23. September 2008 by Mykel Pereira.

Innovations Fuels, Inc.

20 Corporate Woods, 3rd Floor Albany, NY 12211

T: +1.212.609.3509

F: +1.212.937.1937

About

Innovation Fuels is a leading biodiesel company with a regional focus and global reach. They operate within the United States at strategic port locations that allow them to supply regional customers and a network of international partners. They own and are actively developing and operating strategically-sited, state-of-the-art biodiesel processing plants with a combined, planned production capacity of more than 5 million barrels by 2010.

Biodiesel is produced by chemically reacting alcohol with vegetable oils, fats, or greases. Using innovative, proprietary production technology, Innovation Fuels biodiesel is the highest quality at the lowest cost to you. Plus, their Research and Development center is studying next generation technology and feedstocks including jatropha and algae—both crops that don’t divert resources away from feeding people.

As a leading biodiesel manufacturer, Innovation Fuels cares about making the world a better place to live today and tomorrow. But taking care of their customers is their number one business priority. Their goal is to help you choose biodiesel as a viable, sustainable, high-performance fuel. Let them put their extensive experience in the fuel industry to work for you.

Biodiesel is the fastest growing alternative fuel. It’s clean and non-toxic so it’s good for you. It’s high-quality and easy to integrate into your operation so it’s good for your business. And it’s biodegradable and renewable so it’s good for the world. Biodiesel contains no petroleum but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel and works in any diesel engine.

Products

Innovation Fuels biodiesel is produced according to ASTM D6751 and EN14214 standards, using a variety of plant oils derived from soy, canola/rapeseed, sunflower, and palm, as well as used vegetable oil. Their blenders license allows them to sell neat biodiesel or any percentage of premium blend with petroleum. In the spirit of their core principle—good for you, good for your business, and good for the world—Innovation Fuels also sells their production byproducts for inclusion in bio-based products including glycerol/glycerin, a very common additive used in many items like cosmetics, food, and baby care products.

The ASTM standard for biodiesel is subject to updates on a periodic basis. Innovation Fuels keeps current with these changes.

Posted in New York, Biofuel Techs, USA | No Comments »

19. July 2008 by Mykel Pereira.

Wakonda Technologies

Telephone:
585.425.4530
 

Fax:
205.449.6462
 

Email:

About

Wakonda Technologies is developing proprietary solar electric technology that is more efficient than crystalline silicon and lower in cost than thin film alternatives.

Wakonda combines the world’s most efficient photovoltaic materials with a flexible substrate that enables high volume manufacturing using commercial processes. The result:

•Costs competitive with conventional electricity
•Elimination of rare and toxic raw materials
•Wide variety of product forms

Their technology will dramatically improve the availability of solar energy for both critical military and broad commercial applications, making it possible for everyone to harness The Power That Resides in Nature™.

Solar electricity can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Solar energy is most effective when electricity is needed most - during the heat of the day. Solar enabled peak load reduction will improve the reliability of the grid and reduce the need for additional centralized power generation. Solar power is generated at the point of use, eliminating transmission and distribution losses.

Technology

Industry Status

Wakonda Technologies is actively working to reduce the average cost of solar systems to make solar energy competitive with conventional electric power. Solar cells and modules account for 40-50% of the cost of today’s solar systems.  Solar electricity averages 3-5 times the cost of centrally generated electricity, independent of the technology used in manufacturing of the cells.
 

Crystalline silicon, the same material used in the mass production of computer chips, accounts for over 90% of the commercial solar cell market.  Silicon cells are typically 11-16% efficient.  They are also rigid and relatively fragile.
 

Lower cost thin film solar cells based on amorphous silicon, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, or cadmium-telluride make up the rest of today’s commercial market.  These materials absorb light better than crystalline silicon, so they can be deposited in layers less than 1 micron thick on flexible substrates such as stainless steel foil.  This flexibility allows high volume roll-to-roll production using processes similar to photographic film manufacturing.  Despite laboratory efficiencies over 15% and over 20 years of development, commercial thin film cells are only 5-8% efficient and their performance degrades over time.  In addition, indium and tellurium are rare and expensive raw materials.

The highest efficiency solar cells in production today are based on III-V semiconductor materials such as gallium-arsenide.  These cells were developed for specialty applications such as satellites and are over 30% efficient.  III-V cells trade efficiency for cost - the single crystal germanium substrates used in their production cost over $10,000 per square meter, well above costs acceptable for commercial applications.

Wakonda’s Advantage

Evolutionary developers are seeking ways to reduce the inherent high material cost  of crystalline silicon or to increase the inherent low efficiency of existing thin film materials,  Wakonda is developing a revolutionary method to significantly reduce raw materials cost - the primary cost driver in production of inherently high efficiency III-V cells.

Our virtual single crystal uses a proprietary surface treatment that allows a low cost, commercial metal foil to simulate an expensive single crystal wafer.  The result is a new paradigm in solar cell manufacturing, combining:

• High efficiency III-V cell technology, and
• Proven, low cost manufacturing processes.

Posted in New York, Solar Techs, USA | No Comments »

8. July 2008 by Mykel Pereira.

Novomer, Inc.

South Hill Business Campus
950 Danby Road
Suite 198
Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607.330.2321
Fax: 607.330.4813
info@novomer.com

About
Novomer is a new materials company pioneering a family of competitively priced high-performance green plastics, polymers and other chemicals. With proprietary catalytic technology and a world-class scientific team, Novomer’s groundbreaking technology allows carbon dioxide and other renewable materials to be cost-effectively transformed into polymers, plastics and other chemicals for a wide variety of industrial markets.

Other environmentally friendly materials utilize expensive, limited, food feedstocks and costly biological production processes. Novomer uses carbon dioxide as a major input in a competitively priced, precision-quality, chemical process that produces a class of uniform polymers, plastics and other chemicals. Novomer is building the partnerships to turn these exciting materials into environmentally friendly, green materials to extend the power of chemistry beyond the petroleum era.

Technology

Catalysis is Novomer’s scientific engine. It enables the reactions of stable molecules with other molecular building blocks to produce new polymers and fine chemicals. “A catalyst is like a matchmaker who makes a marriage and then can go off and make other marriages,” explains founding scientist Geoff Coates. Although he jokes that their catalyst systems make use of “zinc-based pixie dust,” these patented systems are highly calibrated. They are scalable and tunable. Novomer can target their reaction outcomes precisely and tailor their new materials for desired characteristics.

Their feedstocks are simple, readily abundant, and inexpensive. They concentrate on using CO and CO₂ as carbon feedstocks and have been successful in creating a growing family of new materials.

Their catalysts are highly selective and efficient, and the reactions they accelerate take place at lower temperatures and lower pressures than other catalysts. Their catalytic systems reduce chemical waste, energy requirements, capital investment, and operating costs.

Applications under development include CO₂ co-polymers such as NB-180 and catalysts for epoxide carbonylation.

Product

Novomer is bringing multiple products to market based on their platform of CO2 and CO catalysis technology. As their first commercial product NB-180 utilizes CO2 feedstocks to produce an ultra-performance material for specific high-tech markets.

Through cutting-edge green chemistry initiated at Cornell University, Novomer’s first product NB-180 has been developed specifically for high performance industrial and commercial applications requiring a binder that decomposes rapidly, cleanly and is environmentally friendly.

NB-180 is an amorphous, colorless thermoplastic polymer (polypropylene carbonate) which decomposes into environmentally benign products making it the perfect solution for broad applications in the electronics, brazing and ceramics industries.

Due to a recently-patented catalytic process, NB-180 binders burn more uniformly and at lower temperatures than currently available sacrificial binders. Thus shorter binder burnout times and higher precision results in multiple applications can be achieved simultaneously.

NB-180 also produces extremely low ash residue by burning significantly cleaner than any current binders. Because of this negligible contamination, NB-180 is the preferred sacrificial material in the precise assembly of micro and nano-scale devices. Using NB-180 will decrease residues and defect rates as well as increase precision and strength during sintering processes.

Their highly efficient catalytic systems are tunable so NB-180 can be tailored to specific application needs. In addition, NB-180 dissolves in a variety of solutions in a broad range of viscosities to allow maximum flexibility.

From the start, NB-180 was formulated to be an invaluable tool for the creation of higher quality products at lower costs to meet the changing demands of end customers.

Posted in New York, Chemistry Techs, USA | No Comments »

1. July 2008 by Mykel Pereira.

Mascoma Corporation

Corporate Office
1380 Soldiers Field Road
Second Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02135
General: 617.234.0099
Fax: 617.868.0408
Email: info@mascoma.com

Research Facility
16 Cavendish Court, Suite 2A
Lebanon, NH 03766
General: 603.676.3320
Fax: 603.676.3321
Email: info@mascoma.com

Mascoma New York
679 Ellsworth Road
Rome, NY 13441
General: 315.356.4780
Fax: 315.356.4787
Email: info@mascoma.comAbout

Mascoma Corporation was founded in late 2005 with initial funding from Khosla Ventures and Flagship Ventures in early 2006. A Series B round of funding was closed in November of 2006 and a Series C round of funding was closed in May of 2008.

Mascoma has subsequently received several state and federal grants, including:

* A $14.8MM grant from the State of New York for the establishment of a demonstration plant.
* A $4.9MM grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for organism development.
* Part of the $125MM U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Science Center Grant led by Oak Ridge National Lab.
* A $26 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the establishment of a demonstration plant.

Mascoma is aggressively pursuing the development of advanced cellulosic ethanol technologies across a range of cellulosic feedstocks. As part of their strategy of technology discovery, development and deployment, they are aggressively patenting numerous technologies and forming a broad set of research and commercial partnerships.

Their corporate and engineering offices are located in Boston, Massachusetts; the R&D labs are headquartered in Lebanon, New Hampshire; and our demonstration plant is in Rome, NY.

Technology

In the current economic and political climate, there has been enormous attention focused on the need to develop sustainable and renewable sources of transportation fuel. Ethanol has a significant and growing role in this development, providing a cleaner, domestically-produced, renewable energy solution.

However, the current generation of ethanol production in the U.S. utilizes corn and other edible feedstocks. Mascoma is committed to developing sustainable, viable, next generation ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks.

Mascoma’s industry leading R&D team is focused on developing biofuels from non-food biomass wood, straws, fuel energy crops, paper pulp and other agricultural waste products. Processing ethanol from cellulosic biomass minimizes the environmental impact of fuel ethanol production.

In nature, no organism is capable of quickly and cost-effectively producing and fermenting sugars from cellulosic biomass. Mascoma’s research laboratories are now developing a new generation of microbes and processes for economical conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol.

Mascoma’s organisms and processes are designed to:

• Rapidly break down the components of biomass
• Convert a range of sugars and polymers of sugars to ethanol
• Thrive in a manufacturing environment

With Mascoma’s next generation of processing solutions comes a complete rethinking of the way in which we fuel our economy.

Posted in New Hampshire, New York, Biofuel Techs, Massachusetts, USA | No Comments »

17. April 2008 by Mykel Pereira.

Verdant Power

Verdant Power Inc.
New York*:
The Octagon
888 Main Street, Suite 1
New York, NY 10044-0213

About

Verdant Power was established in 2000, growing steadily from a few generalist engineers assisting the company’s founders, to the diversified base of world-class designers, engineers, scientists and business professionals who make up the company today.

Combining the efforts of this team with a global tapestry of collaborative relationships and stakeholders, Verdant Power is a world leader in commercializing marine renewable energy solutions for global application.

What They Do - Products

Verdant Power is a world leader in the design and application of marine renewable energy solutions. Modular and scalable, Verdant Power’s patented systems employ underwater turbines to generate clean energy from the natural water currents of rivers, tides and manmade channels.

In addition to designing and commercializing its own technology, Verdant Power also develops projects around the world and, under some circumstances, will serve as the owner-operator of projects.

Free Flow Turbine

A central technology applied in Verdant Power’s Kinetic Hydropower Systems is the Free Flow Turbine, a three-blade horizontal-axis turbine designed to capture energy from the natural flows of tidal or river currents.

Free Flow Turbines are installed and operate fully under water, invisible from the shore. They are scalable to various sizes depending on site characteristics, and can be grouped into small or large clusters to produce village- or utility-scale power.

Free Flow Turbines rotate at a slow rate, allowing for safe fish passage and causing minimal environmental impact.

Posted in Tidal Techs, New York, USA | No Comments »