Sustainability : Innovation + Job News

ABSMaterials is partnering with the College of Wooster on a plan that aims to turn the campus into a zero stormwater discharge campus, and a model for the rest of the country.
 
Jenna Blankenship, Executive Assistant at ABSMaterials, says they’ll use their patented Osorb technology on the project. Engineered in 2005 by Dr. Paul Edmiston, Peterson Chair of Chemistry at the College of Wooster and co-founder of ABSMaterials, Osorb is used in water treatment applications to detect and separate contaminated molecules.
 
“As stormwater travels, it picks up all sorts of contaminants, including oil, pesticides, nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and household chemicals,” Blankenship explains. “As a result, the surface water becomes polluted, which causes a number of problems related to water quality and algae growth.”
 
Blankenship believes this is an overlooked issue, ineffectively communicated to the public considering the hundreds of millions of Americans that rely on clean surface water for their drinking water, crop irrigation and recreation. “Lake Erie, for example, provides drinking water for almost 12 million people […] but around 5 billion gallons of untreated water is discharged to the lake every year.”
 
ABSMaterials previously worked with the College of Wooster in 2011. A field site was constructed with an Osorb rain garden and a control garden, funded by the National Science Foundation. Blankenship counts that prior relationship as key to developing this new project, noting they recently completed a site survey to select areas where stormwater systems should be built on campus.
 
“The areas selected are places where there is excess stormwater runoff that needs to be managed,” she says. “We will submit a final outline of the plan to the College in February, and construction should begin a little later in the year.”
 
 
Source: Jenna Blankenship
Writer: Joe Baur

When Deej Lincoln bought Interior Products Company two years ago, he thought he would build upon the commercial millwork company’s reputation for creating beautiful libraries. While the company continues to do library work, a new business built on sustainability, recycling and a bit of nostalgia has evolved.

Reclaimed Cleveland harvests wood from Cleveland properties slated for demolition and turns what they find into functional works of art. “We wanted to build the business in a new direction, and we got into wood reclamation,” explains Lincoln. “The idea resonated with our Interior Products Company customers.”
 
From benches and console tables to bottle openers and iPhone skins, every Reclaimed Cleveland product is stamped with the address of the property from which it came. Much of the focus is on old homes, which have a lot of old-growth wood, and churches.
 
“Obviously, there’s a sustainability component to it,” says Lincoln. “But there’s an aesthetic component that comes from a talented designer.”
 
The inspiration to create products from reclaimed wood came almost out of necessity. “About a year ago, we were sitting on all this wood and we had no furniture designed or built,” says Lincoln. “I said we have to have some holiday gift items at a low price point.”
 
From there, Reclaimed Cleveland made a bottle opener and marketed it through flash sales. “We immediately sold out of them,” says Lincoln. “We were impressed and pleased with the fact it took off as well as it did. I regret as a company, we didn’t do it sooner.” The products have even found a following outside of Cleveland.
 
Aaron Gogolin, who co-founded A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), joined the company in 2011 He helped produce the original products for Reclaimed Cleveland and helps maintain assembly and design standards. David Meyers joined in 2011 and is key in new product designs and branding of Reclaimed Cleveland. The company employs a total of 12 people.

 
Source: Deej Lincoln
Writer: Karin Connelly

A virtual trade mission taken by University of Cincinnati MBA students and local industries has turned into a very real product that could put a dent in food shortages across India.

Next year, new solar-powered refrigerator products will be tested on an aloe farm in the developing country early next year. If successful, the SolerCool could be a reality for Indian farmers, just in time for summer.

The product is a self-contained cooling unit that relies on the sun for power. It's a box that measures 10' x 7' x 11', and is topped by solar panels. SolerCool was developed through a collaboration between former and current UC students and local industries, including SimpliCool Technologies International LLC in Waynesville.

The idea for the technology came after the MBA students and SimpliCool attended a "virtual trade mission" to India in July 2011. The mission was part of a Business Law for Managers class taught by Ilse Hawkins, an attorney and adjunct professor of accounting at UC. The mission virtually brought Cincinnati and Indian businesses together to find ways of partnering to better preserve Indian produce.

Today, 30 to 40 percent of produce in India is lost to spoilage because of lack of refrigeration options, Hawkins says. India, with 1.2 million people, faces chronic food shortages.

"While we were doing the mission, we had this tiny, insulated structure that kept audio visual materials at proper temperature," Hawkins says. "We thought, 'Why couldn't we create a structure powered with solar panels like that that could be put anywhere on a farm?'"

Shortly after that meeting, Hawkins took a group to India where the idea was further flushed out. Eventually, a collaborative effort led to the creation of the SolerCool unit.

MBA students worked on a business plan, helped with the initial feasibility calculations and networked with Indian businesses who might contribute to the product.

Mohsen Rezayat, chief solutions architect at Siemens UGS PLM Software and adjunct professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, primarily worked on the engineering of the solar panels in the SimpliCool-manufactured cooling cube.

UC does not own the product, and therefore won't be profiting from its sales, Hawkins says. However, SimpliCool has vowed to contribute to UC's College of Business to fund further travel to India if the idea is successful, she says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter

NASA will showcase its best developments in its Space Technology Program November 28-30 at NASA Technology Days, held at Cleveland Public Auditorium. The event will allow the public to see what technological developments come out of NASA Glenn Research Center, many of which could be adopted and implemented in the private sector.
 
NASA Glenn is working with NASA’s Office of Chief Technologies, which conducts ground experiments to further space technology. “Ninety-nine NASA technologies will be showcased,” says Joe Shaw, deputy director of NASA’s Office of Technology Partnerships and Planning. “We want to demonstrate the existing technologies.”
 
Attendees will have the chance to see technologies ready for commercialization, learn about opportunities to partner with NASA on technology development and meet with major research companies.
 
The technologies featured can be transferred into a variety of industries, says Shaw, such as advanced energy, automotive, human health and innovative manufacturing. “These are technology experts showing off their technologies,” says Shaw. “Even though they were developed for space aeronautics, they can be broadly used across many sectors. These industries are extremely important, not just for Northeast Ohio, but for to the Midwest. There are a large number of people in these sectors.”
 
The hope is Technology Days will build partnerships and foster technology transfer between NASA and local businesses. “These technologies can be moved quickly to the commercial sector, which creates economic development, which creates jobs,” says Shaw. This will give companies a chance to learn about the opportunities.”
 
The event is free and open to the public.

 
Source: Joe Shaw
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Ohio State University (OSU) is investing in a study aimed at improving synergy between campus operations and surrounding ecosystems. The long-term goal is to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of campus operations, thus saving money while also protecting the environment.
 
“The goods and services provided by ecosystems are often underappreciated, particularly in our increasingly techno-centric society,” explains Bhavik Bakshi, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. “We tend to think of technological solutions before thinking about whether nature can provide solutions.”
 
Bakshi and his staff will consider technological and ecological systems that the university depends on as integrated synergistic networks. “Such a view allows us to find win-win solutions that have economic and environmental benefits,” Bakshi says. “We believe that developing such techno-ecological networks is an essential part of sustainable development since it permits explicit consideration of ecological constraints in technological design.”
 
Universities across the country are looking to improve the efficiency of their operations while also implementing sustainability measures. Due to its size and prominence, Ohio State proves to be an excellent testing ground for such a study.
 
The university is a network comprised of technological, ecological and social systems. Buildings, roads, trees, lawns, faculty and staff make the campus what it is. “By finding synergies with ecosystems, we can discover ways to reduce costs while enhancing the quality of life on campus and moving toward sustainability,” Bakshi says. Finding synergies is also necessary to keep the university’s commitment to climate neutrality signed by President Gee.
 
Initially, the plan is to develop models of the technological and ecological systems in a section of campus, and use the models to help understand the impact of adopting environmentally friendly alternatives to, for example, lawn mowers and other aspects of landscaping.
 
“In the long run we expect to use such insight to develop a part of campus as a living laboratory for sustainability studies,” Bakshi explains. “This will involve making changes in relevant technological and ecological systems with involvement of people who use the selected area.”
 
 
Source: Bhavik Bakshi
Writer: Joe Baur

Athens-based Ecolibrium Solar has launched Ecofoot2, an update on their base for the installation of solar panels.
 
“The Ecofoot2 supports the corners of solar modules on flat roof and it ballasted to hold modules in place,” explains CEO and founder Brian Wildes. It combines the key components of the original Ecofoot – speed and cost effectiveness – with integrated grounding, wire management and increased weatherability.
 
Research and development for the Ecofoot2 began almost immediately following the successful launch of the original at Solar Power International 2011 in Dallas. Ecofoot was named “most impressive product” by SolarPro and has since been shipped to 18 states.
 
“Our design and engineering team generated 20-plus iterations of Ecofoot2, which were analyzed and optimized using virtual Finite Element Analysis (FEA),” Wildes explains, responding to customer requests. “Prototypes of various concepts were tested, and we then worked with an engineering firm to manage component sourcing.”
 
The final design was submitted to Colorado State University for aerodynamic analysis and Paul J. Ford for engineering to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
 
Wildes says the new design is part of Ecolibrium Solar’s mission to make solar commonplace. “Ecofoot2 is the next step towards grid parity,” he boasts. “We are making solar more cost competitive with traditional energy by offering the lowest price per watt in class, tremendous labor savings with record breaking install speeds, and reductions in overhead through simple products and a streamlined ordering process.”
 
 
Source: Brian Wildes
Writer: Joe Baur

Mixed polymer and rubber waste represent the most robust source of energy available in our waste stream today. Yet, astonishingly, we landfill more than 90 percent of these materials annually.
 
Akron’s Polyflow, LLC, has an environmentally responsible solution. “We design and manufacture energy-recovery systems that convert mixed-polymer waste to fuels and petrochemicals before the waste reaches landfills,” explains CEO Jay Schabel.

The company, which was just established in June of 2012, recently struck a deal with private equity firm Ambassador Enterprises of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to form a new business to commercialize Polyflow’s systems. The new company – RES Polyflow, LLC -- will remain in Akron. The “RES” stands for renewable energy solutions.
 
“The influx of capital will help us scale up efforts to commercialize our technology and create new jobs in the renewable-energy industry in Ohio,” Schabel states.
 
He explains that Polyflow will be producing renewable energy locally and profitably. “Our fuel-conversion equipment doesn’t require excessive sorting, handling or cleaning of mixed-polymer waste and will significantly reduce the need to landfill or incinerate millions of tons of plastic waste annually.”
 
Polyflow’s pilot unit is in Akron, and the company used it over the past four years to prove its process, validate the chemistry involved and provide end-product liquid samples for testing and verification. “We conducted 80 test runs and successfully converted eight tons of mixed-plastic waste into crude oil,” Schabel says.
 
The company is completing fabrication of its first full-scale, continuous-feed processor. The facility is in Perry, Ohio, in Lake County, and will be able to convert polymer feed into the same fuels as the pilot-scale processor but in large volumes.  A grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier Advanced Energy Program in 2011 made this project possible, Schabel notes.
 
“Our goal is to provide licensors of our technology, such as landfill operators, recyclers,  organizations managing large polymer-waste streams and energy-park developers, with the most profitable, efficient and scalable solution for plastic-to-oil conversion. “Energy-park developers put together funding, find a location and jump through the approval hoops to get permits to vet technology for investors in the park,” Schabel explains. “They then build the entire energy park.”
 
The company plans to add technical support staff in 2013.

Source:  Jay Schabel, RES Polyflow, LLC

Corrosion is a serious global problem of massive proportions, according to Todd Hawkins, managing director of Massillon’s Tesla NanoCoatings Limited.

In response to the problem, Tesla NanoCoatings worked with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) for five years to engineer Teslan -- a revolutionary carbon nanocoating to control corrosion.

The company recently leased 1,000 square feet of space at Stark State College’s Advanced Technology Center to conduct expanded research and development on Teslan. According to Hawkins, the product has potential applications in the aerospace, petrochemical, transportation, marine and industrial markets.

“Teslan’s foundation is fullerene, the toughest, most resilient and most effective organic protective coating developed for metals,” Hawkins explains. “It’s stronger than diamonds. One of its major characteristics is that, if damaged, it will transfer electrons to the defective site and non-corrosion will occur.”

According to Hawkins, Teslan has undergone extensive exposure and immersion testing in both fresh and sea water by the U.S. Army ERDC in various locations across the country. Other testing has been ongoing internally at NASA and Battelle as well.

“Now’s the time for expanded research and development, and we’re excited about this opportunity with Stark State,” he says. “Collaboration is vital to bringing new ideas to fruition, and we look forward to a very productive relationship with Stark State.” The company will be recruiting engineering students as interns.

The college was instrumental in Tesla NanoCoatings receiving a $100,000 startup award from the Innovation Fund, a regional fund that supports technology-based entrepreneurial endeavors and emerging businesses.

“We’re proud to welcome Tesla NanoCoatings to our campus,” says Para M. Jones, Ph.D., president of Stark State College. “Stark State is a supporting member of the Innovation Fund, and we’re very pleased Tesla NanoCoatings received a startup grant. This funding will assist them in further commercializing their groundbreaking corrosion control coating, and we look forward to their success.”

Hawkins established Tesla NanoCoatings in 2007. The company currently has five employees, and Hawkins anticipates bringing on additional employees by the end of the year.


Source:  Todd Hawkins, Para Jones
Writer: Lynne Meyer

eQED is developing a solar microinverter that will improve the efficiency of solar panels. As with all solar panels, an inverter converts the output from the panel to AC power. Normal setups use one large inverter for an entire string of solar panels. eQED’s technology places one small inverter under each panel, increasing the amount of power gained from each solar panel.
 
The HIKARI microinverter provides improved energy harvesting, is more reliable than traditional inverters, and is easier to install and requires little maintenance.
 
“With the microinverter you can adjust each panel individually to adjust for shade or bright sun,” explains John Patrick, chief technical marketing officer. “This way you can extract up to 15 percent more power in shady conditions and five to 10 percent more power in normal conditions.”
 
eQED’s 250-watt HIKARI solar microinverter earned the company a NorTech 2012 Innovation Award in March. eQED is a partner company of Quality Electrodynamics (QED), a medical imaging company. Both are growing substantially. QED employs 87 people – up from 75 a year ago.
 
“We probably have five or six openings right now,” says Patrick. “eQED has 10 people, but that number will grow quite a bit as we commercialize the product.” eQED is in the final stages of development before sending it to market. Patrick says they expect to conduct testing on several hundred units later this year and begin commercial shipments in early 2013.
 
 
Source: John Patrick
Writer: Karin Connelly

After more than five years of research and development, Toledo’s AquaBlok has finally released its signature product, which has the same name as the company. The product has several purposes, including isolating contaminated sediments, acting as a nutrient management tool and water clarifier and serving as a seed delivery alternative for wetland plant restoration.

“AquaBlok provides a low-permeability ‘seal’ under water without any mechanical compaction or special equipment,” explains John Collins, general manager and chief operating officer. “You simply pour it through the water, and it creates an isolation layer that will minimize water flow or the spread of contaminants.”

According to Collins, AquaBlok is a patented composite particle technology that uses a central core, typically stone aggregate, to deliver various fine-grained coating materials for a broad range of environmental applications. The particles act as a delivery system, placing active ingredients through a water column or targeting locations apt to come into contact with water.

“It was successfully tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a 2005 project under the Superfund Innovation Technology Evaluation program,” Collins says.

While there are competing approaches to AquaBlok, it’s a patented product and there are no directly competing products, he notes. “Primarily we offer ease of handling and simplicity. Other approaches can easily fail if materials are not handled or installed properly. Our products provide a consistent result without use of specialized equipment or materials.”

In 2007, AquaBlok introduced PONDSEAL.  “PondSeal was introduced as a companion product to AquaBlok,” Collins states. “Our objective was to have a product targeted more to pond and erosion related applications that would be sold more to individuals and general contractors rather than for larger environmental remediation projects.”

AquaBlok has 10 full- and part-time employees. The company received investments from two venture capital funds – Rocket Ventures in Toledo and the Ohio Tech Angels in Columbus – that are affiliated with the Third Frontier program.
 
Source:  John Collins, AquaBlok
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

Fueled by a US EPA grant, University of Cincinnati faculty and students are leading an effort to transform cooking grease into biodiesel on a regional scale.

This project is a collaboration among UC, the Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) and Bluegrass Biodiesel of Falmouth, Ky. The partners will test three methods to extract oil from the grease, including one the University is planning to patent.

Longer term plans are that this oil could be used in a biodiesel mixture to power diesel equipment and vehicles.

Grease hauling is an industry vital to restaurants, which pay haulers to dispose of used cooking grease. But the grease has to disposed of, usually in landfills.

"MSD receives grease from haulers," says project leader Mingming Lu, UC associate professor of Environmental Engineering. "The grease -- a mix of solid and liquid -- are from restaurant grease traps. MSD also has grease from the waste water it receives. The two kinds of grease are mixed, skimmed and condensed. This is called trap grease. It's stored in a pond and then sent to a landfill."

The EPA awarded the biodiesel effort an $87,000 grant during the the 8th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in May. The project was chosen from among 300 presented by college and university innovators across the country.

Up to seven UC students will be involved in the effort, Lu says. It's set to start in September and should last two years. It will include pilot demonstrations and a 100-gallon pilot treatment facility in collaboration with MSD.

"This is technology verification. We will try several technologies and see which one is the most effective for MSD," Lu says.

By Feoshia Henderson
Follow Feoshia on Twitter

The Central Ohio-based company e-Cycle wants you and your business to understand the importance of responsibly recycling your mobile devices.
 
“A lot of our clients don’t even know that they might be sitting on a goldmine,” says Founder and CEO Christopher Irion, who launched the campaign after receiving feedback from corporate leaders who were unaware a company like his existed. “If a company has 1,000 used blackberries, that could be worth $50,000 of access to sensitive corporate information.”
 
Irion wants e-Cycle’s current and prospective clients to know there is a solution to safely disposing sensitive information. “e-Cycle will not only pay you for all the used devices, but also make sure that all your personal and corporate information is deleted from the devices.”

Best of all, they’re able to do so in an environmentally friendly manner. “The last thing we want any individual or corporation to do is get rid of these devices by disposing them in a trash can, because of the environmental risks associated with it.” All mobile phones are shredded at their facility with the shredded materials recycled in an ISO Certified, EPA-registered facility where the materials are reclaimed for reuse.
 
e-Cycle has been hosting events with current partners and targeting prospective clients through email and marketing campaigns to help spread the good word. The response from the business community has been strong. With over 14,000 corporate customers, e-Cycle is continuing to grow.

“Based on the amount of phones we’ve received from this initiative, this will be the best month in company history,” explains Irion. “We’re really excited about not only this month, but obviously the impact this is having on our future business.”


Source: Christopher Irion
Writer: Joe Baur

University of Cincinnati research has led to cutting-edge software that will monitor wind turbine health, allowing the machines to work as efficiently as possible.

Students and faculty at UC's Center for Intelligence Maintenance Systems are testing an early version of the software, based on real-world data from commercial wind farms near Shanghai, China, and in Taiwan and North America.

The software is potentially groundbreaking because most wind turbine performance figures are based on computer models. Since the technology is so new, there is still much unknown about the real-life, long-term performance life and maintenance needs of these high-priced energy generators.

"This is a very closed community. It's tough to get them to open up. We were very lucky to get the (real-world) wind data," says UC doctoral student Edzel Lapira, who co-authored "Wind Turbine Performance Assessment using Multi-regime Modeling Approach." His paper, which was recently published in the Journal of Renewable Energy, analyzed two years’ of operating and environmental data from commercial wind turbines, as well as information on the maintenance software.

This data in essence drives the software, which has several aims, according to UC:

• To predict maintenance needs so a wind turbine experiences near-zero downtime for repairs.
• To aid just-in-time maintenance functions and delivery of needed parts.
• To decrease spare-parts inventory.
• To ultimately predict and foster needed redesigns for wind turbines and their parts.

The team behind the research includes engineering master’s student Dustin Brisset, engineering doctoral students Hossein Davari and David Siegel, and Ohio Eminent Scholar Ohio in Advanced Manufacturing Jay Lee, professor of engineering.

The group continues working on the software, while seeking a wider community of wind farms to test, Lapira says.

"Prediction, that is the overall goal," Lapira says. "Eventually the software will predict that there is a fault, where it is and what part would be needed to fix it. Right now (turbine) manufactures will look at a large number of systems and if they see something wrong, call the operator who will look into it. It's still manual and takes expert knowledge. We are trying to automate that expert knowledge."


Source: Edzel Lapira
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

"I want every drop of rain that falls in the state of Ohio to be drinkable," says Stephen Spoonamore, co-founder of ABSMaterials in Wooster. He and his partner and co-founder, Dr. Paul Edmiston, have developed a material that does just that.
 
The material, called Osorb, is a nanoengineered glass that absorbs non-point source polllution -- pesticides, herbicides, oils, gases and pharmaceuticals -- that make up the constant runoff from impermeable surfaces. ABS has recently secured a patent for the material.
 
The company, with 35 employees, has just initiated a B-round of seeking growth capital for R&D and expanding its customer base. Areas of research include storm water management, cleanup of water in the fracking process, remediation of former industrial sites and clean-room cleanup. ABS is the industry leader in the technology that cleans the water used in silicon chip fabrication.

“We’re the chemical garbagemen of the clean-room industry,” says Spoonamore.
 
ABS co-founder Dr. Paul Edmiston, who is the Peterson Professor of Chemistry at the College of Wooster, says, "Founding a technology based company is definitely a team effort. The science side has to be innovative and responsive, while letting the business side lead the efforts to market." Dr. Ediston won the 2011 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for the development of Osorb.
 
He adds, “It is incredibly exciting to see the innovations our team has worked on here at the College of Wooster labs move into the commercial space through ABSMaterials. Every day we are making things a little better for water quality.  It is humbling to see the idea just keep growing."


Source: Stephen Spoonamore, Paul Edmiston
Writer: Catherine Podojil