Learn more about the University of Houston’s outreach program and various events on energy and water management for Texas industries. This podcast is our newest endeavor to meaningfully engage with engineers, managers, and consultants working across the process industries.

The podcast is produced by UH Energy at the UH Media Lab with the support of the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) in Austin, Texas. Every fortnight we look ahead to interesting industrial energy events in Houston or online, talk about interesting articles we have read and talks we’ve heard, and feature a new article on industrial energy efficiency. This is your biweekly 15-minute update on all things industrial energy.

 The podcast is hosted by Dr. Gary Gildert, produced by Geoff Silvius, with interns Carla Romero and Hisham Habli.

Episode 4: November 20, 2025

Upcoming events:

• Coogs for Energy Hackathon at UH Student Center South (November 21–22, 2025)
• Energy Coalition Power Hour Social (December 4, 2025)

Past events:

• Energy in Action Seminar Series, “Beyond the Hype: Amplifying AI Impacts in Fuel and Petrochemical Industry” (November 17, 2025)
• Energy Transition Institute – Five energy efficiency related webinars this semester
• Texas Energy Summit (November 4–6, 2025)

Gary talks with Hisham about an article he wrote for the newsletter on the various pathways for hydrogen production and their energy efficiency. They talk about nine different colors denoting the different methods of producing hydrogen and compare their energy conversion efficiency. Hisham and Gary note that many novel methods lack consistent techno-economic and energy efficiency analysis. This requires further study for future articles and podcast episodes where we can compare costs, efficiency, and feasibility.

Episode 3: October 30, 2025

Upcoming events:

• Energy Coalition talk on Carbon Management Across Energy Sources (November 12, 2025)
• Energy in Action Seminar Series, “Beyond the Hype: Amplifying AI Impacts in Fuel and Petrochemical Industry” (November 17, 2025)
• Coogs for Energy Hackathon at UH Student Center South (November 21–22, 2025)

Past Events:

• Energy Day at Sam Houston Park (October 18, 2025)
• Future of Natural Gas Symposium at UH Student Center South (October 9, 2025) · SPE Annual Technical Conference (October 20–22, 2025)

Carla and Gary discuss the way in which many published studies emphasize technical performance but provide insufficient energy balances, cost breakdowns, and process integration assumptions, limiting their relevance to industrial deployment. Credible efficiency claims must include capex and opex estimates, realistic equipment lifetimes, scalability limits, and sensitivity analyses, and not solely rely on laboratory or simulation-based results.

Episode 2: October 23, 2025

Upcoming events:

• Coogs for Energy Hackathon at UH Student Center South (November 21–22, 2025)
• Energy Coalition talk on Carbon Management Across Energy Sources (November 12, 2025) · SPEER webinars (various dates)

Past events:

• Future of Natural Gas Symposium at UH Student Center South (October 9, 2025)
• 2025 Southwest Process Technology Conference (September 22–23, 2025) reviewing one of the two sessions on Industrial Energy Efficiency and the Water Conservation session.

Carla and Gary discuss a research article of how electrochemical methods showed promise over traditional high-temperature routes converting CO₂ into CO as a pathway to recycle carbon into fuels and chemicals. Catalyst durability and true efficiency still need to be validated at industrial scale.

Bonus Episode: Interview with Prof. Abdelrahman

Dr. Omar Abdelrahman, professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering here at the University of Houston, is our guest on the podcast. His research focuses on thermal catalysis, electrochemistry, and photochemistry for chemical transformations.

Gary and Omar discuss electrochemical reactions used can make complex reactions, like turning CO₂ into fuels, more efficient. They also discuss programmable catalysis. By rapidly changing the energy at the catalyst surface, researchers can speed up reactions and adjust selectivity without redesigning reactors.

Episode 1: October 03, 2025

Upcoming events:

• Future of Natural Gas Symposium at UH Student Center South (October 9, 2025)
• Energy Day at Sam Houston Park (October 18, 2025).

Past events:

• 2025 Southwest Process Technology Conference (September 22–23, 2025) reviewing one of the two sessions on Industrial Energy Efficiency.

Gary talks with Hisham about an article he wrote for the newsletter on the growth in AI and data-heavy workloads. This is driving a sharp increase in data center energy use, especially for cooling. They discussed single-phase and two-phase liquid cooling systems, where chemical engineering plays a key role in improving efficiency.