Advanced and Alternative Energy : Innovation + Job News

The Ohio River laps the shores of the Buckeye and Bluegrass states, and a project involving both is creating a renewable energy source for the city of Hamilton.

American Municipal Power in Columbus in June broke ground on a hydroelectric plant at the Captain Anthony Meldahl Locks and Dam in Willow Grove, Ky., in northeastern Kentucky. The plant will add 105 MW of new, renewable generation to the region. Hamilton will own 51 percent of the plant, as well as the license for the facility. AMP, a nonprofit conglomerate of 128 power companies in six states including in Ohio, will own the remainder of the plant.

"With the Meldahl project partnership, Hamilton continues its goal of providing cheap, green, renewable energy to Hamilton citizens," said Hamilton Mayor Patrick Moeller.

It's estimated that the half-billion-dollar Meldahl project will employ 200 to 400 construction workers and create up 20 permanent operating positions. The plant is expected to go online by 2014, and will generate about 70 percent of Hamilton's electricity. The city owns another plant in near Portsmouth.

"The hydroelectric generation currently being developed by AMP is a large part of a coordinated effort to reduce our members' over-dependence on the volatile wholesale market and create a balanced power supply. At the same time, this development effort is creating jobs and economic development in the region," AMP President/CEO Marc Gerken said.

Source: American Municipal Power
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

When up and running, the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center will represent a first-of-its-kind effort to make Ohio a leader in creating clean energy jobs.

A groundbreaking is planned for October for the new 20,000-square-foot Center in Lima. The center, a non-profit incubator, will initially house a flexible fabrication and robotic assembly demonstration project. It will focus on several technology clusters including design and development, sustainable energy, advanced materials, agile tooling, additive manufacturing technologies, simulation software and others.

The center is designed to create new, high tech manufacturing jobs in Ohio. The state has a history of manufacturing and innovation, but has lost some manufacturing jobs like much of the Midwest as global economic conditions have shifted. State economic development leaders and government officials in Lima see the center as way to recapture the state's manufacturing tradition by creating new manufacturing solutions and processes.

The center is backed by state and federal dollars, including $1 million the federal government awarded the project in 2009.
 
It's just been awarded a $457,375 state Roadwork Development Grant, and the center has applied for a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

A site for the center was chosen and secured within Lima's Ohio Job Ready Site program site located on South Main Street, says Judith Cowan, the center's president. 

Sources: Ohio Department of Development and Judith Cowan, president Ohio Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Estech believes it has found a clean energy alternative to fossil fuels -- and a way to keep from filling up landfills. With sales pending around the world, it's hoping that when the technology catches on, it will create hundreds of new Ohio jobs developing and building garbage-baking autoclaves.

Founded in 1998, the Powell-based company takes municipal waste and cooks it down to usable components.

"When we get through with that, it's easy to separate out the fiber, which is really clean when we separate it out, and metals, aluminum and plastics," says Ted Thomas, manager of engineering. "And all of those have a value in a recycle market."

Thomas says Estech is well positioned to provide both cheaper electricity -- by burning processed biomass -- and savings on municipal landfill costs.

While the process is straightforward, the market realities are more complicated. In the United States, it's now difficult to compete with a typical landfill's low "tipping fees" -- the cost of dumping garbage. Regulations also present a barrier to hooking up generators to the existing power grid, Thomas says.

But in much of Europe, where land is more limited and tipping fees represent a hefty cost for waste generators, Thomas says Estech, through Estech Europe, expects to make significant inroads into the marketplace. Likewise, Estech sees opportunity in developing countries where the cost of dumping may be free (in other words, along the road) but the cost of electricity is extremely high.

Thomas says the company now believes it could also operate profitably in the U.S., reducing the need for landfills and providing electricity cheaper than utilities -- if it can hurdle the barriers to market entry.

Estech received a TechColumbus Green Innovation award last year. It employs seven.

Source: Ted Thomas, Estech
Writer: Gene Monteith

There's another solar player coming to Toledo. And it's making no secret of its big plans to shed additional light on the local economy.

California-based Sphere Renewable Energy Corp. has developed Buckeye Silicon at the University of Toledo with a blueprint to manufacture lots of polycrystalline-silicon production modules � poly-silicon is a critical ingredient in the production of solar panels.

BeSi's headquarters will be located on the UT campus, but the manufacturing facility will be situated on the UT Technology Corridor. Full-scale production is expected by the end of 2010 � and so is the addition of as many as 150 jobs within 18 months.

Mark Erickson, COO and senior vice president of Buckeye Silicon, says there are a few reasons the company decided to set up shop in Northwest Ohio. First he credits the solar industry already in place for making the area attractive and UT for being a leader in renewable energy research.

"Northwest Ohio was attractive because of our ability to tap into a skilled workforce," Erickson says. "Without too much training we're able to get skilled workers to operate our facility."

He also points to Toledo's geographic position -- a major interstate system, railway system and a deepwater port make the region attractive.

Erickson says cooperation between local businesses, higher education and the public sector in Ohio is unprecedented. The state has committed to giving BeSi $2.7 million in loans to get started. The Rocket Ventures client also received a $50,000 Rocket Ventures Ignite! grant.

Source: Mark Erickson, Buckeye Silicon
Writer: Colin McEwen

Based on what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, corn ethanol production is beginning to look more and more attractive. And thanks to research done by Arisdyne Chief Technology Officer Dr. Oleg Kozyuk, that process is poised to become even more efficient.

Kozyuk's patented hydrodynamic cavitation process significantly increases ethanol yield, thus improving a producer's profitability. It does so by increasing the amount of starch that is released during processing without increasing the system's demand for energy.

"This is an incredibly simplistic, small-footprinted, energy-efficient system that significantly increases ethanol yield," explains Arisdyne VP Fred Clarke.

With some 200 or so ethanol producers scattered about this nation's Corn Belt, Clarke sees nothing but growth in the coming months. "We are on the precipice of announcing our first sale," he notes. "Getting past the first adopter problem will be our biggest hurdle."

The Cleveland-based company licenses the technology and maintains equipment. Or, as Clarke explains it, "Just like Xerox was in business of selling copies not copiers, we license the capability to enhance ethanol yield rather than sell equipment."

Since receiving in 2007 a $1 million alternative fuels grant from Ohio's Third Frontier, Arisdyne has jumped from three to 12 employees. As new agreements are reached with ethanol producers, that figure is expected to climb, says Clarke.

Source: Fred Clarke, Arisdyne
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Northeast Ohio has expanded its business attraction efforts outside of Ohio, hiring a full-time director to lead an international marketing program designed to attract two to four new companies to the region in the next two years.

Team NEO, a business attraction organization that represents the region's largest chambers of commerce in a 16-county area, last month hired Bernardine R. van Kessel as Director, International Business Attraction. Team NEO also has contracted with PM&P Consultants of Germany to act on its behalf in Europe.

The initiative is financed by a $1-million, two-year grant from the Cleveland Foundation and is intended to reach out not only to European companies but to business interests in Canada and China for renewable energy, biomedical and advanced manufacturing opportunities.

Carin Rockind, Team NEO's vice president of marketing and communications, noted that a new Team NEO report issued last month demonstrated that northeast Ohio is well-positioned for "clean tech" growth. Those industries now represent $12.5 billion, or 7.5 percent of northeast Ohio's economy, but are expected to grow more than 20 percent in the next five years.

"Northeast Ohio in particular has the benefit of tremendous access to transportation systems in terms of rail, highway and port access," she says. "Then, our workforce is accustomed to these particular (high tech) industries."

Rockind says Team NEO has set a first-year goal of 10 "hard leads" (a company that could bring at last 20 new jobs to the region and commit to at least $1 million in capital investment) -- and a goal of 12 such leads in the second. The organization also is developing a process to work with foreign businesses that aren't ready to open new offices here but are interested in U.S. partners.

Sources: Carin Rockind, Team NEO and http://www.clevelandplusbusiness.com/
Writer: Gene Monteith

NorTech's vision for a thriving advanced energy cluster in northeast Ohio just got a boost.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration awarded NorTech $300,000 to fund a series of "roadmaps" leading to a cohesive regional strategy.

It's hailed as the first competitive federal grant to northeast Ohio for development of an advanced strategy.

Kelly South, NorTech's senior director, communications, says the grant will "help us and the region do a deeper dive in four advanced energy sectors that we think have real promise. These roadmaps are going to help us assess the assets that exist in the region and what (we need) to do to get from point A to point B."

She says NorTech Energy Enterprise, the organization's energy initiative, will lead the effort and focus on energy storage, smart grid development, transportation electrification (think electric cars) and biomass.

It's not the first dollar in the pot for NorTech, a regional nonprofit tech-based economic development organization that serves 21 counties in northeast Ohio. Last fall, the Fund for Our Economic Future, a regional economic development philanthropy, committed $1.7 million over two years to NorTech to lead an advanced-energy initiative.

"So we received a sizeable grant in September to really launch our advanced energy initiative and be a focal point for driving growth in the advanced energy industry," South says.

Efforts include education, advocacy and forming collaborations, she says, in addition to helping form groups like the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., which is focused on commercialization of wind power in Lake Erie. The organization named its first president, Lorry Wagner, last week.

Source: Kelly South, NorTech
Writer: Gene Monteith

Spun off from Eveready in 2003, Blue Spark Technologies finally finds itself on the cusp of a new market for printed battery technology.

The idea is a battery that is thin, flexible and produced using familiar printing and production methods.

The technology was initially pursued by Eveready's Energizer group, whose research labs were, like Blue Spark, located in Westlake. When the industry reshuffled its priorities in 2002-2003, Blue Spark was spun off, backed by venture capital from Cleveland-based Early Stage Partners.

Today, the company is focused on a battery that will power a new breed of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip -- chips that are affixed to an item and tracked using a reader.

In fact, a Finnish company with an automatic vehicle identification system is close to integrating Blue Spark's technology, and CEO Gary Johnson says that means the company could soon start reaping revenues. 

"They could be used for toll collection . . . it could be used to integrate the vehicle registration into the tag, and so forth," says Johnson.

In September, Blue Spark and U.K.-based Novalia, which designs printed electronics products, announced a marketing agreement to create and launch new kinds of interactive printed media. The idea is to make items like singing greeting cards more interactive with the consumer and to make them cheaper to produce at high volumes.

Matt Ream, Blue Spark's vice president of marketing, says "the most exciting thing is we're on the cusp of something big, some pretty big market growth."

The company completed series A financing in 2007, raising $6.2 million in a round led by SunBridge Partners; it closed a $1.5-million series B round last year. It currently has eight full-time and five part-time employees.

Sources: Gary Johnson and Matt Ream, Blue Spark
Writer: Gene Monteith

At Tremco, it's not only about being a part of the "green" movement. It's about staying ahead of the curve.

The Cleveland-based company is creating a photovoltaic roof that is both functional in creating energy and protective of the building's integrity � the latest sustainable product in Tremco's long history.

"Sustainability has become one of the most important subjects in the construction industry, if not the most important," says Deryl Kratzer, Tremco's roofing and building maintenance division president. "If we don't focus constantly on helping our customers meet their sustainability goals, we will lose a competitive advantage that we have built over 80 years. We will also be disrespecting our founding principals."

One of the features of the new solar roof will allow for the removal of the PV module from the protective roof membrane for maintenance and eventual recycling. If developing a useful renewable energy solution isn't green enough, Tremco will offer a "cradle-to-cradle" business model, allowing the leased roof system, at the end of its service life, to be deconstructed, recycled and reused as raw materials for a new roof.

The company's Roofing and Building Maintenance Division received a $1-million grant from the Third Frontier Advanced Energy Program toward the building-integrated solar project � a global market expected to exceed $1 billion next year.

Tremco (which belongs to parent company RPM Building Solutions Group) employs more than 1,100 internationally. More jobs in Ohio � many of them specialized positions � are expected, Kratzer says.

"We also expect to develop new processes and technologies which will help the system advance the cause of 'green' construction, and have a positive impact both on Ohio's economy and on energy costs for those using the BIPV system," he says.

Source: Deryl Kratzer, Tremco
Writer: Colin McEwen

The users of Sunflower Solutions' device don't need to be experts in solar energy. They don't need superhuman strength. They don't even need to know English.

"As long as they're not colorblind," says Sunflower's founder Christopher Clark of his device's simple instruction manual.

Clark's vision is this: to bring low-tech solar power to the developing world. The 23-year-old, recent graduate of Miami University, says the idea sprouted from a project involving engineering students who were charged with developing a business plan for a human-powered well pump.

"I thought there has to be a better way to do these sorts of projects," Clark says. "If these areas had electricity, people could do a number of things, like have clean drinking water."

The result is EmPower, Sunflower Solutions' staple: a low-tech, lightweight solar device that follows the sun's rays to obtain optimal energy. The system is simple � there are no motors or microprocessors. To operate, there are a series of simple color-coded instructions. A truly DIY-approach to solar energy.

The system has already been shipped to places like Rwanda and Kenya. This summer, Sunflower will power a hospital in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Other than a $30,000 grant from Cleveland's Civic Innovation Lab, Sunflower Solutions has been completely self-sufficient. There are about 35 people who work for the company.  Clark calls the workforce a "community," a group of "solar evangelists" who believe in the good work of the company. There are plans to grow, with a larger sales force and a manufacturing facility.

Source: Christopher Clark, Sunflower Solutions
Writer: Colin McEwen

Jerrold L. Hutton became dean of the Hocking College Energy Institute in 2003 "with a briefcase and three students."

Today, the Institute has a brand-new green building, 131 students and hopes to add two new associate degrees next fall.

The new building in Logan was deliberately built next to the Logan-Hocking Industrial Park Hutton says. The facility, which opened last September, serves as a hands-on learning lab for students studying in energy programs such as alternative energy, fuel cells, and vehicular hybrids

The Institute currently offers two associate degrees: one in applied science and advanced energy and fuel cells; the other in vehicular hybrids and electrics and fuel cells.

"Starting this fall, if everything goes well with the (Board of) Regents . . .we will start two new agriculture-focused programs which will be under our advanced energy but it will be a major in regenerative design for sustainable development with a specialization in energy production -- and the other major will be a specialization in bioproduct production."

The $3.4-million building on 15 acres allows students to work hand-in-hand with nearby companies within the industrial park, Hutton says. In December, the Institute was awarded $498,000 as part of a $1.49-million Ohio Third Frontier grant for a collaborative project with Lewis Center-based fuel cell manufacturer NexTech Materials.

The Institute has plans to install a tape casting line in a building leased within the industrial park for production of anodes, cathodes and electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells, Hutton says.

Meanwhile, the Institute building -- powered by geothermal, photovoltaics and wind -- is awaiting word on a LEED Platinum designation for its green building design -- an honor that would make it the first Ohio college or university building to win such a designation, Hutton says.

Source: Jerrold L. Hutton, Ph.D., Hocking College
Writer: Gene Monteith

Nexergy is on the cutting edge of advanced battery technology -- a niche that helped the company add nearly 20 jobs between 2009 and early 2010.

The Columbus-based company is working on some of the technological challenges of building lithium ion battery packs -- a battery that produces more energy per weight and size than anything else on the market.

Lithium ion batteries today are used in many consumer products, like notebook computers and cell phones (by contrast, Nexergy builds battery packs for high-value portable electronics like medical instruments and tools, safety and security equipment). But they have a couple of problems when battery size increases -- they can generate a lot of heat and they have to be carefully controlled with electronics. That makes developing a large lithium ion battery that can be used in such things as electric vehicles a major technological challenge.

"One of the big issues that the industry is dealing with in kind of moving up the food chain in getting lithium ion used in bigger and bigger packs for things like wheelchair batteries or lawnmower batteries or electric vehicle batteries," says company founder Phil Glandon.

Nexergy is helping to solve that problem in a collaboration with GrafTech, Mobius Power, and the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. The companies are receiving $965,000 from the Ohio Third Frontier to build a next generation of applications for lithium ion power.

Overcoming those challenges could mean tremendous growth for a company like Nexergy if it's able to convert its large lead-acid battery business to lithium, Glandon says. The company, which also has operations in California and Colorado, employs 165 in Ohio.

Sources: Phil Glandon, founder, and Sean Harrigan, president and CEO, Nexergy
Writer: Gene Monteith

Pop quiz: Frogs are good for making (choose one): (A) Handsome princes, (B) Muppets
(C)Biofuel. The answer, according to a University of Cincinnati research team, is (C). Sorry, Kermit.

The Cincinnati team used plant, bacterial, and fungal enzymes to make a special foam � like that made by the semi-tropical Tungara frog to develop tadpoles � to produce sugars from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Those sugars can be converted to ethanol.

This procedure may trump plant photosynthesis to create sugars because it uses no soil, and it can be used in highly enriched carbon dioxide environments.

The journal Nano Letters published these findings of UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Carlo Montemagno, Research Assistant Professor David Wendell and student Jacob Todd online last month and plans to use it for a cover story this fall.

Other media attention is starting to steamroll. The research also has been featured on HeatingOil.com, PhysOrg.com and BioFuels Watch.com, to name a few.

Science blogger David Bois, writing on Tonic, called it "a breakthrough."

"The innovation, astonishingly, appears to be even more efficient than nature itself, at least in terms of the amount of solar energy going in compared to the amount of energy contained by the output hydrocarbons. . . . Actual plants are required to expend energy for reproduction and survival. The lab creation doesn't have such requirements, and accordingly can put all of the incoming solar energy work into making hydrocarbons."

Maybe it's easy being green after all.

Source: Wendy Beckman, University of Cincinnati
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

It almost sounds too good to be true: Transform old tires, carpet, and other polymeric trash destined for the landfill into readily useable fuel. This trash-to-treasure tale is no fantasy; it is precisely what three modern companies already are doing on a daily basis.

Vadxx, an eight-person firm headquartered in Cleveland, has perfected a technique that transforms discarded tires and waste oil into synthetic crude and natural gas. The oil is sold to energy marketers while the gas is reserved to fuel future processes. The company has multiple letters of intent to build large-scale units, including one from the Portage County Solid Waste Management District.

"This is one advanced energy concept that if we achieve our objectives the marketplace will overwhelm it because the capital costs are so small," explains CEO James Garrett.

Joseph Hensel, chairman of Akron-based Polyflow, says that what distinguishes his company from the others is the range of waste that the Polyflow process can utilize. "This is a stunning process designed to handle a truly mixed range of polymer waste," Hensel explains. Tires, carpet, PVC pipes and plastic children's toys that would otherwise clog up a landfill are broken down to oil that is sold to local blenders. For every ton of waste processed, the system yields .7 tons of fuel.

Polyflow is currently scaling up its pilot program to a unit that can handle two and half tons of waste per hour. "I'm hoping that you'll soon see this in every major municipality," adds Hensel.

Princeton Environmental uses a different technology to turn trash into fuel. Sorted solid waste is converted to synthetic gas in a process called gasification. That highly efficient gas is then burned in a turbine to generate electricity. The New Jersey-based company has plans to build its first U.S. power plant in Cleveland.

All three of these processes eliminate or greatly reduce the production of noxious emissions and carbon dioxide, making them far greener than the trash-burning power plants of yesterday.

Sources: James Garrett, Vadxx, and Joseph Hensel, Polyflow
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Starting this summer you may see them zip past you on the road, glide up to parking meters and idle at the corner stop sign. But one place you never will see certain owners take their Chevrolet Equinox, Saturn Sky or Pontiac Solstice is the gas station.

Three-year-old Amp Electric Vehicles of Blue Ash has begun taking orders for conversion of those cars' platforms from traditional gas to emission-free electric power. The first deliveries are expected this June � ahead of its retail competitors, according to the company.

Amp will demonstrate its converted cars at the New York Auto Show next month.

"In the conversion process we remove all of the combustion engine related components. We then replace (them) with two direct drive electric motors and our battery array. In placing the 100 percent electric drive train, we place it so the weight distribution is within 1 percent of the original combustion engine weight. In that way we are able to maintain the original handling characteristics and safety features," Amp executive J.D. Staley says.

The Equinox � which can be seen in the Amp showroom in suburban Cincinnati � will reach a top speed of 90 miles an hour, and will go from zero to 60 miles per hour in approximately eight seconds, with a charge voltage of either 110V or 220V. It will travel up to 150 miles on a single charge. Cost is about $50,000, after government incentives.

Staley says Amp had a 312 percent increase in employees year over year in 2009. "We are continuing to grow a bit so far this year. As we ramp up to full production we will be in need of additional skilled and unskilled labor."

Source: J.D. Staley, Amp Electric
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs