according to CEO and co-founder Moji Karimi. The company recently struck a deal with one of its investors, United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAL), to sell up to 1 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel to the Chicago-based airline.
While Amogy is focused on converting ammonia to power, major energy players are also looking at the production of ammonia itself. One of the largest-scale ammonia projects coming to Texas is Canada-based Enbridge Inc.’s (NYSE: ENB) planned blue ammonia facility near Corpus Christi. The proposed production facility is expected to start up in 2027 or 2028 and be able to produce 1.2 million to 1.4 million tons of low-carbon ammonia annually. The total project investment currently is expected to be between $2.6 billion and $2.9 billion.
