Subsurface storage firm makes first acquisitions

Caliche Development Partners has acquired two natural gas storage assets from Southern Company, which could serve as a bridge to storing helium, hydrogen, and CO2 in similar formations.

November 29, 2022

Caliche Development Partners II, Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC), and GCM Grosvenor have reached a partnership targeting underground storage and sequestration assets in North America, according to a press release.

The capital commitments represent OIC’s second investment with the Caliche management team, and Caliche’s first with OIC’s frequent investment partner GCM Grosvenor, which invested client capital. Both firms bring extensive experience in infrastructure investing to Caliche’s next iteration, which will target underground assets supporting North America’s transition to lower-carbon forms of energy.

The partnership’s initial acquisition of Golden Triangle Storage, Inc. (GTS), together with the anticipated acquisition of Central Valley Gas Storage (CVGS), from Southern Company affiliates, targets two regions with increasing demand for storage to support variable power loads, natural gas liquefaction, and high penetrations of renewable resources.

Acquisition amounts funded and/or anticipated to be funded by OIC, GCM Grosvenor, and Caliche management collectively total $186m, which represents the aggregate purchase price of both GTS and CVGS, plus working capital and other adjustments. Caliche expects, with support from OIC and GCM Grosvenor, to explore and assess additional growth related to these assets and in these regions. The GTS transaction closed on November 18, 2022, and the CVGS purchase, which requires state regulatory approvals, is expected to close in 2023.

“Natural gas storage will continue to play an important role in our energy mix while providing the assets and knowledge to storing helium, hydrogen and CO2 in similar formations,” said Dave Marchese, CEO of Caliche II. “The support of our repeat and new capital partners combined with the location of these two acquisitions, and their exceptional operational teams, provide Caliche a platform to significantly impact the energy transition on the U.S. Gulf and West Coasts.”

“We are thrilled to partner with the Caliche team again and with GCM Grosvenor to build off the success of Caliche I,” said Ethan Shoemaker, investment partner and head of infra credit at OIC. “GTS and CVGS are both premier storage assets and provide critical infrastructure for reliability in their respective markets. We look forward to supporting Caliche II’s continued growth as we expand the platform for other customers and into new products.”

“We believe the investment opportunity for underground storage is robust in light of market dynamics and ongoing energy transition initiatives across the globe,” said Matthew Rinklin, managing director at GCM Grosvenor. “The Caliche team has a proven track record of developing critical storage infrastructure for a range of customers across fuel types, and we look forward to growing their platform alongside our partners at OIC.”

Caliche welcomes GTS and CVGS employees to its culture of providing safe and environmentally conscious underground storage services. The Caliche team has a proven history of operating on the Spindletop salt dome, where GTS is located, and will leverage its expertise from its prior storage business—Coastal Caverns—for the success of both facilities.

Under the Caliche team’s stewardship, Coastal Caverns operated with a TIRR of zero (0), an industry leading environmental record. The team’s decision-making hierarchy of “Safety, Asset Integrity, Stakeholder Stewardship and On-Demand Deliverability” comes from a combined 65 years of collective underground storage experience, with products including NGLs, oil, helium and natural gas. Underground natural gas storage provides unparalleled flexibility for the entry of renewable generation resources into power grids, support for LNG exports to Europe and Asia, and ultimately provides the asset base and knowledge to move to carbon-neutral forms of generation.

The Caliche team previously developed North America’s first helium storage salt cavern and is committed to now applying the team’s decades of experience working together to the upcoming challenges of storing helium, hydrogen and sequestered CO2.

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Personnel moves

Fusion Fuel US leaders to step down

Portugal-based Fusion Fuel’s US co-presidents are stepping down to pursue other opportunities in the hydrogen and clean fuels sector.

Zachary Steele and Jason Baran have decided to leave Fusion Fuel and will be stepping down from their roles of Co-Head and Chief Commercial Officer, respectively, as well as Co-Presidents of the Americas, to pursue other opportunities in the hydrogen and clean fuels sector.

The moves were announced as part of the company’s 1Q23 earnings release.

Steele said in an interview late last year that the company was working with RBC Capital Markets to develop projects in the US.

June 5, 2023

Personnel moves, Project news, Raising capital

Raven SR raises $15m, makes board appointments

Ascent Funds led the latest $15m investment into the renewable fuels firm, with contributions from existing investors Chevron New Energies, ITOCHU Corp. and Stellar J Corp.

Raven SR Inc., a renewable fuels company, has board additions and an executive promotion, coupled with securing $15m in new investments.

The company said the latest fundraising underscores the confidence in Raven SR’s proprietary Steam/CO₂ Reforming technology that converts various waste streams into renewable transportation fuels like hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The process outperforms all known alternatives in efficiency, producing more hydrogen and SAF per ton of waste, according to the company.

In August, 2021, Raven closed on a $20m strategic investment from Chevron U.S.A., ITOCHU Corporation, Hyzon Motors Inc. and Ascent Hydrogen Fund. Samsung Ventures made a strategic investment earlier this year, allowing the company to expand into the Asia-Pacific market.

In 2022 it launched a Series C funding round led by Barclays and BofA Securities.

In addition to today’s funding milestone, Raven SR said Stuart McFarland, former CFO of Fannie Mae, has been appointed chairman of the Board of Directors, with Mark Gordon, chief investment officer of Ascent Funds, as vice chairman.

Named as new board members: Justin Heyman, managing director of RockCreek Group, and Robert Kinghorn, founder and CEO of Stellar J Corp. Matt Scanlon, the current CFO, has been promoted to president and interim CFO.

Ascent Funds, a venture capital fund dedicated to advancing the energy transition, led the latest $15m investment, with contributions from existing investors Chevron New Energies, ITOCHU Corp. and Stellar J Corp., the engineering, procurement and construction company managing construction of Raven SR’s hydrogen project in Richmond, California.

“Raven SR is pleased to have the continued and enhanced support of our investors as we move toward construction of our organic waste-to-hydrogen facility,” said Matt Murdock, founder and CEO of Raven SR. “This funding is crucial for finalizing our production setup, and the expanded board strengthens our team for the next phase.”

McFarland said he was honored by the board’s trust in his leadership and is looking forward to teaming with Murdock as they move the company ahead. McFarland also acknowledged the support from shareholders and the dedicated project team, emphasizing their importance in Raven SR’s journey.

“With this solid foundation, 2024 is shaping up to be a landmark year for Raven SR as it commercializes its Steam/CO₂ Reforming technology to bring clean and sustainable fuel to the world,” said McFarland.

Raven SR’s unique process is non-combustion and catalyst-free as verified by the California EPA. The Richmond project is the first and only California Environmental Quality Act-permitted biomass-to-hydrogen facility in the state.

The Steam/CO₂ Reforming technology diverts waste from landfills, produces a carbon-negative fuel and ensures a low carbon footprint compared to traditional hydrogen production methods, placing Raven at the forefront of the waste-to-hydrogen sector.

April 2, 2024

Innovation, Project news

US steelmaker committing to hydrogen offtake

A US steelmaker has made offtake commitments to several hydrogen hubs in development, in an effort to support reliable supply and affordability. The resulting steel will be sold at a premium to the auto industry.

Cleveland-Cliffs, the largest producer of flat-rolled steel in the US, is starting to make commitments to several hydrogen hubs in the Midwest in an effort to advance the supply of clean hydrogen.

In remarks last week, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said his company is seeking to break the hydrogen industry’s chicken-and-egg dilemma by committing to offtake from proposed hubs in Ohio and Northwest Indiana.

As it stands, industrial gas producers don’t produce hydrogen at scale to reduce costs because there’s no demand, Goncalves said. And there’s no demand, he added, because there’s no supply.

“We are breaking this chicken-and-egg conundrum by committing with offtakes to the hubs,” he said, noting his company will take half of the offtake from the Toledo, Ohio hub being developed by Linde and other partners.

“The footprint [of the project] is 100 tons per day,” Goncalves said. “Our offtake there is 50 tons per day,” with the additional 50 tons per day likely taken up by other industries like automotive, he added.

Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs has made an offtake commitment to a Northwest Indiana hub being developed by Constellation and bp, Goncalves said.

Cliffs recently conducted a trial use of hydrogen in steelmaking at its Middletown Works blast furnace, and is set to launch another trial at its Indiana Harbor facility, which is near the proposed Northwest Indiana hub.

Due to the proximity of the company’s steelmaking facilities using hydrogen, Cleveland-Cliffs has committed to 200 tons per day of offtake from the Northwest Indiana hub, which is expected to produce 1,000 tons per day. Cliffs made further commitments for offtake with bp for hydrogen produced elsewhere in Northwest Indiana, Goncalves said.

According to Goncalves, the hydrogen production could turn the region into a producer of hydrogen cars.

“So that would make for us to be the enabler of having the automotive industry building stuff in Northwest Indiana to produce hydrogen cars if the OEMs really pursue this route,” he said.

He added that he is hoping that the hydrogen trial at its Indiana Harbor No. 7 facility will be done with a permanent pipeline.

Steel premiums

Cliffs is already charging a premium of around $40 per ton to automotive clients for steel produced using lower carbon feedstock from the company’s HBI facility. Goncalves estimates that this cost gets passed on to the ultimate buyer of a new car, raising the window sticker MSRP price of a car by around 0.1%.

“As one of the largest suppliers of steel to the automotive industry in the world, Cleveland-Cliffs wants to continue to invest in green initiatives,” Goncalves said. “And therefore, we need to be paid for that. That’s not unreasonable and should actually be expected and universally accepted.”

The current HBI steel product, called Cliffs H, will become Cliffs H2 – and become even more expensive – once hydrogen is available in larger and more affordable amounts, according to the executive. And when hydrogen completely replaces natural gas, the product will be called Cliffs H Max, where the steelmaking process has reached minimum theoretical coke rates – likely around 2029 or 2030, he said.

July 31, 2023

exclusive

M&A, Project news, Raising capital

Renewable hydrogen developer to launch series A round next month

A Colorado-based renewable hydrogen developer has hired an advisor and will launch a series A funding round next month.

NovoHydrogen, the Colorado-based renewable hydrogen developer, will launch a series A capital raise in the middle of March to take on a new investor for project development and hiring, CEO Matt McMonagle said in an interview.

The company has hired GreenFront Energy Partners to run the process, McMonagle said.

NovoHydrogen builds its projects onsite with customers, as close to end use as possible, he said. The company serves transportation (heavy road transport, shipping and aviation), industrial (cement, glass, metal, steel, food, etc.) and power (peaking power and diesel generator replacement). Most of Novo’s customers are users of grey hydrogen looking to decarbonize. In the case of cement, they are looking to replace diesel for their trucks and coal and natural gas for their kilns.

“We first look to see if we can put our projects on our customer sites and make it there,” McMonagle said. “If we can’t do that, we’ll do offsite, but we still try to be as close to customers as possible to minimize that midstream component or distribution component.”

About 30 projects are in development in the US, ranging from a few megawatts to hundreds of megawatts, McMonagle said. NovoHydrogen’s most active markets are the West coast, Northeast, Appalachia, Texas and the Rocky Mountains, though the company is not geographically constrained.

The company aims to begin construction on its first projects by the end of this year, possibly early next year, McMonagle said. The first project could reach COD in 2024.

NovoHydrogen recently announced that it has closed its seed funding round and appointed four executives to its board of directors. Each of those executives represent an investor that participated in the seed round, McMonagle said.

The new board appointees are: Jeremy Avenier, an active investor at Ohmium International; Peyton Boswell, managing partner at Woodfield Renewable Partners; Bruno Franco, partner at Pacífico Energia and managing partner at PWR Capital; and Joseph Malchow, a managing partner at Hanover (a Silicon Valley VC), board member and investor in Enphase and board member and investor in Archaea.

More money

“We will certainly need more money as our projects mature,” McMonagle said. “I do not have the hundreds of millions of dollars on my balance sheet to build these projects.”

An ideal investor will bring accretive capabilities in hydrogen, in a field like value chain equipment or delivery, to the table, McMonagle said.

NovoHydrogen plans to be a long-term owner-operator of its projects, McMonagle said. That is an important point for customers: that the company is not going to sell the project and not care how the next owner operates.

“We want to earn future business from these customers,” McMonagle said, adding that most of them are transitioning piecemeal.

NovoHydrogen and TigerGenCo in November said they would advance development of green hydrogen capacity to reduce reliance on natural gas at the Bayonne Energy Center located in New Jersey. NovoHydrogen will develop and operate the hydrogen production facility to reduce Bayonne’s carbon emissions.

TigerGen owns the power plant and is the offtaker in that project. Ohmium International is providing the PEM electrolyzers in that project. McMonagle said the company may use other electrolyzer providers for future projects.

The company is also a partner in the Aliance for Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) for the California DOE Hydrogen Hub submission.

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February 8, 2023

Personnel moves

EXCLUSIVE: 8 Rivers co-founder departs firm

A co-founder and executive has departed the North Carolina-based firm, which recently announced an ammonia project in Texas.

Bill Brown, a co-founder of the technology commercialization firm and clean fuels developer 8 Rivers Capital, has retired from the company, a spokesperson confirmed via email.

According to Brown’s LinkedIn profile, he is serving now as CEO of New Waters Capital. He co-founded 8 Rivers and also served as CEO and CTO in this nearly 16 years there.

Brown did not respond to a request for comment.

According to 8 Rivers’ website, Dharmesh Patel is serving as interim CEO. The company recently announced development of the Cormorant Clean Energy ammonia production facility in Port Arthur, Texas.

ReSource interviewed Brown in March.

January 11, 2024

exclusive

Innovation, Project news, Raising capital

Pharma and fuels tech provider could be ready for public listing

International biotechnology firm Insilico Medicine is applying the algorithms that produce novel drugs to synthesizing more sustainable petrochemical fuels and materials.

Insilico Medicine, a global biotechnology firm serving the pharmaceutical and carbon-based energy industries, could be ready for a public listing in the next phase of its corporate evolution.

Insilico, founded in Baltimore and now based in Hong Kong, has raised about $400m in private capital to date and is in the position of a company that would be exploring a public listing in the US and Hong Kong, CEO Alex Zhavoronkov said in an interview. He declined to say if he has hired a financial advisor to run such a process but said a similar company in his position would have.

The generative AI platform that the company uses to produce novel drugs can be applied to produce more sustainable carbon-based fuels, Zhavoronkov said. The objective is to maximize btu and minimize CO2, making the fuels burn longer and cleaner.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco is a user of the technology and participated in Insilico’s $95m Series D (oversubscribed and split between two sub-rounds) last year through its investment arm Prosperity7.

Petrochemistry is going to be needed well into the future, Zhavoronkov said. In addition to renewable energy and other ESG efforts, the efficiency of petrochemicals should be a top priority.

“If you burn certain petrochemicals in certain combinations, you can achieve a reasonably clean burn and an energy efficient burn,” he said. For specific tasks like space travel or Formula 1 racing, combined fuels produce the necessary torque, and generative chemistry can achieve those objectives in a more sustainable way. “I think that we can make the world significantly cleaner just by modifying petrochemical products.”

The technology can also be used to make organic matter in petrochemical products degrade more quickly, which is useful in the case of plastics, Zhavoronkov said.

The company’s AI is primarily based in Montreal and in the drug discovery business in China, but fuel research takes place in Abu Dhabi. Zhavoronkov said he has hired a lot of “AI refugees” from Russia and Ukraine to work at the latter location. The company has 40 employees in the UAE and will likely scale to 70.

Insilico is capitalized for the next two years or so, he said. That doesn’t account for revenue, which closed at just under $30m in 2022. The petrochemical and materials business is under the AI research arm of the business, which is covered by funds raised to date.

“Our board would probably not allow me to reinvent myself as an energy play,” Zhavoronkov said. But the board does not object to applying resources to petrochemical products.

February 17, 2023