In West Texas, E-Fuels Are Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

---

---

Last Updated on: 25th June 2025, 01:08 am

US President Donald J. Trump swept into office on a mission to throttle back activity in the nation’s booming renewable energy industries, but the hits just keep on coming. The latest development involves the massive new Project Roadrunner e-fuels facility in Reeves County, Texas, near Pecos. The developer, US-based Infinium, aims to replace conventional jet fuel with a new concoction formulated from green hydrogen and captured carbon.

Follow The Money To E-Fuels

If you’re wondering why Texas is a good location for an SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) operation, that’s a good question. After all, Texas is a longstanding epicenter of US oil and gas production. However, Texas has also become a leading wind and solar producer in the US, and thus a suitable environment for green hydrogen producers. Unlike conventional hydrogen extracted from natural gas, green hydrogen is jolted loose from water in electrolysis systems powered by renewable energy.

With its copious footprint in various industrial operations, Texas also produces a large amount of capture-able carbon, along with the infrastructure needed to transport fuels from one place to another. As described by its developer, the US firm Infinium, Project Roadrunner will deploy captured emissions from local operations that currently vent CO

₂ to the air. The renewable energy will come from purpose-built wind and solar farms in West Texas.

CleanTechnica has been following the e-fuels project since 2023, when American Airlines and the Breakthrough Energy Catalyst Fund got involved. Last year, Brookfield Asset Management put up $200 million to claim the role of strategic funding partner for the project, along with another $850 million earmarked for distributing e-fuels including sustainable aviation fuel from Project Roadrunner.

In the latest development, on June 24, the leading global financial firm HSBC provided additional, substantial support in the form of a project-based credit arrangement. “The financing marks a significant step forward for the Roadrunner Project, which will produce approximately 23,000 tonnes per year (7.6 million gallons) of synthetic sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF) and other low-carbon eFuel products using renewable electricity and captured carbon dioxide,” Infinium explained in a press statement.

What’s In It For HSBC?

So … interesting! While US financial institutions and other leading corporate citizens have busied themselves currying favor with the malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief who occupies the White House, HSBC is a UK-based firm that follows a different drummer to the beat of global decarbonization. The firm is determined to deepen its mark on the US market, which explains its interest in a high-profile e-fuels project.

HSBC doubled down on its US footprint last year, highlighted by the unveiling of a new headquarters in New York City’s super-trendy Hudson Yards district in Midtown Manhattan.

“Our new U.S. headquarters in the heart of one of the world’s financial capitals symbolizes our commitment to our clients and to this critical market,” enthused HSBC Group Chairman Mark Tucker in a press release celebrating the new HQ dated May 23, 2024.

“We remain focused on connecting our clients in the US to opportunities overseas, and those around the world to the US,” HSBC emphasized.

Apparently, the abrupt shift in federal energy policy since May of 2024 has not deterred HSBC from its decarbonization mission. Referring to the newly announced credit arrangement in support of Project Roadrunner, HSBC’s CEO for Infrastructure Finance and Sustainability Danny Alexander explained that the transaction “represents HSBC’s commitment to support emerging decarbonisation technology, crucial to accelerating the transition.”

“The construction of Roadrunner is a first-of-a-kind facility and marks a huge achievement for Infinium and for the fuel industry,” Alexander added.

E-Fuels Really Are Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

With its green hydrogen connection and American Airlines among the offtakers already in its pocket, Project Roadrunner validates the opinion of analysts at BloombergNEF. At a recent energy conference in New York City, BNEF opined that green hydrogen is not ready for prime time yet, except in optimal market conditions such as those offered by Texas.

For the record, Project Roadrunner is Infinium’s second e-fuels venture in Texas, following the commissioning of its Project Pathfinder facility in 2024.

California is another state determined to have a hand in the US e-fuels industry. In March, the Texas-based firm HIF Global announced that it has earned Tier II Design Pathway Certification for its e-fuels process from the California Air Resource Board, through the agency’s Low Carbon Fuels Standard division.

“This LCFS certification underscores the growing demand for e-Fuels in the U.S. and globally, which could reach more than 250 mtpa by 20351, providing opportunity for over $1 trillion in potential capital investment in new facilities to produce the fuels, including HIF Global’s 1.4 mtpa e-Fuels project,” noted HIF Global Board Executive Director Meg Gentle.

Somewhat ironically, that particular project is not located in California. The site is Matagorda County, Texas. Even more ironically, when HIF Global announced Matagorda as the location for its first e-fuels project in the US, Texas Governor Gregg Abbot enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

“With plans to make a $6 billion capital investment, HIF will create more than 125 permanent operating jobs as well as thousands of other direct and indirect jobs in the region,” the Office of the Governor noted in a press release dated April 18, 2022.

Abbott and his fellow Republican elected officials in Texas are not particularly known for their affection for renewable energy, but money talks and Abbott added his two cents to the celebration.

“As the leader in the future of eFuels, HIF will be an excellent addition to the Texas economic juggernaut,” Abbott cheered. “This investment is great news for Texans in Matagorda County and the Coastal Bend, with more jobs, opportunity, and enhanced technology coming to the Lone Star State.”

Next Steps For E-Fuels In The US

Meanwhile, not to splash cold water on the Matagorda project — but they did anyways — on May 29 BBC News reported that the final investment decision has yet to be nailed down. The company is “waiting to see what the Republican-led Congress does to clean energy tax credits, in particular the one for clean hydrogen production,” observed BBC reporter Zoe Corbyn.

If the Republicans make the tax credits for green hydrogen go buh-bye, perhaps HIF can dial up HSBC for a loan. Better yet, perhaps e-fuels cheerleader Abbott can prod the Republican members of the Texas delegation to Congress for some relief. After all, he’s the one who said that “Texas is proud to be the energy capital of the world, and I look forward to a continued partnership with HIF to keep our state the energy leader.”

If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread.

Photo (cropped): The massive Project Roadrunner e-fuels facility, now under construction in Texas complete with purpose-built wind and solar farms, has just enlisted the support of the leading global banking and financial firm HSBC (courtesy of Infinium).