Lancaster-York : Innovation & Job News

What do you do when a power outage strikes? Chances are your coping mechanism involves getting reacquainted with your collection of candles and flashlights or connecting a few appliances to a heavy generator.

Kurt Hinds says he has a better way. Earlier this year he built a prototype for a 21-pound generator with a 12-volt battery. It includes an LED light, three standard electrical outlets and two outlets comparable to a car's cigarette lighter.

Hinds, who runs an alternative energy company called Kur Technologies, says it produces 264 watts. That's enough to run a small radio or TV for at least five hours. Personally, Hinds uses the generator to charge his cell phone and power the lights at his home office in Chambersburg. The device can be charged while plugged into a car's cigarette lighter, with an AC/DC adapter or with a solar panel that has to be purchased separately.

Since his generator is small and quiet, Hinds says it's not just for power outages. It can also be used in remote areas with little electricity or by anyone who wants to run a few electronics with solar energy. "Somebody who wants to lower their carbon footprint would use it," he says.

For now Hinds plans to build a few generators and give them to people he knows, like a store owner he knows and an acquaintance joining the Peace Corps in Ghana. He'll then gather feedback and improve the device.

Source: Kurt Hinds, Kur Technologies
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Inc. Magazine recently published its list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the United States. These businesses generated a total of 370,592 jobs over the last three years, the magazine says.

Pennsylvania is home to 18 of the top 500 entries on the list:

- #24: re2g, a designer and installer of solar energy systems, based in Doylestown, Bucks County.
- #48: Leadonomics, an online marketing company in Philadelphia.
- #67: NextDocs, a software company in King of Prussia, Montgomery County.
- #123: Petplan, a Philadelphia pet insurer.
- #150: Optimal Strategix Group, a market-research company in Newtown, Bucks County.
- #182: Magic Hat Consulting, an information technology consulting firm in Fort Washington, Montgomery County.
- #205: Urban Lending Solutions, a Pittsburgh mortgage lender.
- #214: Aromatic Fusion, a developer of fragrance products, based in Bensalem, Bucks County.
- #238: Decision Distribution, a business in Yardley, Bucks County, that sells construction supplies and equipment.
- #289: Renavatio Healthcare Communications, a Newtown marketer of medical products.
- #293: Precision Therapeutics, a cancer treatment research company in Pittsburgh.
- #294: Independent Catalyst, a software consulting firm in Gibsonia, Allegheny County.
- #330: QuadGen Wireless Solutions, a telecommunications system design company in King of Prussia.
- #338: MRops, a Doylestown market research firm.
- #394: MyYearbook, a social-networking website based in New Hope, Bucks County.
- #396: Synapse Marketing Solutions, a Lancaster marketing company.
- #397: TicketLeap, a Philadelphia-based website where people buy and sell event tickets.
- #490: Adept Consulting Services, an IT provider in Lansdale, Montgomery County.

Source: Inc. Magazine
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Paradise Energy Solutions would like you to think of solar power as a viable, affordable source of electricity for your home. And it will be an especially affordable option if you're the lucky winner of the solar energy system Paradise is giving away this month.

"I really want people to understand that this is an established industry," says Tim Beiler, general manager of Paradise's office in the Lancaster County town of Gap.

The company, which also has an office in Salisbury, Md., installs solar-energy systems at homes, businesses and farms in four states. The system it's giving away provides almost 6 kilowatts of electricity, which Beiler says is enough to power the average energy use of a 1,000-square foot house. Its 28 solar panels come with a five-year warranty. The winning homeowner will also be able to log onto the Internet and monitor how well each panel works. The whole setup is valued at $30,000, which Beiler says is being offset by donated materials and labor.

Only private homeowners are eligible to win. And since the giveaway is meant to get people to explore solar energy, homeowners have to enter by visiting one of Paradise's offices or its booths at four upcoming events: the Worcester County Fair in Snow Hill, Md.; Penn State's Ag Progress Days in Pennsylvania Furnace, Centre County; the Middletown Grange Fair in Wrightstown, Bucks County; or the International Shed Manufacturers Expo in Lancaster.

Source: Tim Beiler, Paradise Energy Solutions
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Charlie Crystle wanted to reduce the amount of useless information that came to him online. Then the man from Lancaster experimented with different ways to organize his thoughts on a computer.

That's when it hit Crystle – in an era when nearly every piece of information is an Internet search away, it's pretty easy to see what people are thinking about by examining their online search queries. The desire to organize his thoughts resulted in a searchable index of search terms, along with links to the Web pages Crystle looked at, all automatically saved with an Internet browser extension.

Sharing this information would create more value, he thought, by allowing like-minded people to comment on the information Crystle was trying to find. "There's value in sharing your searches," he says. "It's one of the last things that hasn't been indexed."

Since September he has been working on Jawaya, a platform that saves an Internet user's search queries and browsing history, so you can easily find that website you came across last month. A Jawaya user can make this information private, public or visible to a select group of people. Users can follow each other to see what they've been searching for, sort of like Twitter. This would allow users to find others who are looking for similar information.

"Most likely, you're going to find people who you don't know, but who share the same interests," Crystle says. Right now he's seeking venture capital to get Jawaya past the testing phase.

Source: Charlie Crystle, Jawaya
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

You can find all sorts of products, from garbage bags to insulation, labeled as containing recycled material. But how can you be sure that labeling is correct?

This is where companies like GreenCircle Certified come in. The business, based in Schwenksville, Montgomery County, certifies whether products contain recycled components. This week GreenCircle announced a partnership with the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center to certify more Pennsylvania-made products.

GreenCircle has already certified more than 400 items, mostly building materials. That means the company has conducted a detailed analysis of how much of a product is made of post-consumer content (like empty soda cans) and pre-consumer content (like manufacturing waste). The analysis also includes reviews of records to verify that a company is actually buying recycled materials and studies of how items are made.

Co-founder Tad Radzinski says the need for an independent verification system became clear when he was working on renovating an office for GreenCircle's parent company, Sustainable Solutions Corp. He wanted to use as many sustainable materials as possible, but ran into plenty of inaccurate labeling.

Bob Bylone, executive director of the Recycling Markets Center, says GreenCircle's third-party verification process means customers can trust the label when they see it. And while the process is completely voluntary for manufacturers, he says Pennsylvania companies are excited about this opportunity to market their sustainable products. Plus, the verification process often shows companies ways to introduce more recycled content into the things they make.

Sources: Bob Bylone, Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center; Tad Radzinski, GreenCircle Certified
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Hanover, a small town between York and Gettysburg, is near a lot of communities with access to fast broadband Internet connections. But that access to the World Wide Web is harder to come by in Hanover itself.

"It's kind of a crossroads for broadband," says Kelly Lewis, president and CEO of TechQuest Pennsylvania. Plenty of businesses in town wish they were able to get better Internet connections. And Lewis says they may be able to but not realize it. For example, a certain address may not have been near a broadband connection point a few years ago, but a new company may have paid to have the connection extended to its office. That means homes and businesses nearby can now get fast Internet access more easily.

TechQuest is partnering with the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, Harrisburg Area Community College and the York County Economic Development Corp. to get Hanover more connected. Lewis says another dozen businesses should be connected to broadband over the next three months. Another goal is to add Hanover Hospital to a one-gigabit connection instead of the 100-megabit connection it has now. Typically, Lewis says, when a large institution like a hospital secures fast broadband, other homes and businesses follow.

Source: Kelly Lewis, TechQuest Pennsylvania
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Pennsylvania has 67 counties, each with their own state police stations, local police departments, court systems and probation offices. These agencies all need the ability to share information about people in the criminal-justice system while keeping their own information secure.

Fortunately they have access to the Pennsylvania Justice Network, more commonly known as JNET. The system stores information like driver's license photos and outstanding warrants, with each piece of data available throughout the system when one user uploads it. JNET also includes facial-recognition software and includes data from nearby states. "It's like surfing the Internet for criminal-justice information," says the network's executive director, Dave Naisby. About 38,000 people use JNET, including those who work in welfare, domestic relations and the court system.

Officials from other states often approach JNET for guidance on sharing this type of information. The agency was also recently recognized as a finalist in the Computerworld Honors Program. That award was given for an address-search application within JNET, which allows users to search for a criminal's address in one spot instead of 10. Overall the agency estimates that this saves $1.9 million in staff time each year.

"Address information is critical for criminal justice," Naisby says. For example, probation officers need it to find the people they're keeping an eye on and police can use it to be sure they know who they're arresting.

JNET is planning to roll out other improvements, including applications that allow users to more quickly run background checks and search for people based on just a few pieces of information.

Source: Dave Naisby, Pennsylvania Justice Network
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

In the heat of summer we're reminded daily that dark colors absorb more heat than light colors. Lancaster County company High Concrete Group put this principle to work with its newest type of precast concrete. This month it started selling its newest formulation of concrete made with white cement rather than conventional gray cement.

The newest blend also includes blast furnace slag, a byproduct of the steel making process that would otherwise be discarded. This byproduct is less expensive than cement and has a lower carbon footprint, High Concrete spokesman Dave Nicholas says.

But what's really notable about the new mixture is its ability to reflect heat rather than absorb it. A measure called the solar reflectance index tracks how much solar heat a material absorbs, with black being 0 and white being 100. High's new concrete has a score of 82.

Nicholas says this grade of concrete is typically used in projects like parking garages and high-rises. The timing for this product is fortunate as more builders try to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards and more municipalities adopt the International Green Construction Code.  "It gives people another option for sustainable design," Nicholas says.

This type of concrete can also combat the heat island effect, which explains why cities are often hotter than rural areas. This happens because urban areas have more surfaces that absorb heat. "Lighter surfaces, if they're used, help reduce that phenomenon," Nicholas says.

Source: Dave Nicholas, High Concrete Group
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

The big trucks that carry your trash and recyclables usually spend half of their time on the road empty. That's not very efficient, and a waste of gas to boot.

But Republic Services, which operates the Modern Landfill outside of York, the King of Prussia Recyclery northwest of Philadelphia, and a host of other facilities that process garbage and recyclables saw a solution. When trucks were bringing trash from the eastern part of Pennsylvania to the Modern Landfill, why not load them up with recyclable materials rather than send them away empty?

So the company spent about $1 million on a so-called "transcyclery" at the Modern Landfill. The idea behind the facility, which opened last week, is pretty simple: Trucks that pick up recyclable materials from around south-central Pennsylvania will leave them at the transcyclery. When truck drivers from the east are done delivering their loads of garbage to the landfill, they can stop at the transcyclery and pick up a load of recyclables and take them to King of Prussia, where they'll be processed for sale.

"It's a brand-new concept of things leaving the landfill," says Tim O'Donnell, general manager of the landfill.

The transcyclery is set to handle about 75 tons of paper, glass, metal and plastic each day. Before it opened, O'Donnell says Republic Services was taking this material to a competitor that sometimes didn't want the recyclables. Not only does the company get to keep the money-making recyclable materials now, he says, but it hired a heavy-equipment operator to work in the transcyclery.

Source: Tim O'Donnell, Modern Landfill
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

The new business incubator at York College of Pennsylvania isn't just a building, even though the new 9,000-square foot facility comes with amenities like conference rooms and high-speed Internet access. The incubator is also a place where budding businesses can benefit from access to experts and assistance from on and off campus.

The college's J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship started in 2006 and recently moved into its new home in the business incubator. For its executive director the college hired Jeff Vermeulen, a Pennsylvania native who most recently worked at a technology business incubator at the University of South Florida Polytechnic. He is also a former president of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce.

"I liked the idea of being able to create something," Vermeulen says of his new post in York. He hopes to draw emerging businesses run by people who have innovative ideas and are eager to take advantage of everything the incubator has to offer. As an example he lists a council of entrepreneurs, which is made up of about a dozen local small-business representatives willing to offer their expertise.

The J.D. Brown Center also provides a small office for the Shippensburg University Small Business Development Center. And of course faculty and students from York College provide knowledge and a pool of potential interns.

The incubator has two tenants: Dataforma, which makes software for roofing contractors, and In The Spotlight Marketing, which focuses on Web and social media promotions. Students from the college are working for both. "It's not your typical internship," Vermeulen says. "At a company with five, six, seven, eight people, you're really going to see the decisions being made and how they're being made."

Source: Jeff Vermeulen, J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Pennsylvania's abundant natural gas resources, along with the prediction that many of its coal-fired power plants will be retired in coming years, make the state a promising place for power plants that run on natural gas.

This week Calpine, an electricity company based in Houston, officially dedicated its latest plant in Delta, York County, near the Susquehanna River and the Maryland state line. When Calpine bought Conectiv Energy last year, the Delta plant, which was under construction, came along with the acquisition.

The plant, called the York Energy Center, is what's called a combined-cycle plant. This means it generates electricity in natural-gas powered turbines, which creates hot water vapor. That vapor is captured in a steam turbine to produce even more electricity. "You make a lot more energy with a lot less pollution," says Stu Widom, Calpine's manager of government and regulatory affairs. The York plant has about 20 full-time workers and can generate 565 megawatts, serving more than 450,000 homes.

Calpine operates 92 power plants, including one that opened in Bethlehem in 2003. That plant primarily runs on natural gas but can also use diesel fuel. Widom says this is also true of the York Energy Center, which is similar to the plant in Bethlehem.

Source: Stu Widom, Calpine
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Energy Wall's revolutionary system to heat and cool buildings has a wide range of potential applications, but it has to undergo more testing first.

The Lancaster company's design uses a ceramic fiber membrane, bonded with lithium chloride, to move most of the energy in a building’s exhaust air, into the fresh air coming into the same building. This energy refreshes air coming into the same building. Energy Wall founder Dustin Eplee says this system saves up to 15 percent of heating and cooling costs. It's perfect for new buildings and recently constructed existing buildings, which were often designed for very tight air flow.

In the past two years the product has been installed in eight buildings, mostly along the East Coast. The idea there was to test its efficiency, but Energy Wall also found that its product absorbs a lot of moisture. The next step is to test the design's ability to withstand extreme temperatures, to determine the feasibility of use in these other applications.  "We basically want to find the failure point," Eplee says.

That's where a $100,000 grant from the Green Building Alliance comes in.  Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences will subject the product to temperatures as low as -40 degrees and as high as 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The testing is supposed to last a year, starting around the time students return to campus at the end of this summer.

The technology could end up being useful in more than just residential and commercial buildings. Possibilities include solar-powered air conditioning systems and fuel cells.

Source: Dustin Eplee, Energy Wall
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Is your business a Pennsylvania company or a company based in Pennsylvania?

The Team Pennsylvania Foundation has noticed there's actually a difference between the two, and it boils down to how much effort a business puts into investing in the development and well-being of its community. When the foundation started analyzing its own donors and partners about two years ago, it noticed that small- and medium-sized companies with roots as family businesses tended to be more invested in Pennsylvania's future.

Larger corporations, as a rule, don't share that sense of place. "They don't think of themselves as a Pennsylvania company," says Matt Zieger, the foundation's executive director. "They think of themselves as a corporation that happens to be based in Pennsylvania."

So this summer, foundation intern Becca Geiger, a sociology major at California University of Pennsylvania, will choose 25 Pennsylvania family-owned businesses that are active donors. She'll then study what prompts these companies to devote resources to philanthropy.

Zieger says Winner International, the western PA company run by foundation co-chairwoman Karen Winner Sed, is the perfect example of the type of business it plans to study. Winner has employed generations of workers from the same families at its facility in Sharon and has a history of charitable community involvement.

The foundation hopes the study will identify major corporate players in Pennsylvania communities and show ways to engage small and medium family-owned businesses in state policy decisions.

Source: Matt Zieger, Team Pennsylvania Foundation
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

If you drive a car, you'd probably welcome a way to power it with fuel that's better for the environment and costs less than regular gasoline.

That's what Lancaster-based Rhoads Energy thought when it was planning renovations on the Pacific Pride fueling station it runs in Harrisburg. Pacific Pride stations, which consist of fueling pumps open around the clock to customers who have access cards, primarily serve commercial fleets that use a lot of fuel (the general public is also welcome). When Rhoads heard that ethanol-industry lobbying group Growth Energy was offering grants for pumps that dispensed ethanol with gasoline, Rhoads thought it was a perfect opportunity.

Rhoads' Harrisburg Pacific Pride station now features what's known as a flex-fuel pump. Customers who use it to fill up can choose between gasoline with a traditional blend of 10 percent ethanol, the 85 percent-ethanol mixture known as E85, or E30, a blend of 30 percent ethanol. The ethanol being used now is derived from grain.

"The E30 gives consumers a better option," says Scott Burky, Rhoads' VP of operations. He adds that it costs about 16 cents per gallon less than regular gasoline and might be more palatable to customers hesitant to fill up with E85, which gets fewer miles per gallon than a normal blend.

This happens to be the first flex-fuel pump in the state. "We’re kind of on the bleeding edge," Burky says.

Source: Scott Burky, Rhoads Energy
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen