Advanced and Alternative Energy : Innovation + Job News

Ohio may not have the sunshine or constant wind found elsewhere, but there's no doubt about it. Advanced and alternative energy is becoming a big deal in Ohio.

The growth of the industry is the catalyst for Nortech's first ever Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo Sept. 14 and 15 in downtown Akron, says Karen Allport, vice president of strategic outreach for the tech-based economic development organization serving northeast Ohio.

“Ohio has a very strong manufacturing base, innovative research facilities and a highly skilled workforce,” she explains. “In fact, we have more than 400 organizations, large and small, engaged in advanced energy research and manufacturing.”

Ohio leads the Great Lakes in offshore wind development, with wind farms throughout the state. Major studies are being conducted on fuel cells and photovoltaics, and Northeast Ohio is teeming with top-notch national and international manufacturers and research institutions.

Allport ticks off names of some Ohio companies involved in advanced energy.

“FirstEnergy is the nation’s fifth-largest investor owned electric utility,” Allport points out. Others include Eaton Corp., Lincoln Electric, Babcock & Wilcox, Cliffs Natural Resources, GE Lighting, Parker Hannifin, and the Timken Company, she notes. She also mentions ongoing energy research at Kent State University, the University of Akron, and Case Western Reserve University.

Consider this: Ohio is fourth in the country in the number of clean energy jobs, with 35,267 employees working in the state’s advanced energy industries. Ohio is sixth in the nation in number of clean technology businesses, for a total of 2,513 clean energy companies. We’re also seventh nationwide in the total number of clean energy patents filed -- 309 patents over the past decade.

There’s an international component to the Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo as well, according to Allport.

“We have a mayor’s association involved whose members want to showcase advanced energy activities in their communities, so they’re in touch with groups in India and Great Britain to generate interest in collaboration,” she explains. “Our overall goal with this energy conference and expo is to provide programs and exhibits that drive opportunities for commercial activities,” Allport notes.

With more than 300 people from all over Ohio and nationwide expected to attend and all 70 exhibit spaces already sold out for the upcoming conference, perhaps the combination of advanced energy + the state of Ohio will finally gets its due. 

Source:  Karen Allport, Nortech
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

A team of Ohio State University engineering students has begun work on a new generation of electric car designed to push land speeds to at least 400 mph.

The team recently began aerodynamic simulations for the Buckeye Bullet 3, the successor to previous Buckeye Bullets that set electric vehicle land speed records. The team expects to complete the design process by the end of this summer, spend next academic year building and testing the vehicle and finally running it full-out at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in fall of 2012.

The latest Buckeye Bullet represents a complete makeover from the Buckeye Bullet 2.5 -- which last year set an international electric vehicle record at 307 mph, says Carey Bork, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the project's chief engineer.

"The Buckeye Bullet 2.5 that we actually set the record with last year was really a test vehicle," Bork says. "The intent has always been to build a brand new land speed record car from the gorund up. And really the difference between them is that the Buckeye Bullet 1 used nickel-metal hydride batteries, and the BB2.5 -- and also the new one that we're going to be building -- will use lithium ion."

Giorgio Rizzoni, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of OSU's Center for Automotive Research, says another big difference is that the Buckeye Bullet 3 will run with the assistance of "really high performance, high tech electric motors that are being custom designed and fabricated by Venturi (North America, a project partner). And in addition to that it's a brand new chassis."

The challenges of increasing speeds from the 300 mph to 400 mph range are too numerous to list, Bork says. But one challenge is that testing using wind tunnels or trial runs on Ohio tracks fall short.

"We never get to run these cars full speed until we get them out to the salt flats," Bork says. Additionally, when testing in wind tunnels "you have to have what's called a rolling road in which the surface that the vehicle is sitting on is rolling. That has a very important effect on aerodynamics. But there's no rolling road wind tunnel that can reach those speeds."

That's why the team is using the Ohio Supercomputer Center to run computational fluid dynamics to design and optimize the car, he says.

While the goal of the project is to set new land speed records for an electric car (while giving engineering students the kind of experience they would get nowhere else) it's possible that the Buckeye Bullet 3 -- if all goes as planned -- could break all land speed records for a wheel-driven vehicle.

"We don't want to go out there and guarantee that," Bork says. "It's a huge jump to go from 300 mph to challenging the all-out wheel-driven record. But, basically, that's not far away, and that's something we're keeping our eyes on."

Sources: Carey Bork and Giorgio Rizzoni, Ohio State University
Author: Gene Monteith

 Benjamin Parris sees an innovative, cost effective way to get around town. He's promoting and selling electric bicycles through his company, F&E Electric Bikes. The bikes, which hit up to 18.6 miles per hour, are a step away from mopeds, but are classified as bicycles rather than motorized vehicles.

Parris got the idea to produce the bikes after spending some time in China, where the bikes are commonplace.

"They've been very popular in the past five to 10 years in China with the local farmers who need to get from village to village and transport food," explains Parris. "It's an ideal thing for them to use and affordable. When I came back to Cleveland, I said, 'Let's get rid of the parking problem and gas problem and learn something from the largest industrial nation in the world.'"

The bikes initially take five to six hours to charge using just a standard outlet, and then take about an hour to recharge. They go more than 20 miles on a single charge.

Parris has produced 10 bikes thus far and sold two at around $750 apiece. Additionally, he is donating two bikes to cancer charities. Currently the bikes are manufactured oversees. He hopes to start producing them in Ohio next year.

"By far they are the cheapest and only electric bikes that are around Cleveland," he says.

Source: Benjamin Parris
Writer: Karin Connelly

This story originally appeared in sister publication Fresh Water Cleveland.

Some of the technology we'll be using in a few years -- diesel fuel made from recycled plastics and micro electronic devices that detect pathogens in the air -- are being coaxed into the marketplace today by AvMat, a consultancy based in Akron that helps bring new technology to commercialization.

Joe Hensel, CEO, started the firm in 2003 and has since worked with at least 20 start-ups to guide them in their journey from big idea to commercial success.

A former chemical engineer with an MBA in finance who has worked with multinational aerospace and automotive companies, Hensel says his background in R&D and manufacturing gives him a good vantage point to help entrepreneurs take their ventures to the next level.

AvMat specializes in aerospace, electronics and alternative energy businesses. The intellectual property frequently comes through university and government labs where scientists who create it are unfamiliar with the workings of the business world. AvMat offers advice in legal, managerial, financial, operational and branding and marketing services.

Polyflow, a client for the past six years, is a typical example of the type of business he works with. Polyflow takes recycled plastic and rubber materials and creates gasoline, diesel fuel and feedstock for engineering polymers that could be used in place of those normally made from crude oil and natural gas. Over the next year or two, Polyflow could begin commercial sales.

AvMat evolved from Ohio Polymer Enterprise Development, an initiative by the University of Akron to commercialize advanced material technologies for fuel cells.

Today Hensel is sole owner of the company and AvMat is now an equity stake holder in several of the firms that it has worked with. In addition to Hensel, AvMat has one employee. There are no plans to add new employees at this point, says Hensel.

Source: Joe Hensel, AvMat
Writer: Val Prevish

For a German solar technology company, the road to Toledo -- oddly -- went through Abu Dhabi.

It was in that Middle Eastern city that Peter Fischer, who last year started a German company to specialize in solar panel supports, attended an alternative energy conference in January. Already planning to open an office in North America, Fischer was looking at California or Toronto as a possible home for his company. Then he met officials from the University of Toledo's Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, and accepted an invitation to visit northwestern Ohio.

The result was TecnoSun Solar Systems signing a one-year lease in April to locate its North American headquarters in the university's Nitschke Technology complex to take advantage of the area's strong solar technology community. Having recruited Greg Knudson, formerly the vice president of technology with the Regional Growth Partnership and director of Rocket Ventures, as the new headquarter's CEO the company is now on the fast track to get its North America operations running.

TecnoSun's contract includes an option to expand its current 1,400-square-foot office in the future and another option to extend to term of its lease by two years. The company expects to add between 20-30 high-tech jobs when operations begin. The company has already made a splash in the solar community after opening its doors in Germany last year, producing solar panel supports that react to weather conditions. Using sensors, the system moves solar panels to track the sun as it crosses the sky, keeping them in position to maximize power output. The system also moves panels to protect them from severe winds and other threatening weather.

Fischer, in committing to the Toledo solar community, is also serious about the TecnoSun's commitment to Ohio businesses, says Knudson.

"All the manufactured products used in the supports will be made in Ohio," he explains. "It will be all local content. We want to build a supply chain with local companies, and ."

Knudson is in Germany this week to finalize incorporation paperwork for the new headquarters and meet with TecnoSun's 20 German staff members. Afterwards, TecnoSun has to go through the United Laboratories certification process required for U.S. products before hiring can start and production can begin in earnest. That should be later this year, Knudson says.

Source: Greg Knudson, CEO/TecnoSun Solar USA
Writer: Dave Malaska

In the 1990s, Geoff and Michelle Greenfield decided to build a new home off the electric grid outside of Athens. To accomplish that goal, Geoff Greenfield designed and built a number of systems to power the Greenfield's new home -- including a photovoltaic solar array.

Today, Geoff and Michelle Greenfield are president and CEO, respectively, of Third Sun Solar, an Athens-based solar integrator that has made the Inc. 500 two years in a row.

Gerald Kelly, the company's communications director, says the company began small after word of mouth spread about the solar system Geoff Greenfield had designed and built for his own home.

"As people heard about that and as people saw the home and saw what he had done there, he started getting lots of requests from people to do it for them," Kelly explains.

In 2000, the Greenfields established Third Sun Solar and Wind Power Ltd., including wind in their advanced and alternative energy services. But as the business matured, "we found that our core business really is in photovoltaic solar," Kelly says.

Today Third Sun has grown to become a major solar systems integrator, operating from the Innovation Center at Ohio University while growing to 30 employees, Kelley says.

"Up until a couple of years ago, we had six employees," Kelley notes. In addition to its Athens operations, Third Sun has added sales staff in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.

Third Sun projects have shifted from mostly residential in the beginning to mostly large commercial today, Kelley says. Part of that is a changing regulatory environment that provides more financial incentives to larger customers.

Kelley says the company plans to continue adding jobs but that "all the companies that do what we do are in the same sort of boat -- we are seeing this transition from the sweet spot being from 70 kilowatts (a small business or home) to more the megawatt scale."

As projects become larger, they also become more complex � both for Third Sun and for the customer, he says.

Source: Gerald Kelley, Third Sun Solar
Writer: Gene Monteith

SuGanit Systems wants to be among the first to produce ethanol from cellulosic biomass � the inedible parts of plants � and the Ohio Third Frontier Commission is betting it will be successful.

In February, SuGanit, founded in Reston Va., but now growing its presence at the University of Toledo's Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation, received a $2-million Ohio Third Frontier grant to build a pilot plant using a new pretreatment process that breaks down the tougher parts of plants so that they can be converted into sugars, fermented, and made into ethanol.

It's the third Third Frontier Grant that the company has received or shared since its founding in 2006, says President and Founder Praveen Paripati.

The partnership with the University of Toledo, which developed an early technology for pre-treating cellulosic biomass, has led to continued development of the process and a collaboration that should result in a pilot plant by the end of the year, Paripati says.

Cellulosic materials, unlike edible products, typically take a long time to convert into sugars using existing methods, Paripati says.

"If we don't do some preprocessing it can take a few weeks to a few months to break the biomass down," he says. "So the trick is to find a mechanism by which you can break it down. And break it down without producing a lot of bad side effects. The innovation comes in an ionic liquid pretreatment technology that makes it possible for enzymes to break down biomass into sugars efficiently, within 24 to 36 hours."

The pilot plant is intended to scale up the technology to process about half a ton to one ton of biomass a day. 

"The next scale would probably be 40 to 50 tons a day, a scale which would end up producing a million gallons of cellulosic ethanol or other products. And a larger commercial scale would be anywhere from 500 tons to 2,500 tons a day."

The company currently has four employees at UT and at its Toledo laboratory. Additionally, Paripati says Third Frontier and U.S. Department of Energy grants have enabled SuGanit to fund three students workers. SuGanit plans plans to add eight more as it develops the pilot unit and reaches full operation.

