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A SpaceX rocket carrying a decorated former NASA astronaut and three paying customers took off from Florida Sunday afternoon. The crew is embarking on a weeklong stay aboard the International Space Station.
Their journey, put together by the Houston-based company Axiom Space, marks the second all-private mission to the orbiting outpost. Called AX-2, the mission is making history as stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi becomes the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space.
The AX-2 mission is one in a lineup of missions that Axiom Space and NASA hope will continue to spur private sector participation in spaceflight — particularly in low-Earth orbit, where the space station lies.
The AX-2 crew is being led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, 63, now an Axiom employee. With this mission, Whitson also became the first woman to command a private spaceflight.
Houston and Dallas should follow the California model. Invest heavily in its universities and turn out the best and brightest. Develop more local funding for startups. California has no magic that can't be replicated. Houston is strong in engineering, Dallas in finance.
Houston's also strong and I would say probably a little stronger in the medical field and in petrochemical.
Galveston saw ‘record-breaking economic success’ in 2022, report says
Galveston is recovering well in the post-pandemic world, according to the recent Galveston Economic Impact Tourism report from Visit Galveston.
The island achieved “record-breaking economic success” with $1.2 billion in tourist spending — a 27% increase from 2021, the report states.
In 2022, Galveston Island welcomed 8.1 million visitors, up 25% from 6.5 million visitors in 2021 and up 10.9% from 7.3 million visitors in 2019. During the height of the pandemic, the island recorded 5.2 million visitors in 2020.
Overall, 2022 visitors spent an average of $142 per person, which is up 18% from $120 per person in 2019, per the report.
About 52% of visitors were day visitors, who spent an average of $57. In total, Galveston day visitors accounted for $238 million in spending in 2022.
Overnight visitors accounted for 35% of 2022’s overall number. This group spent an average of $261 per person and $749 million overall.
Meanwhile, visitors who were in Galveston for cruises accounted for 13% of its visits. The passenger spending for this group fell to an average of $77 per person, down 5% from $81 in 2021. Overall, cruise visitors spent $80 million.
Galveston was the country's fourth-busiest cruise port in 2019 — the last full year before the cruise industry shut down for more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Total embarkations in Galveston increased 10.9% to 1.09 million in 2019, cracking the 1 million mark for the first time, according to a 2020 Cruise Lines International Association study.
Houston clean hydrogen startup readies roll out of technology developed at Rice University
Sysygy Plasmonics, a Houston startup with a challenging name, is taking on an even more challenging task.
The company's core technology uses light rather than combustion to power chemical reactions — an innovation with the potential to change the way chemicals are made and transported.
If it succeeds, and several large players in the energy industry have wagered tens millions of dollars that it can, Syzygy's technology could be used to drive down cost, energy intensity and emissions in a range of chemical processes, including those needed to make and transport hydrogen, which is gaining traction as a fossil fuel alternative.
The reactors developed by Syzygy are an offshoot of a photocatalytic breakthrough at Rice University in 2016. Rice researchers developed the catalyst that Syzygy built its reactors to work with. Rice holds the original patent on the catalyst technology developed by its researchers; Syzygy licenses that technology and has patents of its own on the company's core intellectual property: the reactors designed to work with the Rice catalyst.
Suman Khatiwada, co-founder and CTO, talks about the display of reactors at Syzygy Plasmonics Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in Houston. The company has developed new technology that could revolutionize the green hydrogen space by providing a low-cost, energy-efficient way to produce clean hydrogen.Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer
In November, the company announced it had raised $76 million from Carbon Direct Capital, an equity firm focused on carbon management technology, as well as two of the world’s largest oil companies, Aramco and Chevron, to advance its technology.
Houston Logistics sector is continuing its remarkable growth.
During the Pandemic, the Port of Houston grew from a top 7 container port to top 5.
A few weeks ago BNSF announced it was expanding intermodal rail service from Houston and now Union Pacific is doing the same:
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Union Pacific will launch international intermodal service between Port Houston and five cities beginning on Thursday, a move that follows a similar announcement from BNSF Railway just two weeks ago.
“These added rail services from Union Pacific are an exciting step forward in the movement of cargo at Port Houston. Port Houston is a top five container port and growing fast, and intermodal solutions like this help ensure continued efficient movement of goods to locations throughout the U.S.,”
The on-dock service will eliminate the need for containers to be trucked approximately 30 miles from the port to the Settegast terminal for loading onto rail cars, reducing highway congestion in the Houston area.
Port of Houston is the largest Gulf Coast intermodal container port, handling 73% of U.S. Gulf Coast container traffic and is an essential economic engine for the Houston region, the state of Texas and the U.S.
Pandemic era congestion at west coast ports have been a boon for Port of Houston and east coast ports,
and among them Houston has been the fastest growing.
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In 2022, the Houston/Galveston Customs District ranked number one in the country in total trade value as companies from across the U.S. and around the world chose Houston as the gateway to the Americas and the world.
Houston has actually been #1 for over a decade and it has had a huge economic impact on the city and the state. It is not as flashy a sector as Tech, or Finance, but ot has kept Houston Trucking (no pun intended) for over 100 years. Houston boasts a central geographic location and numerous logistical and distribution channels, making it an ideal hub for companies with global distribution needs and access to the central United States and Latin America.
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Houston is continuously investing in infrastructure improvements. The Houston Ship Channel, the nation's busiest waterway, now sees more vessel traffic than the next three largest U.S. ports combined. The first phase of a $1 billion expansion project to widen and deepen the ship channel has been completed, providing greater capacity and efficiency for the port.
The region's logistics advantages have cemented Houston's status as a premier location for business expansion. An example is TGS Cedar Port, located in Baytown. This is the country's largest master-planned rail-and-barge-served industrial park. Retail giants such as Walmart, Floor & Décor, and Home Depot have significant distribution and fulfillment centers in the park.
Houston’s central location, diverse population, and world-class transportation infrastructure position Houston as the top logistics hub in the United States.
Houston's logistics and energy sector has been nicely intertwined. Hopefully Houston's logistical prowess will also help boost its emerging Biomedical sector.
Sorry for the long-winded post, but I think the importance of logistics to an areas economy is usually understated on here
Demand for renewable energy has created a push for more infrastructure, and Houston is at the center
Consider the U.S. city of the future: Electric cars zip around downtowns stocked with a network of fast charging stations, passing homes filled with electric appliances all while sharing the road with a fully electric public transportation system.
“We’re still discussing how are we going to decarbonise the economy, but electrification is going to play a huge role in that — and to electrify, you gotta have the grid,” said Michael Skelly, CEO of Houston-based Grid United and regarded as a pioneer in the transmission industry. “Reliability has always been important, but it’s even more important because of new generation sources and more extreme weather events.”
Transmission towers are seen in Houston, Texas. Power demand in Texas is expected to set new all-time highs as heatwaves surge to levels rarely seen outside of summer, and economic growth contributes to higher usage in homes and businesses. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has said that it has enough resources to meet demand.Brandon Bell, Staff / Getty Images
Skelly said local utilities used to employ most of the people necessary to plan and build transmission lines, but over the last few decades more companies have chosen to outsource the work. That has created a sub-industry of firms dedicated to facilitating things such as engineering, property law, procurement and construction for those working on electricity infrastructure.
“This expertise has gravitated to Houston,” Skelly said. “Houston’s a really good place because we have all these service providers that can help us put our projects together.”
In the aftermath of the deadly power outages during the February 2021 freeze, Texas residents have an especially keen interest in creating a more reliable grid, according to Cary Kottler, chief development officer at Pattern Energy, which has been developing a 320-mile transmission line from the Texas border into Mississippi. Pattern is headquartered in California but has its operations center in Houston.
“We’ve really seen overwhelming support for the project in the last couple of years,” Kottler said. “In the wake of Winter Storm Uri, that project can be looked at as a symbol of how transmission can be so helpful, and that when the ERCOT grid was short, if that line was built — which it will be in a few years — we could have been bringing 3,000 megawatts of power from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama into Texas.”
Skelly’s Grid United is still in its early days, but has already launched a handful of projects expected to be 100 miles or longer. Pattern operates a 155-mile transmission line that can transport 800 megawatts of wind power from Central New Mexico to the grid in the Albuquerque area. The company is also constructing a 550-mile line able to move 3,000 megawatts between New Mexico and Arizona with a connection to the West Coast.
Another company with a main office in Houston, EnergyRe, is heavily involved in developing 175 miles of underground transmission to bring more than 3,500 megawatts of renewable energy to New York City, which currently gets 90 percent of its power from fossil fuels.
One of nation's largest wind energy projects to be overseen from hip Montrose offices
Pattern Energy moves Houston hub to Montrose Collective where it will monitor dozens of wind, solar projects remotely
Renewable energy company Pattern Energy is relocating its Houston hub to Montrose from downtown, becoming the latest office user to gravitate toward a newer space surrounded by hip retailers.
A San Francisco company behind one of the largest clean energy infrastructure projects underway in the country, Pattern recently moved its 150 Houston-based employees into Montrose Collective, Radom Capital’s mixed-use development at 888 Westheimer.
The roughly 21,000-square-foot offices will serve as the home base for Pattern’s operations team, which remotely monitors more than 38 wind and solar facilities globally. It’s also the headquarters for Pattern’s development team, which is working on the SunZia Transmission and Wind project in New Mexico and Arizona and is expected to generate enough power for 3 million Americans, according to the company. Those teams in Montrose are joined by company’s meteorological, transmission and energy trading teams.
Pattern Energy joins U.K.-based renewable energy firm ContourGlobal and Live Nation, the California-based owner of Ticketmaster, at Montrose Collection. The office portion of the 188,000-square-foot Montrose Collective is now 100 percent leased, according to Radom.
One of nation's largest wind energy projects to be overseen from hip Montrose offices
Pattern Energy moves Houston hub to Montrose Collective where it will monitor dozens of wind, solar projects remotely
Renewable energy company Pattern Energy is relocating its Houston hub to Montrose from downtown, becoming the latest office user to gravitate toward a newer space surrounded by hip retailers.
A San Francisco company behind one of the largest clean energy infrastructure projects underway in the country, Pattern recently moved its 150 Houston-based employees into Montrose Collective, Radom Capital’s mixed-use development at 888 Westheimer.
The roughly 21,000-square-foot offices will serve as the home base for Pattern’s operations team, which remotely monitors more than 38 wind and solar facilities globally. It’s also the headquarters for Pattern’s development team, which is working on the SunZia Transmission and Wind project in New Mexico and Arizona and is expected to generate enough power for 3 million Americans, according to the company. Those teams in Montrose are joined by company’s meteorological, transmission and energy trading teams.
Pattern Energy joins U.K.-based renewable energy firm ContourGlobal and Live Nation, the California-based owner of Ticketmaster, at Montrose Collection. The office portion of the 188,000-square-foot Montrose Collective is now 100 percent leased, according to Radom.
There are 4 articles in todays post that exemplify Houston's ever-increasing potpourri of economic diversity.
everything from green hydrogen technology to ecommerce to renewable diesel and hydronic HVAC.
First
Hawaii-based Oceanit opens Houston test facility focused on plugging hydrogen leaks
A Hawaii-based hydrogen technology company is expanding its Houston presence with the opening of a new laboratory to test a product it claims will address hydrogen leakage.
Oceanit, headquartered in Honolulu, will open its H2XCEL laboratory as part of the development of its HydroPel technology for pipelines. James Andrews, Oceanit’s director of marketing, confirmed to the Houston Business Journal that the laboratory would open alongside Oceanit’s existing Houston office at 8402 Scranton St.
Andrews could not confirm the new laboratory’s square footage by press time but did say it would double Oceanit’s current capacity. He also confirmed Oceanit would be hiring to expand its Houston team from its current headcount of 12. Oceanit’s website shows Houston-based job postings for a full-time product lead and a full-time process engineer.
The Center for Houston’s Future — a nonprofit that was involved in the HyVelocity Hub bid — released a report in 2022 highlighting the region’s advantages as an economic center for hydrogen production, including easy access to both natural gas and clean power needed for production and a network of existing pipelines.
Meanwhile, private funding has allowed smaller companies focused on hydrogen to make their homes in Houston. Utility Global, which produces technology that converts carbon dioxide and other gases into synthetic hydrogen fuels, opened new office space in the Energy Corridor in May 2023 following a successful pilot test and a $25 million Series B round raised last year.
Another significant recipient of funding is Ohmium, which secured a $250 million Series C round from Energy Transition Ventures and Fort Worth-based TPG Capital Group. Ohmium, which is a Houston member of climate tech incubator Greentown Labs, will use the funds to open a new Houston office.
Another Greentown Labs Houston member, Ambient Fuels, landed a commitment of up to $250 million from Generate Capital for the support of its green hydrogen electrolyzer production. Ambient CEO Jacob Susman told the Houston Business Journal the funding would allow the company to announce deals toward the end of 2023.
Fast-growing Cart.com raises $60M at unicorn valuation after HQ move. Latest funding comes few months after undisclosed number of layoffs
Cart.com, an Austin e-commerce startup that was founded in Houston, has raised $60 million in equity funding. With the new capital, the company said it was valued at $1.2 billion, putting it in a somewhat rarified group of local businesses to reach unicorn status.
Cart.com — which offers to other companies software and services for end-to-end e-commerce operations, from online shopping to transportation — said the new valuation was a 50% increase from its $840 million valuation in February 2022, when it raised $240 million in equity and debt funding.
Investors in the new round, announced June 27, included B. Riley Venture Capital, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, Snowflake Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures and Legacy Knight.
CEO Omair Tariq founded Cart.com in Houston in 2020. The headquarters was moved to Austin in 2021, though the company said at the time that it planned to keep a Houston presence. At the time, it had about 400 employees, including about 150 in Austin. That has grown to a little more than 1,000 employees, includeing warehouse workers, a company spokesperson said. That includes more than 100 Austin employees, a number that fluctuates with seasonal demand at its Austin fulfillment center.
Tariq was one of 19 leaders from 15 businesses — all from Houston and Austin — who were named winners at the Entrepreneur Of The Year Gulf South awards June 15.
Vertex Energy begins commercial sales of renewable diesel from Mobile plant
Houston-based refiner Vertex Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: VTNR) has completed its first commercial sales of renewable diesel from its converted refinery in Mobile, Alabama.
The sales totaled about 110,000 barrels of renewable diesel to Idemitsu Apollo Renewable Corp., a subsidiary of California-based Idemitsu Kosan. In February 2022, Vertex entered into a five-year agreement to supply 100% of renewable diesel produced at the Mobile refinery to Idemitsu. Vertex anticipated the deal will bring in revenue of over $6 billion.
Behind the deal: Houston-based HTS Texas acquires Oslin Nation to grow new business line
For Houston-based HTS Texas, an expansion into the hydronic marketplace is the right opportunity to grow its business — and a North Texas firm fit the bill to aid in that effort.
Earlier this month, the HVAC manufacturer rep firm acquired Arlington, Texas-based Oslin Nation. Founded in 1943, the company sells commercial hydronics and plumbing solutions across Texas.
Through the acquisition, HTS will add Oslin’s solutions to its HVAC and building automation controls business in Texas. Oslin’s 80 employees will also join HTS Texas’ 255 employees on the payroll.
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