Sustainability / Clean Tech

You spend most of your life in buildings, but how often do stop to consider the environmental impact of those buildings?  The materials used in our buildings cause 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and much of this comes from concrete and other hard surfaces. Architects are increasingly switching over to more sustainable material options, and the green construction market has grown to over $110BN with a 12% CAGR.  However, low-embodied carbon options for concrete-like materials remain limited.

The composite industries have thrived towards sustainability by leveraging the materials strength vs weight to reduce emissions from trains, planes, boats and vehicles. But in the process they generated a large volume of landfill materials from their post industrial excess of technical fibers. in carbon fiber alone, the excess is estimated at 42 thousand metric tons per year. That is about 92.6 million lbs a year of lost resources and supplies at an estimated value > $1B per year.

High-performance lightweight composites, once reserved for aerospace, racing, and high-performance sports, have failed to penetrate mass-market applications due to high production costs, slow manufacturing speeds, and low scalability. As a result, mass-market manufacturers are constrained to using inexpensive, heavily reinforced metals or plastics. These materials are heavier, bulkier, prone to corrosion, and limit design flexibility, driving inefficiencies across industries.  The reliance on these sub-optimal materials compounds problems: 

Purifica was formed to commercialize cutting-edge nanotechnology developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Our advanced material is specifically designed to tackle two critical environmental challenges: phosphorus (P) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. These pollutants pose significant risks to water quality, ecosystems, and public health, particularly in rural and manufacturing areas.  

Solar and wind need energy storage to enable renewable energy 24/7 and be 100% reliant on solar & wind. Thus, customers need flexible energy storage solutions that are future-proof to grow with the grid’s needs - which doesn’t exist today. Current energy storage solutions aren’t affordable, scalable, safe nor are they flexible or future-proof. EarthEn develops flexible and future-proof long duration energy storage to store 4-100+ hours of energy using CO2 in a closed loop at a low cost, highly scalable & safe manner with over a 30 year lifetime value.

Founded and based in RTP, NC by two female co-founders. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes based on polyamides continue to dominate the market after 40 years because there are no better alternatives. Today, RO is being applied to new alternative water sources, such as wastewater, to solve the issue of water scarcity. Polyamide RO membranes are known to foul (clog) and fail as a result of biofouling because effective disinfectants like chlorine (bleach) are incompatible with polyamides.

Minus Filtration is dedicated to revolutionizing water treatment through our proprietary nanofiltration membrane technology. Our long-term goal is to develop comprehensive ""minus"" approach systems that treat water without the use of chemicals or additives, thereby eliminating byproducts and adverse health effects associated with traditional methods.   

Lepidext has a new solution to an old problem of controlling the corn earworm (CEW) and old world bollworm (OWB) pest complex.  These two insects are considered the most important pests of agriculture costing annual damage and cost of control of $7-10 B globally.  They are pests of dozens of food and fiber crops, are resistant to many insecticides including several of the pesticides expressed in genetically engineered crops such as corn, cotton and soybeans.

ElectraMet provides metals removal and recovery solutions to industrial customers to create an innovative and disruptive solution for turning their facilities into sustainability leaders. The core technology, ElectraMet®, is an electrochemical reactor used to strategically recover metal from process water and wastewater streams. We work with industrial and recycling partners to create a circular economy where we turn wastewater into valuable (and critical) metal products while also ensuring facilities efficiently meet EPA compliance. 

We have developed novel, game-changing, battery cells for the energy storage, backup power, and e-mobility markets.  Current customers have problems with high cost and safety as well as the use of earth-scare materials for their batteries.  Most raw materials for commercial lithium-ion cells come from China and now there are large tariffs placed on this material.  In addition, all lithium and sodium batteries must be manufactured in a very expensive dry-room. Our batteries can be made in ambient conditions.