Source: Praveen Paripati, SuGanit Systems
Writer: Gene Monteith

The University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio was founded five years ago by Ohio's 15 research universities. The goal: to advance the cause of clean energy in Ohio in a collaborative way.

Since then, the Toledo-based organization has worked with a wide array of academic, government and business entities to further business-university partnerships in advanced energy and to encourage dialog on energy issues facing the state.

"The whole idea behind the alliance was to facilitate collaboration among the universities in their efforts to do research," says Jane Harf the UCEA's director. "And it's not the ivory tower research -- it's development and deployment. We really want to see these technologies make it to the marketplace -- commercialization and technology transfer."

While the organization started with the 15 research institutions, it has expanded its membership over the years to several community colleges and organizations like the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio. Institutions such as the NASA Glenn Research Center and EWI (formerly the Edison Welding Institute) -- are also members.

Harf says that as part of its work, UCEA has engaged in a number of projects related to clean energy advancement, including a study on business and university collaborations, focus groups with businesses to assess the challenges and opportunities for clean energy and programs supporting the state's nine university-based Advanced Energy Centers of Excellence.

On April 26 and 27, the organization will hold it's fifth annual conference in Columbus, where it will showcase the work being done at those centers and work being done by students -- and at which it will offer breakout sessions on  a variety of topics including energy projects under way in Ohio, intellectual property issues surrounding university-business partnerships, policy issues around advanced and alternative energy and the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Ohio.

Also at the conference, the UCEA will roll out a new database that Harf says will provide advanced energy companies and others with current information about individual researchers and the work they do, programs of study available to those who are seeking degrees in alternative energy and on facilities and equipment available to businesses to further their technology development.

To register, go here. 

Source: Jane Harf, UCEA
Writer: Gene Monteith

E3 Clean Technologies wants to turn your pee into power.

Gerardine Botte, a professor of biomolecular and chemical engineering at Ohio University, has developed technology to create energy from the ammonia found in human and animal organic waste. She is the founder of Athens-based E3 Clean Technologies and is developing her "SCR GreenBox," the product that will harness the technology for distribution, at the Ohio University Innovation Center.

Kent Shields, CEO of E3, says that the GreenBox has potential in several markets, wastewater treatment, agriculture, the military, electronics manufacturing, and power plant management.

The GreenBox works by using a patented low-energy electrolysis process that converts ammonia and urea in wastewater to hydrogen, nitrogen and pure water, says Shields. The box also produces hydrogen energy.

"This unit works similar to a battery," he says. "We break down ammonia and turn it into clean energy."

A large GreenBox that could be used by a municipal wastewater treatment facility would be about the size of a tractor trailer, says Shields. A smaller unit that might be used in a small manufacturing facility would be about the size of a refrigerator. The company estimates that the device could reduce the operational costs for reducing ammonia from wastewater by 60 percent.

E3 has received early stage funding of $350,000 from TechGROWTH Ohio, a technology funding program backed by the Ohio Third Frontier initiative. Pre-production GreenBox units could be ready by early 2012, says Shields. Within the next three years the company could hire up to 30 engineers and field technicians as it goes to market. He estimates that as many as double that number of jobs could be created through the manufacturing process for the product, for which E3 will contract with local companies.

Source: Kent Shields, E3 Clean Technologies
Writer: Val Prevish

Energy Focus Inc. began in California in 1985 as Fiberstars, a fiber optics firm specializing in architectural lighting such as that used to illuminate underwater spaces in spas and swimming pools.

Today, the company is headquartered in Solon, the Fiberstars brand is an Energy Focus division and the parent company is zeroed in on new LED products for both military and commercial applications.

The company moved to Ohio in 2006 because of a well-trained workforce and a bevy of northeast Ohio research and commercial entities related to lighting, says Julia Dolsen, the company's marketing manager.

"Then, in 2007, we changed the corporate name from Fiberstars to Energy Focus," Dolsen says. "And with that, we changed our core focus a little bit away from this architectural lighting division to really concentrate on R&D."

Much of the R&D in recent years has resulted in new lighting solutions for the military, she says. However, "a lot of the product we've developed for the military we've then been taking and commercializing."

That's what's happened with a new lighting fixture the company is developing with the help of a $1-million Ohio Third Frontier award, she says. Energy Focus, in collaboration with Replex Plastics, Ohio State University and Lighting Services, Inc., will use the money to develop a photovoltaic system for exterior building lights. The solar-powered wall pack being developed is designed to reduce the hefty costs that large buildings currently incur to illuminate exterior grounds, she says.

"Most of the wall packs out there use metal halide lamps," she says. "They use between 250 and 400 watts in energy consumption per fixture."

If a building like a Wal-Mart has 50 such fixtures around its outside, those lights could burn as much as 20,000 watts per day -- translating to hefty electric bills.

"So what we're proposing is that, with a solar-powered pack, you would save that money."

Besides Ohio, Energy Focus has offices in California and the U.K. It employs about 70 companywide, with about 30 in Ohio.

Source: Julia Dolsen, Energy Focus
Writer: Gene Monteith

Algaeventure Systems believes it has found a better way to separate algae from water and dry it -- a key step in making algae an economical biofuel as well as a lower cost product for industries such as nutrition and pharmaceuticals.

Spun off from packaging company Univenture in 2008, the Marysville company relies on innovations developed by CEO/inventor Ross Youngs that simplify the harvesting, dewatering and drying process while keeping algae's cellular integrity, says Raouf Solaiman, marketing/sales associate.

The Solid Liquid Separation process, or SLS, uses a belt separating and drying system to avoid traditional technologies like centrifuging, which can degrade algae, Solaiman says. The company has licensed more than 10 of its machines and is further refining the technology with a $6-million U.S. Department of Energy grant.

"The SLS dramatically reduces the energy input as opposed to spinning a gigantic drum at very high velocities to do the dewatering," Solaiman explains. "We dewater the same amount of algae to an even dryer state with about 98 percent less energy. That's a big deal."

The company's industrial scale model should be fully commercialized later this year as the technology is advanced, Solaiman says.

Meanwhile, Algaeventure is tackling an environmental problem close to home: toxic algae in Grand Lake St. Marys. The company is using two new processes to learn how to pull algae from the lake using as little energy as possible and to boost the growth of "good" algae to crowd out the bad.

Algaeventure Systems currently has about 30 employees, and Solaiman says the company is growing.

Source: Raouf Solaiman, Algaeventure Systems
Writer: Gene Monteith

Greenwood Fuels has decided to expand from its home base in Green Bay, Wis. First stop? Ohio.

The alternative fuels company has announced plans to build a new fuel pellet fabricating plant near Hamilton in southwestern Ohio.

Rolando Sanz-Guerrero, vice president of sales and marketing, says the company is working on a short-list for a new site. When operational -- no definite timetable has been announced -- the facility will employ 35 to 40, Sanz-Guerrero says.

The move to Ohio effectively doubles the size of Greenwood Fuels, which has been manufacturing fuel pellets from waste paper since 2009.

"Everything we use is paper that would not be able to be recycled for one reason or another," Sanz-Guerrero explains. The resulting fuel pellets can be used in any solid fuel furnace and is a cost-competitive, high-BTU and environmentally friendly alternative to coal, he says.

"Plants don't have to do a lot of capital investments. They can simply take the pellets as they are, use them in their boiler to produce either steam or power, and off they go."

Greenwood currently produces 125,000 tons of pellets a year in Green Bay; the goal is to increase that volume to 150,000 tons a year at each facility as the company expands to other states.

The company's choice of Hamilton was influenced by its relative proximity to Wisconsin, the company's good relationship with customer SMART Papers there, plus "we liked the city of Hamilton, we liked the economic development group, we liked a lot of things about what they could bring."

Source: Rolando Sanz-Guerrero, Greenwood Fuels
Writer: Gene Monteith

As a former high school and college anatomy and physiology teacher, Jason Barkeloo was fascinated by the possibility of synthetically recreating the energy production process within living cells.

His company, Pilus Energy, based in Cincinnati, has found a way to create this process in a "reactor" that can be used to harness energy from organic matter using bacteria to create DC current. In a partnership with Dan Hassett at the University of Cincinnati, the two have pioneered this new green energy that can take organic waste from farms, plant pulps and sewage and make it into electricity.

"We're unlocking another grid," says Barkeloo. "We're providing a de-centralized energy solution that is untapped."

Pilot programs using Pilus' new Pilus Cell "reactor" are taking place at Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California and at a large agri-business operation, he says. More pilots are in the planning phases as well.

"Our solution is harnessing our genetically engineered bacteria in a microbial fuel cell reactor and harvesting the direct current and hydrogen gas from their metabolism of organic molecules like those found in sewage, farm wastes, river water and plant pulps," says Barkeloo.

Pilus was one of a select group of start-up companies chosen to present their ideas and products at Launch: Silicon Valley 2010 international launch event last June. It was the only Midwest company chosen from among roughly 400 applicants from around the world.

In the next year, Barkeloo says he plans on adding more employees to the four full-time and six part-time consultants he now has, although he declined to project future sales or revenue.

Source: Jason Barkeloo, Pilus Energy
Writer: Val Prevish

Millennium Reign Energy's vision is a world in which individuals have the opportunity to own their own hydrogen energy generation and storage systems.

The Englewood-based company came one step closer in early October, when it set up a fully-functioning hydrogen fueling station on the Dull Homestead, an alternative-energy-embracing farm near Brookville.

It's the first private station in Ohio that is designed in a way that would allow for public use anywhere, says Chris McWhinney, Millennium's senior manager and CEO.

While other individuals may choose to follow the Dull farm's lead, McWhinney recognizes that most of us don't have the resources needed to set up fueling stations in our back yards anytime soon. That's why McWhinney and partner Dave Erbaugh are currently focusing on large companies like automobile and lift truck manufacturers. 

One large automaker has shown continued interest in Millennium's patent-pending technology, McWhinney says, as has a major lift truck manufacturer that makes hydrogen fuel cell lift trucks.

"We hope to have two different types (of lift truck)," McWinney says. "One fuel cell, the other internal combustion running on hydrogen and filling up with a fueling station."

In fact, the Dull farm will soon begin using its fueling station to power a hydrogen fuel cell forklift provided by one lift truck maker, McWhinney says. The farm is also using hydrogen as a gasoline blend in a pickup truck.

The company currently derives most of its revenue from a see-through educational unit which is sold to high schools and colleges, along with materials that educate young people about the advantages of clean-burning hydrogen power.

"We're ramping up that end of our business right now to where we'd like to get to the point where we're selling 200 to 500 of those a year," McWhinney says. "If we do that, it will provide us with enough revenue to stay alive until the world catches up to us."

Source: Chris McWhinney, Mellinnium Reign Energy
Writer: Gene Monteith

Ohio's status as a leader in photovoltaics could shine brighter should a $46 million US Department of Energy grant come through.

The $46 million grant, expected to be announced by early 2011, would be shared between the University of Toledo and Dow Corning Corp. Earlier this year, two paired to form the Solar Valley Research Enterprise (SVRE), which submitted the grant application to the DOE with wide support from the two states' governors, Congressional rosters and private industry.

The grant would be part of $125 million in funds available though the DOE's Photovoltaics Manufacturing Initiative, which seeks to establish three national centers of expertise in the field by 2015.

Split evenly between the SVRE partners, half of the funds would be used to establish the Photovoltaics Manufacturing Initiative Center on the Toledo campus, separate from the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization based there, but working in conjunction with it.

The Wright Center was created in 2007 and supports research and test locations located at the University of Toledo, Ohio State University and Bowling Green State University.

"I tell people the SVRE would be like the Wright Center on steroids," says Rick Stansley, co-director of the Wright Center and chairman of the UT Board of Trustees.

He estimates a direct impact of 800 jobs added to the area, and an indirect impact six or seven times as large.

The partnership has already received grants from both Ohio and Michigan, including a $3.5 million grant from Ohio Third Frontier. Along with the Ohio "node" of the SVRE, Stansley said the grant money would be used to set up a similar center in Midland, Mich., near the corporate headquarters of Dow.

Both sites would work with a cluster of private companies, government labs and universities to further solar cell development, making it more competitive with traditional energy sources. The centers would also help guide new solar panel start-ups in the northwest Ohio-southern Michigan area.

Source: Rick Stansley, Wright Center for Photovoltaics
Writer: Dave Malaska