Energy : Innovation & Job News

A little bit of funding can go a long way for a startup learning to fly.

For Metis Secure Solutions, makers of high-tech early warning alert systems for universities and businesses, the Kick-Start grant from the Greater Oakland Keystone Innovation Zone (GO KIZ) was the boost it needed to get off and growing.

Two local Keystone Innovation Zones have announced funding. GO KIZ has announced $95,000 in funding from the Ben Franklin Technology Development  Authority, part of a $1.7 million investment across the state to support  innovative startups and to commercialize energy efficient, life-saving technologies. The Pittsburgh Central Keystone Innovation Zone (PCKIZ) has received $100,000 from Ben Franklin as well.

The funding source was placed on hold in late 2009 due to economic constraints.

The money from KIZ helped Metis Secure land its first crucial contract with Slippery Rock University, recalls Justin Driscoll, coordinator. "Slippery Rock (the corporate partner) was interested in making a major investment in the system. This gave Slippery Rock the confidence that Metis had good technology. Look how the company has grown."

The GO KIZ Kick-Start Partnership program will make several grants, usually $10,000 to $15,000 each, available this year.  The partnership works by putting large companies in the region into strategic relationships with local startups. Established companies may serve as beta customers, clients or investors in order to demonstrate the efficacy of a start-up's new product or service.

The partner companies gain strategic advantages by being early adopters of the latest technologies or business processes; the startups are able to document successful implementation and develop case studies.

To apply, visit GO KIZ.

Source: Justin Driscoll, GO KIZ
Writer: Deb Smit

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David Levine's team scouted several locations on both coasts for its software company, and Bethlehem won out as the perfect spot.

The firm, Geostellar, has developed a platform designed to pinpoint how much solar energy can be generated from anywhere on Earth, based on characteristics such as the sun's movement over that location, average cloud cover and the terrain. Geostellar's computer modeling could be useful to commercial and residential customers, says Levine, Geostellar's CEO.

"If you're a homeowner, you could tell how much solar power you can produce on your roof, accounting for the slope of the roof, accounting for the trees," he says. "What we're hearing is that a lot of different companies want to be power companies, and we're showing them how to be power companies."

Two of the company’s seven employees work in Geostellar's offices at the Ben Franklin TechVentures business incubator. The rest are spread out among West Virginia, California, Virginia and Washington, D.C., although they plan to move to Bethlehem.

Levine said several factors proved Bethlehem to be the right location: Closeness to key markets, proximity to engineering and economics programs at Lehigh University, and the presence of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which recently awarded it a $150,000 loan.

Geostellar is focusing on solar now but plans to develop a similar platform for water power next. After that it expects to develop software to pinpoint the potential of wind, biofuels, oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear and geothermal energy.

Source: David Levine, Geostellar
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Companies across Pennsylvania are working to implement environmentally responsible business practices, but students in the Harrisburg area are taking on that task while they're still in high school.

For the second year in a row, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC is hosting a contest to see which local high school team presents the best green business plan. The Chamber Millennials' Green Business Challenge will take place Nov. 18 as part of the chamber's annual business expo at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.

In preparation for the competition, teams of between three and five students from Harrisburg-area high schools have been developing environmentally friendly business plans for companies that already exist or for businesses invented for the challenge. Teams will be judged on how many jobs would be created from the business plans and which would produce the largest, fastest return on investment.

A team from Hershey High School won last year's competition. Event Chairwoman Chris Eshelman says that during the winning team's presentation last year, a student wore a skirt constructed with fabric made from plastic shopping bags, which was the subject of the team's business plan. "We were just amazed at the creativity of these high school students," she says.

Source: Chris Eshelman, Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Imagine stepping into a room where the ceiling, walls and floor seem to glow, providing just the right amount of light.

Within a few decades, this type of lighting system could be commonplace, says Brian Patterson, general manager of business development at Lancaster-based Armstrong World Industries. In fact, Armstrong and Universal Display Corp., based in Ewing, N.J., are working together to develop it, as part of a U.S. Department of Energy project.

The system the companies developed is an advanced version of organic light emitting diode lighting, which is used now in some TVs, cell phones and computer keyboards.

OLED lighting is catching up with standard LED lighting but could use up to 20 percent less energy by converting more energy into light instead of heat, Patterson says. But its real advantage over more traditional lights is in the aesthetics and the quality of light produced. It could be installed in ceilings or even walls and floors, and be flexible enough to fit around curves and corners.

"You wouldn't see where the light is coming from," Patterson says. "It would be more like when you're outside, without seeing the sun."

But don't expect to see it in your office anytime soon. Patterson estimates that LED lighting will become more common in buildings over the next five years or so, and OLED systems could take another decade.

Source: Brian Patterson, Armstrong World Industries
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

In a little more than a year, an egg farm north of Gettysburg expects to generate electricity from its birds' manure.

Hillandale Farms is partnering with EnergyWorks BioPower, a subsidiary of EnergyWorks North America, on the facility next to its farm in Adams County. The plant, which will be the first of its kind in the United States, will produce electricity and turn chicken manure into fertilizer. It will work by taking the manure and using a process called gasification to produce gas that will power boilers, which will in turn power turbines to make electricity.

"In other words, we cook it instead of burning it," says Mike McCaskey, VP of business development at EnergyWorks BioPower.

The process will also generate ash from the chicken manure, which will be sold as fertilizer. The heat will kill pathogens in the ash. It will also remove about 99 percent of the nitrogen and 96 percent of phosphorus in the manure. That matters because nitrogen and phosphorus are detrimental to water quality, and water runoff from south-central Pennsylvania eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay.

The Hillandale farm has 3.5 million chickens now and plans to have 5 million by the end of next year. Each day that many birds produce 240 tons of manure. That amount can make enough electricity to power 3,500 homes, which can be sold back to the grid.

Construction of the plant is set to start in late November and the facility should be running by the end of 2011. EnergyWorks is seeking $25 million in government and private loans for the $30 million project.
The company hopes to build eight of these facilities over the next five years.

Source: Mike McCaskey, EnergyWorks BioPower
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Less than two months since $122 million was announced to create an Energy Innovation Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the project is already taking shape. United Kingdom-based Mark Group, a European home energy efficiency leader, was welcomed on Friday by Gov. Ed Rendell to its new home at the Navy Yard, where it will hire up to 320 workers over the next three years.

Mark Group was founded in 1974 and boasts of improving the energy efficiency of more than 2 million homes, installing more than 6,000 measures every week that help consumers save. The company is in growth mode, having recently established an Australian base of operations.

Led by a Penn State University-headed team, the Clean Energy campus at the Navy Yard is one of three regional clusters nationally that are designed to bring together leading researchers and the private sector to develop energy efficient building designs. Buildings accounty for nearly 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

"The creation of alternative energy sources is key to America's economic future," says Mark Group CEO Jeff Bartos. "We are excited to launch our business from Philadelphia and to deliver energy efficiency upgrades to homes throughout the nation."

As part of the move, Mark Group received a $3.28 million financing package from the Governor's Action Team. Bringing the company across the pond was truly a collaborative effort: The state Department of Community and Economic Development's international trade off, the City of Philadelphia, Select Greater Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and the TeamPA Foundation were all credited.

Source: Jeff Bartos, Mark Group
Writer: Joe Petrucci

When John Rensel ran an auto-service shop in DeLancey, customers would often ask him to convert their cars to run on compressed natural gas.

At first he brushed them off. But in December Rensel heard that his cousin Dennis O'Donnell had just graduated from the University of Northwestern Ohio, where he'd studied automotive technology and alternative fuels.

The two teamed up to start a business converting vehicles to run on compressed natural gas. In August, Alternative Fuel Solutions of Pennsylvania opened at Rensel's shop.

An Oct. 29 grand opening is scheduled at its location in Mahaffey. Several farmers have approached Alternative Fuel Solutions about converting tractors and other equipment to fun on the fuel. Eventually, Rensel plans to close down his service center to focus on compressed natural gas.

He says compressed natural gas, which has a higher pressure than the natural gas used for heating, has several advantages over gasoline. It gets better mileage and burns up to 90 percent more cleanly than gasoline. And it's abundant in Pennsylvania.

"Around here, there's so many farmers and individuals that have wells on their property," Rensel says. As part of the deal, they can usually get natural gas for free. Customers without wells can check online for a station that sells the fuel. And filling stations can be installed at homes that are heated with natural gas.

It costs between $3,500 and $10,000 to convert an engine to run on compressed natural gas, depending on the type of engine and customer preferences. Systems can also be set up to run on gasoline too. "You can switch from one fuel to another when you're driving just by pushing a button on your dash," Rensel says.

Source: John Rensel, Alternative Fuel Solutions of Pennsylvania
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

An Ohio company has figured out a way to turn biosolids into electricity-generating fuel, and a power plant between Erie and Pittsburgh is going to try it out.

N-Viro International Corp., based in Toledo, Ohio, operates facilities that turn biosolids into fertilizer. Biosolids, more commonly known as sewage sludge, are the solids that are left over after wastewater is treated.

Sewage sludge is a fact of life, but figuring out what to do with it isn't easy. It's traditionally dumped in landfills, but that produces methane. Some farmers use treated biosolids for fertilizer, but that's a controversial practice and still inevitably produces carbon dioxide, says Bob Bohmer, N-Viro VP.

