Keystone Edge is profiling contestants in the upcoming Ben Franklin Venture Idol competition (Nov. 20 at Ben Franklin TechVentures). After earning their way through the afternoon selection process, entrepreneurs pitch their startups to investors and attendees. Ben Franklin will invest $15,000 based on the “crowd-funded” audience vote.
It's not as high visibility as wind or solar, but waste heat produced from industrial and manufacturing processes is a reliable and consistent source of renewable energy.
Jim Abrams has built Wilkes-Barre's EthosGen on that principle. Abrams founded the company in 2007 based on technology that produced and converted biomass into liquid fuels. In 2010, the company won a $1.2 million defense contract to deploy the technology at forward operating bases.
But as the liquid renewable fuels market became saturated, Abrams pivoted, focusing “all of our efforts into our capability to produce power from any waste heat source.” The result is the company’s CraftEngine.
The proprietary technology utilizes low-grade waste heat from industrial and military applications to produce renewable electric power on-site.
“As a renewable energy source, waste heat has a better energy profile than renewables such as wind or solar,” explains Abrams. It is cost-effective, scalable to virtually any size installation, storable even for micro- or smart-grid applications, and “it can produce electric power 24 hours a day, seven days a week independent of weather.”
EthosGen has identified three core markets for its technology: defense, industry and commercial energy, with specific niche applications within waste heat, geothermal and solar thermal markets.
EthosGen's CraftEngine manufacturing partners are big global players: BE Aerospace, AVL Schrick and Viking Development Group. Clients so far include a geothermal application in Japan, an industrial incineration plant in Norway and the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Energy Force in Camp Pendleton, California.
Abrams anticipates $7.5 million in revenues in 2015 and doubling EthosGen's workforce to 12.
Besides competing as the 2014 Ben Franklin Venture Idol, the company has received funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Source: Jim Abrams, EthosGen
Writer: Elise Vider