Innovation Pipeline

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers think miscanthus could pack a special punch for the biofuel world.

The giant perennial grass is a lignocellulosic feedstock. It offers an alternative energy source outside of the controversial food category of plants like corn.

A dozen or more companies are currently building or operating plants in the U.S. to produce ethanol from nonedible plants or lignocellulosic feedstocks.

Miscanthus could conceivably be used as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. And that could translate into less agricultural acreage devoted to biofuel energy sources. [Read more →]

One big problem of converting to solar generated electricity is what to do when the sun goes down. To ensure electrical current on the grid doesn’t sharply fall off, requires an industrial-scale electrical storage system to smooth out short term fluctuations. It’s a problem at the heart of realizing a renewable energy economy.

There’s an added urgency for storage systems when considering the California Public Utilities Commission recently mandated that retail sellers of electricity purchase 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010, and the New York Public Service Commission is mandating 24 percent by 2013.

The quest for a large-scale electrical storage system is a complex and challenging proposition. Being able to stockpile electricity for later use has been an area of active research projects for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences. There are six promising energy storage technology research areas being pursued: pumped hydropower, compressed air energy storage, batteries, flywheels, superconducting magnetic energy storage and electrochemical capacitors. Because of the wide range of applications, there’s no one storage technology that’s suitable to span the power requirements from the low end of hundreds of kilowatts to ten gigawatts.

And there are several start ups like EEStor, AltairNano and A123 trying to crack open the problem with varied approaches for industrial scale storage device that connect to the grid.

What to do now in terms of storing energy?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemist Daniel Nocera and his postdoctoral student Matthew Kanan devised an innovative, low energy approach for extracting oxygen from water using small amounts of electricity, common chemicals and a room temperature glass of water. Removing oxygen from water is no simple feat. It typically requires lots of energy and lots of maintenance to make it work [Read more →]

Ask anyone about the role of innovation in today’s economy and you’re sure to hear a unanimous endorsement of innovation’s function as a fundamental driver, delivering competitive value and new opportunities.

The dirty little secret is: the practice of innovation lacks discipline and process in the large majority of today’s established public companies (tech included) and startups. Why so?

There’s an abundance of books on the topic of innovation and a handful about process and discipline. The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has noted the disconnect, as has SRI International CEO Curt Carlson in his book The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want.

It’s the rare organization, corporation or university that has the discipline and process in place to kick out truly innovative ideas in a predictable fashion. [Read more →]

The rising specter of energy costs is front and center concerns for businesses. Much of the buzz in the marketplace is about clean tech innovation. New designs for air conditioning and refrigeration systems don’t get their fair share of the spotlight.

But according to Eckhard Groll, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, more efficient heat pumps and integrated approaches to heating and cooling is where big savings can happen. System integration is one of the biggest topics and areas for innovation being discussed among engineers, says Groll. Nowhere is this more evident than in home air conditioning systems. The heat dispensed from an air conditioner is released into the air and wasted. That same heat can be captured and used, for example, to heat water for household purposes. [Read more →]

California’s water infrastructure has been suffering from years of neglect and investment. Federal and state leaders have finally seen the writing on the wall and they’re trying to pull themselves out of denial.

On July 11, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Dianne Feinstein took the wraps off of a $9.3 billion bond proposal designed to overhaul California’s water system. Expanded water storage, efforts to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and several conservation projects across the state were part of the big plan.

But the real question is how far does a $9 billion investment push the needle in helping modernize an aged water infrastructure badly in need of monitoring and management technologies to watch over this most precious resource in the state. One could say with complete confidence (and the assistance of a pun) that the $9 billion investment is only a drop in the bucket for what’s needed in the long run.

The California deal has plenty of hurdles to overcome before it makes it to the November ballot. Two big areas come to mind: self-serving politics and fuzzy, light-headed thinking (that takes comfort in the world of denial). The Golden State will no doubt find itself suffering on consumer, business and farming fronts if some tough, rational and forward thinking decisions are not made soon. [Read more →]

In a landscape of endless sand and brilliant sunlight, Abu Dhabi has embraced a solar ambition to match its towering skyline and ultra modern cities.

For the past 50 years, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been known as a powerhouse for oil production. But over the next half century, it wants to become known as a global leader in sustainable energy technologies. Its recent plan and $2 billion investment in renewable solar thin film technology will place the kingdom in the elite of global solar energy producers.

This new city being built near the city of Abu Dhabi in the center of the UAE is part of the Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion government-funded investment program designed to jumpstart the country’s long term plans to benefit economically from the growth of sustainable energy technologies.

What’s new? Recently, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. revealed its plans to expand its investment in solar energy by contracting with Applied Materials to purchase three SunFab thin film lines for producing solar modules. Those three SunFab lines are expected to annually produce modules with a targeted capacity of up to 210 megawatts (MW), or enough energy to power approximately 70,000 homes. [Read more →]

Thomas Rooney is a veteran of the water industry and knows all to well the classic problems and new opportunities. He is currently the managing director with RCI, an engineering consultant practice. But in his prior executive position at Insituform, he was privy to the vagaries of the water business. Knowing the pain points for the industry and having a view for where things are headed, we decided to sit down with him and get his perspective on the investment opportunities, the technological innovation and challenges facing both the water utilities and buyers. This interview is an excerpt from a recently published, in-depth investment research report called Water Matters: Venture Investment Opportunities in Innovative Water Technologies by The Artemis Project.

Innovation Pipeline: Based on your experience in the water industry, what do you consider to be the biggest drawbacks for new investors placing investments in water tech sectors?

Thomas Rooney: The biggest drawback is the dearth of pure-play water investments. Many top-tier water players are just a small part of a conglomerate such as GE, Danaher, Siemens or Pentair. There are a handful of pure water, mid-tier players such as Insituform and Mueller, and then a huge drop-off to a highly fragmented level of micro-tier players. The top-tier players can’t really be considered water investments. The mid-tier players are trading at huge multiples to earnings as a result of their scarcity, making them hard to rationalize. That leaves investors with the challenge of scouring over hundreds of small or micro-level water technology companies in order to invest smartly in water. Add to that the fact that this is a truly global market and the new investor needs to scour North America, Europe, and Asia as a minimum. Bottom-line is a dearth of obvious choices, high multiples where it’s obvious, and a great deal of due diligence to find a clean deal at a reasonable multiple.

Another serious drawback to investing in water is the fickle nature of the spending that underlies water. With 50,000+ water “utilities” in the USA alone, you have a highly decentralized, unsophisticated client base making erratic buying and spending decisions. Add to that the fact that spending on aged water systems is rarely seen as politically advantageous and you quickly get spending that at best is reactionary or break-fix, but more often than not spending is only driven by federal mandates, if at all. The bottom-line is that spending on aged water systems is a low-priority discretionary spend of last resort. If public coffers are full the money gets spent, but if times are tough, the spending spigot stops quickly. All of which makes investing in water tricky due to high volatility.

The irony here is that that which makes water tricky to invest in also makes it very lucrative for the smart investor. The smartest investors are the ones who do the due diligence required to spot the small “under-the-radar-screen” technologies and/or companies, invest in them early, grow them to size (often using a platform plus add-on strategy) and then go public or flip them to a strategic buyer. Past examples would be Zenon (now GE Water) or US Filter (now Siemens), while others are in the embryonic stage right now. [Read more →]

Named after the great American architect Buckminster Fuller, buckyballs are getting a lot of attention at Purdue University. Part of Purdue’s research is focused on the environmental impact of these ultrasmall particles.

Concerns have been expressed that release of any nanoparticles into the environment could harm the microorganisms plants, people and other animals depend on. Purdue researchers came up with two approaches to see if ????????????????????????buckyballs change the way microorganisms do their jobs. One was to analyze the genetics of microorganisms to look for changes, the other was to measure the output of carbon dioxide and methane, which are released when microbes degrade organic matter.

A few thousand miles to the west of Purdue, researchers at the University of California at Davis are also hoping to start a research institute devoted to studying the potential environmental consequences of nanotechnology.

Water scarcity is a big problem for much of the western United States. But recently other parts of the U.S. unaccustomed to the pinch at the pipe have been feeling the pain. Areas like Raleigh, North Carolina, and Atlanta, which have awakened to huge challenges in the drinking-water department.

Is the growing problem of scarcity spurring better water management and infrastructure investment (25 to 30 percent of drinking water is lost to leaks)?

Recent survey data from Changewave Research indicates there has actually been a slowdown in spending.

The survey was taken in the first quarter of this year and addressed 147 water-industry and technology buyers. Two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said overall spending on water projects will increase over the next 12 months. But that’s a 14-percent decline since Changewave’s previous survey, in June 2007.

Where will the money go? Survey respondents said wastewater treatment and water-infrastructure repair were the big magnets for investment over the next two years. The companies leading the way in water-sector spending are General Electric and Flowserve. [Read more →]

For more than 200 years, scientists have observed the phenomenon of specific materials’ dual personality to convert heat into electricity and electricity into heat. Known as the thermoelectric effect, the challenge for scientists and researchers has been how to harness this energy conversion.

A team of researchers from MIT and Boston College have developed nanotech structures that can serve as either micro-cooler and power generators and thus greatly boost energy efficiency. And that’s welcomed news for solar innovators, semiconductor engineers and others in the heat dissipation business looking to dramatically boost efficiency.

The problem the researchers tackled is a classic one. Most materials that conduct electricity also conduct heat, which results in rising temperatures for materials. Therein lies the rub.
[Read more →]