However, N-Viro has developed a way to take biosolids, put them in a thermal dryer and end up with a material with low water content. The result burns at temperatures between 650 and 750 degrees, just like coal. Bohmer says the biosolid fuel can't entirely replace coal but can significantly cut down on how much is used to generate electricity. It's been successfully tested at Michigan State University's power plant.

N-Viro sought another coal-fired power plant to test its technology. A plant near Emlenton (Venango and Clarion Counties), which Bohmer says he's not allowed to identify yet, was the first taker. Assembly has begun on a unit to turn the sewage sludge into fuel and should be complete within two weeks, he says. N-Viro expects it to start running in November.

Source: Bob Bohmer, N-Viro International Corp.
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

From mud thatch to clay tile, roofing materials are about as varied as the houses underneath them. But with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, St. Joseph's University students will test the limits of green roofing materials, trying out everything from gravel to plastic-based fabric to recycled sneaker rubber. By building an expansive green roof on the deck of the University's Science Center, St. Joes associate dean of Natural Science, Math and Computer Science Mike McCann will monitor the drainage of four different green roof sections to see which performs best.

"A big goal with the green roof project is public dissemination," says McCann. "What we want to do is be able to tell anyone who is looking to do a green roof in this area of the country 'here is some performance data that might help guide your design.' "

This grant will also fund a study of switchgrass cultivation. Widely thought to be an excellent source of biofuels, switchgrass growth may be impacted by climate change. Through university study and field research at National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research site Konza Prairie, near Manhattan, Kan. students will examine the effects of changes in precipitation, temperature, and carbon dioxide on the growth of switchgrass to see if it may one day become a sustainable fuel source. McCann and the St. Joe's brass hope these projects will help formally establish their proposed Institute for Environmental Stewardship.

"We expect development communities to be very interested as well as people looking at global climate change impacts," says McCann. "But this grant is going to support undergraduate and graduate students engaged in these projects. We are not doing this to train switchgrass researchers. We are doing this to train sustainable researchers to do all sorts of jobs."

Source: Mike McCann, St. Joseph's University
Writer: John Steele

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Three Pennsylvania companies are developing a more efficient way to make biodiesel.
 
About a decade ago Jack Matson, founder of the State College engineering and consulting firm Matson & Associates, started studying how to improve the biodiesel production process. The result differs in several ways from how the fuel is normally made.

For example, the standard way of making biodiesel involves sodium hydroxide, which mixes in with the resulting biodiesel and has to be removed from the final product. But the process used by Matson & Associates spinoff Matson Biofuels cuts out the sodium hydroxide. And while the conventional way of making biodiesel requires pre-treating raw materials with a lot of water and fatty acids, there's no need for that with Matson Biofuels' technique.

Also, the process Matson uses allows biodiesel to be produced continuously rather than a batch at a time, which is how it's normally made, says Bob Parette, project manager at Matson & Associates.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA connected Matson Biofuels with two companies in Erie: American Biodiesel Energy, which makes biodiesel, and Fluid Engineering, which makes equipment for uses like water treatment and power generation. Together the companies plan to design and build a system for putting Matson's process to work. Parette expects testing to start next spring and for American Biodiesel Energy to run the system once the testing phase is complete.

The project's cost is estimated at $600,000. Of that, Ben Franklin has loaned $140,000 and the state Department of Environmental Protection kicked in $167,000 through the Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant program.

Source: Bob Parette, Matson & Associates
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Lithium-ion batteries seem to be everywhere: inside your digital camera, powering your cell phone, keeping your laptop humming. They’re also the focus of research at Lancaster-based Illuminex Corp., which sees its technology playing an important role in electric vehicles in the not-so-distant future.

Illuminex works in the area of nanotechnology and has developed a type of copper nanowire coated with silicon. Company founder Joe Habib says this composite creates a better anode – the part of the battery where the electric current flows in -- which allows the battery to hold a charge more effectively. Illuminex is designing its batteries to standards set by the auto industry, Habib says.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development recently gave the business a grant of almost $64,000 toward equipment to test the performance of its new battery technology. The total cost of the project is estimated at $128,000.

Illuminex isn't just developing car batteries, though. The company is also working on a tiny solar-energy storage unit that could be integrated into textiles. These cells could be built into tents supplied to the military, Habib says, and if the tents were used in sun-drenched places like Iraq, they could soak up enough rays to generate their own electricity.

Source: Joe Habib, Illuminex
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

Thar Technologies, creators of sustainable, natural solutions for everyday living, is expanding to a larger space in O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, and adding 20 employees in the coming year, bringing the total count to 50.

To top it off, the company has plans to create an incubator for energy-related startups, a place to mentor up-and-coming companies much like PLSG does for life sciences startups on the South Side. The idea was hatched in conversations with Rich Lunak and Innovation Works says Lalit Chordia, founder president and CEO.

"I think it would be a lot of fun to mentor green energy companies," says Chordia who has a doctorate in chemical engineering and 25 years of experience in energy including solar and geothermal. "On a personal basis, I can be of support to some of these companies."

Thar also plans to put its geothermal technology to work creating one of the largest geothermal demonstration sites in the region. The 78,000 square-foot space, formerly the American Roller Bearing Co., will be heated and cooled by Thar's geothermal system with an expected utility savings of 50%. Thar purchased the building for $2.2 million.

Thar uses supercritical fluid technology to develop applications in the production of everything from pharmaceuticals to food, chemicals and electronics.  First among the green processes is the creation of nutraceuticals, healthy, natural food or food products such as decaffeinated coffee, hops extracts for beer and spice extracts.

This benign technology is extended to energy applications such as heat pumps, production of biodiesel, biofuels from biomass and concentrated solar power.

Last year the company restructured after the Instrument division was sold to the Waters Corp. Thar has offices in Tampa and Pittsburgh.

"We're excited about our applications in green technology with business applications toward the energy side. It has a huge potential for the area and the world," says Chordia.

Source: Lalit Chordia, Thar
Writer: Deb Smit

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When most people strap on a helmet and hit the road on a bike, they are probably not thinking about carbon tonnage or sustainable energy credits. But with each pedal push, cyclists are putting a dent in Philadelphia's carbon footprint. And University City bike sharing consultants CityRyde want you to know how much your morning ride is effecting the planet.

Creating a personalized version of the carbon metering software they have in city-wide bike sharing programs from Paris to Portland, CityRyde introduced a new mobile application this week helping bikers and walkers monitor their carbon savings and see how much their car is polluting.  The company is beta testing on Android phones with hopes to expand to Blackberry and iPhone in the next month and is working on adding public transit to the application.

Twenty-five percent of the world's carbon emissions come from daily transportation.

"Knowledge is really power," says CityRyde CEO Tim Ericson. "I don't think anyone really understands the impact of their daily activities."

Through corporate partnerships, Ericson and his team hope to offer incentives for people to reduce their carbon emissions. Using increasingly comprehensive mapping software, CityRyde can examine a user's location, route and rate of speed to determine what mode of transportation a rider is using to keep things honest, holding sustainable to a higher standard and making it worth your while in the process.

"A perfect example would be (all-natural foods maker) Cliff Bar or one of those type of companies offering product samples or other incentives in exchange for those carbon credits, essentially giving them a marketing piece and a PR piece combined into one package," says Ericson.

Source: Tim Ericson, CityRyde
Writer: John Steele 

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A lot of parts go into each aluminum heat exchanger built by Alcoil, a York County developer and manufacturer of heat exchangers for the HVAC and industrial process industries. And each unit goes into a furnace heated to 1,100 degrees, bonding all the parts into a leak-proof, energy-efficient unit that doesn't corrode.

Problem is, Alcoil is currently using a furnace more than an hour away in Philadelphia. But that is expected to change when the company builds a furnace at its facility in Jacobus.

"It will be a very critical component that will allow us to grow rapidly," says Steven Wand, Alcoil's president and CEO.

The company makes brazed aluminum heat exchangers – devices that heat and cool air in refrigeration and air conditioning units – for supermarket coolers, medical machinery, large computer servers and other applications. The new furnace will be specialized and allow Alcoil to add new types of heat exchangers to its product line. The company currently employs nine employees and three subcontractors, but Wand anticipates hiring at least 10 next year. Altogether, he expects to hire 52 full-time workers over the next few years as customers upgrade their heat exchanger units.

"Our customer base is using technology that is expensive and not energy-efficient," Wand says.

The new jobs are one reason the state Department of Community and Economic Development decided to give Alcoil $520,000 toward the project, which Wand says will cover about one-third of the cost.

Source: Steven Wand, Alcoil
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen

It's an old problem: Innovative research takes place in academic laboratories, and businesses need researchers to find ways to make their products better, but the two can't figure out how to work with each other.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology recently gave a $950,000 grant to Catalyst Connection, a consulting group that works with manufacturers in southwestern Pennsylvania, for its new approach toward connecting research and industry.

Catalyst plans to find out what the needs of local manufacturers are and then connect them to researchers in labs at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Through the initiative, which also includes Innovation Works and the Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center, experts will work with companies and researchers to introduce their ideas to the marketplace. Catalyst is focusing on small and medium firms that are not likely to have researchers on staff.

The idea behind the federal grant is to find a model for innovation that can work in other parts of the country, says Bob Cunningham, Catalyst's VP of regional initiatives. And if it works, it will mean new products being developed in southwestern Pennsylvania and more workers pumping money into the regional economy.

Sources: Bob Cunningham and Tom Reed, Catalyst Connection
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen