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Pure Quantum is at the forefront of this movement.
A clean-tech startup from Cornell University comprising
professors, PhD candidates and master’s students,
Pure Quantum believes solid state lighting (SSL) to be
the future’s best bet for efficient, sustainable lighting.
Its expertise in the creation and functionality of
quantum dots—customizable and versatile
nanoparticle semiconductors—has afforded the
startup a unique opportunity with which to succeed
in this expanding and evolving market.
“The [SSL] industry is very vast, with many players and
moving parts,” explains Pure Quantum’s Joseph Caron.
“The challenge was never ‘could we sell our technology,’
but rather in identifying which appropriate industry
segments and opportunities to pursue.”
Enticed by the incentives of the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) as well as the swelling demand for
innovative and cheaper SSL sources, Pure Quantum,
via its quantum dot technology, has focused its efforts
exclusively toward improving the manufacture of
the material used in light emitting diode (LED) bulbs:
producing quantum dots in very large quantities
with uniform quality and properties.
SOLID STATE LIGHTING
While LED popularity increases every year, the public’s
overall awareness remains dim; incandescent bulbs
and compact florescent lamps (CFL) persist as clear
consumer favorites. CFL bulbs are a trusted, energy-
efficient choice with an attractive price point; however,
their price is not reflective of their disposal cost and
environmental damage. Nor does their retail price
reflect the opportunity cost of avoiding LED bulbs.
When compared to CFLs, home LED bulbs are 30%
more energy efficient with an average life span of
50,000 hours (CFL bulbs last around 10,000 hours).
Additionally, LED bulbs eschew the dangerous, rare
Like a race to claim a promised land, the U.S. Department of Energy’s
initiative to adopt solid state lighting has sparked a frenetic interest
from scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs from almost every
sector of industry. It is an all-encompassing call to arms:
Let’s reimagine how we light our world.
CONNECTING THE DOTS
by Kevin Carr](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-4-2048.jpg)
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Scientists can engineer quantum dots to emit specific
colors when excited. In this way a blue diode can be
made to emit white light.
“Quantum dots have been researched intensely for the
past thirty years,” explains Caron. “But only in the last
few years have [dots] been commercialized and used
in products. There has been an absolute explosion of
possibilities, a grab bag.”
Caron’s sentiment is on point: Quantum dots are
currently used in many industries and for many
objectives, such as lighting, biomedical, solar power
and security. Lately, this technology has proven
especially useful for entertainment electronics.
In 2013, Sony launched a line of TVs using quantum
dots; Amazon used similar technology in the Kindle
Fire HDX 7 and HDX 8.9. Apple’s iPhone 6 is rumored
to be using quantum dot technology for its screens.
inexpensive, highly scalable phosphor material for SSL
manufacturers, helping to lower LED bulb price points
to a more attractive and sustainable level.
The Pure Quantum team – business lead Joseph
Caron, 23; co-technical lead Curtis Williamson, 24;
co-technical lead; Douglas Nevers, 27; advisor Richard
Robinson; and advisor Tobias Hanrath - is achieving
a lower LED price point in the research lab—a charge
first inspired through the research of Robinson,
a Cornell University professor.
QUANTUM BEGINNINGS
Richard Robinson’s work in nanoparticle synthesis,
nanomaterials, and structures of materials culminated
in The Robinson Group, a Cornell-based lab that
focuses primarily on “nanoscale energy research.”
A melting pot of experience and new ideas, his lab
pairs undergraduates and graduate students with
professors in a skillful and cutting edge manner.
Joseph Caron, Curtis Williamson and Douglas Nevers
first worked together in this setting.
Williamson and Nevers are chemical engineering PhD
candidates at Cornell who currently share the role of
lead researchers at Pure Quantum. Williamson is a
former employee of Evident Technology, a competing
quantum dot manufacturer; as a Pure Quantum
team member, he merges academic and industrial
experience. Nevers brings to the team more than
four years of chemical engineering experience
with a specific focus on energy systems. Both were
enthralled with the idea of expanding their work
onto a larger scale.
Caron is a first year master’s student in materials
science and engineering. He became specifically
interested in transitioning the discoveries and
inventions that emerged from Robinson’s lab into
commercial products: “I wanted to make sure what
I was doing had real world implications.”
This trio worked together in an unofficial capacity
until NEXUS-NY offered them an opportunity to
collaborate on the commercialization of their
technology. “NEXUS-NY was the catalyst,” explains
Caron. “We saw it as a great opportunity to take
what we were doing to the next level.”
Concerning lighting, quantum dots offer a solution to
the LED’s biggest dilemma: the absence of a natural
white light. The previous and still-ubiquitous solution
blends blue, red, and green LEDs together in a unique
way that emits a whitish color. This practice meets most
consumers’ needs; however, Pure Quantum is betting
on a better, more efficient way. By employing quantum
dots to act as phosphors (i.e., light converters), a blue
LED light is filtered, or absorbed, and quantum dots
convert this energy into a warm, white light.
Currently, the phosphors in phosphor-converted LED
bulbs make up ten percent of its cost. By creating
sustainable kilogram quantities of quantum dots,
Pure Quantum’s research has the potential to generate
Doug Nevers and Joe Caron](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-6-2048.jpg)
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MOVING FORWARD
Pure Quantum formally joined NEXUS- NY in January
of 2014 and has since thrived as a member of the
inaugural cohort of the clean energy accelerator.
In addition to the goals and fruits of their innovative
quantum dot batches, the team now considers the
health of the overall business. Says Nevers, “It is a
crash course on the scientific method of business.
Specifically, I am learning how to test and validate
business propositions or hypotheses, and understand
how my research efforts best fit within the larger
economic market.”
Pure Quantum has already made progress on
multiple fronts. They’ve defined target markets,
have focused on funding, and have improved their
capability to develop and test its product. “NEXUS
has been an eye-opening experience,” explains Caron.
“Despite initial hurdles, all of us have found that we
very much enjoy the challenge of creating a business.”
Their work in the lab has progressed quickly.
Impressively, Williamson and Nevers’ output per
“The ability to finely
control material at the
nanoscale level enables
mesmerizing applications.
The vision to mass-produce
[quantum dots] intrigues
me, given the seeming
paradox of nanometer
precision at large
production scales.”
-Douglas Nevers
quantum dot batch (in kilogram quantities) is
already comparable to the world’s leading manufac-
turers. Though still very much in research and
development, the team is confident in their vision.
But engineering challenges remain. Keeping the
dots uniform while in big batch production is not
as simple as “multiplying small recipes by ten.” The
larger the batch, the more complicated the dispersity
(i.e., matching of sizes). Nevers explains, “Designing a
robust process to produce quantum dot phosphors
at a large scale is the biggest challenge we are
currently facing. Since we are relatively new to SSL,
we are actively adapting our quantum dot expertise
to meet the growing needs of the market.”
Caron is also busy. As business lead, he is researching
potential long-term relationships and partnerships
to fuel and fund Pure Quantum for years to come.
He presents with confidence and expertise as he
aptly describes the markets, the competition, and
the important need for specified focus in a vast
LED industry. Caron’s fervor for clean technology is
matched only by his passion for business leadership,
and his abilities have guided him into the most
outspoken role in the group, one that is beginning to
look and sound increasingly familiar as a start-up CEO.
“Joe is doing very well in our program,” explains
NEXUS-NY executive director Doug Buerkle. “Joe has
fully embraced the entrepreneurial process. He has
actively and effectively engaged numerous customers
and successfully led a pivot towards SSL after first
exploring battery applications for his team’s quantum
dot technology. The team as a whole has met many
of the early challenges of a start-up business with
great focus.”
The potential of solid state lighting has never looked
brighter. The path towards complete adoption,
however, remains clouded. Pure Quantum aptly
represents SSL’s greatest paradox: reliance upon
disciplined science and willingness for intrepid
adventure. If and when Pure Quantum succeeds,
the Department of Energy may have them to thank
for discovering new land. In the least, Pure Quantum
will have played an active role in achieving $250 billion
dollars in national energy savings.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-7-2048.jpg)
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Much of the previous work done in the field was based
on technology typically used in computer microchip
manufacturing – an approach in which thin films of
material are deposited onto a current collector in
complex and costly ways. The approach used by
Hanrath and Richards grows silicon directly onto
copper in a solid state reaction, allowing production
to scale and the tuning of nanowire features to be
more precise.
Hanrath and his colleagues have been working on
silicon nanowires for a while, but recent breakthroughs
in their application in batteries have underscored
the need for a
high-throughput
process. “To success-
fully transition [the
technology] we need
to be able to fabricate
these materials at the
level of hundreds of
kilograms” says Hanrath.
“Moreover, one would
like to directly grow
the materials where
we need them (i.e. on
the electrode) to avoid
additional processing
steps. We recognized
that our process stands
out as a very attractive
solution to address this
scalability challenge.”
Fabricating 10,000
grams (10 kilograms) of
silicon nanowires is a daunting engineering challenge,
but Hanrath and Richards believe they’ve taken an
important first step in their lab. Hanrath believes the
challenge is similar to the development of polymers
and plastics 50 years ago. “Transforming polymers
from a bench-scale scientific discovery to a multi-billion
dollar industry involved several interesting chemical
engineering challenges,” Hanrath noted. “We’re excited
about the prospect of applying similar concepts
to develop methods for the scalable production
of high-quality nanowire electrodes to enable the
deployment and commercialization of emerging
energy technologies,” he adds.
The potential is exciting, too, resulting in batteries
that can hold a charge three times that of present
day conventional batteries, resulting in three times
the driving range between charges. Alternatively,
batteries can be three times lighter in weight with
the same range.
Hanrath explained, “It’s relatively easy for us to scale
this up; we’ve demonstrated we can do this. We can
take it from three grams to three kilograms. It’s a
matter of using it in a bigger reactor and addressing
the processing technologies to structure the silicon
on a larger scale.”
The team’s business mentor, Charles Hamilton, explains:
“Functionalized silicon for battery anodes has been very
exciting to a lot of people for a number of years, but it
hasn’t lived up to its potential because of the inability
to scale the manufacturing. The missing link is the ability
to scale in a different way. “
“People have been trying to use the methods of microchip
manufacturing, which are great if you’re going to make a
high value microchip, but that is not scalable if you need
to make 10kg of battery material at a cost effective price.”
“The solid state growth of these functionalized materials
shows great potential in regards to scalability,” Hamilton
Charles Hamilton, Dr. Tobias Hanrath, and Ben Richards](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-23-2048.jpg)
![26
Dr. Stanley Whittingham is a local living legend. His early research
in the 1970s led to breakthrough technology in lithium-ion
rechargeable batteries that has since enabled breakthroughs in
mobile computing, telecommunications and personal mobility.
He is the holder of 16 patents; an author of more than 200
research papers; a professor of chemistry and materials science
and the director of the Institute of Materials Science at SUNY
Binghamton; and the director of the Northeastern Center for
Chemical Energy Storage - Energy Frontier Research Center at
SUNY Stony Brook.
Admirably, Whittingham’s immense presence is also a humble one, and his reclusiveness might just make him
New York’s most interesting and unique hidden gem. New Energy asked Whittingham about his legacy, his future,
the state of energy storage, and why, after all these years, upstate New York remains his home.
You have conducted research all across the
country and throughout the world. With
Silicon Valley leading the world in technology
innovation, what is it about upstate New York
that has kept you here all these years?
Binghamton is a good place to do research; it is the
right size. It is not too big, and it is easy to collaborate.
I’ve been here since ’89.
I think to some extent New York State is friendly to
researchers. We have NYSERDA (New York State
Energy Research and Development Authority) to
help us. In the battery sector, we now have NY BEST
(New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology
Consortium). All these organizations in the back-
ground are willing to help develop projects and get
things commercialized.
Plus, we’re different. Silicon Valley doesn’t do all
that much clean energy. Their biggest advantage is
Sand Hill Road, where all the venture capitalists live.
Startups have greater difficulty getting started here,
but there is a growing number, specifically in batteries.
Energy Pioneer Profile:
DR. STANLEY WHITTINGHAM by Kevin Carr
Your research in the 1970s cleared a path for
much of the technology we use today. Do you
consider yourself the father of the rechargeable
lithium-ion battery?
In a sense, yes. We built the first ones, but [the
batteries] weren’t necessarily a commercial success.
Some folks have said it paved the way to come up
with viable materials, so that is special to hear.
Considering so, do you enjoy today’s technology?
Are you an iPhone or Macintosh person? Do you
drive an electric vehicle?
I’ve had a Mac since day one of the Apple business.
Today, I use a Mac Air computer, an iPhone and an
iPad, and they all automatically talk to each other.
It has also been interesting and very difficult to
explain to today’s students that these things
didn’t always exist.
I recently drove a Tesla car and enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, they’re not yet winter vehicles. I need
four-wheel drive to survive Binghamton’s snow.
Q
Q
Q](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-26-2048.jpg)
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Your commitments as a director and a professor
must keep you busy. Is there any time left in
the day to get your hands dirty in the lab?
Right now, yes, because we’re moving building
locations and I’m helping with that. We have a new
energy center, the Center of Excellence. It is a better
space, air conditioned.
But usually I’m more of a mentor these days.
I think the students would object if I went into the
lab. I would mess things up (laughs). Up to about
ten years ago, I would go in and fix the equipment,
but they do that all themselves now.
I do miss getting in there sometimes, but there
are just too many people and not enough time.
Now that you research exclusively within
academia, do you miss working in industry?
Sure, but both academia and industry have their
pros and cons. I worked in industry for 15 years.
It was a great place to be, early on. They really
wanted to make some breakthroughs, and if you
wanted something, you got it instantly. Research
[back then] could really move fast.
Today, you still get to do what you want in
academia but the process takes longer.
What are the greatest obstacles facing energy
storage? Are we closer to where we want to be?
Energy storage gets better every day. You go back
a few years, and you didn’t have your iPads and
iPhones; you had these big clunkers that had huge
batteries in them. But it is getting better all the time.
I don’t think there will be any huge breakthroughs,
what they call quantum leaps. Most likely, energy
storage will increase a few percent every year.
The biggest issue right now is dollars. And trying
to get the price down.
Are we on the cusp of an energy crisis?
No, not in the sense that we were in the ‘70s. There’s
energy out there if you are willing to pay for it. It is
not like the water crisis in California. New York is very
lucky when it comes to energy. We have hydropower
coming from Niagara; we have hydropower coming
in from Quebec.
Then why the rush to improve energy storage?
Why care?
Because without improved energy storage we are
not going to get the next generation of vehicles.
Switching to hybrid-busses, as New York City wants
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Artist Rendering: Smart Energy Research and Development Facility at SUNY Binghamton](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-27-2048.jpg)
![28
to do, requires better batteries. I expect in the next
five or six years all cars will be hybrid, what they call
stop-start. In almost every case now, when you rent
a car in London, the vehicles are already stop-start.
But we still need better batteries.
Additionally, if you’re going to have a grid system
powered by solar and wind, the energy comes when
Mother Nature decides and not necessarily when
we want it. A) you’ve got to store the power, but B)
you also have to smooth it out; solar and wind power
goes up and down from second to second; batteries
can be used to smooth the energy for a constant
output to the grid.
Considering all that you have accomplished,
explored, and discovered, what remaining
quandaries or unanswered questions are
you most excited about? What keeps you
up at night?
Big things will always move along but the little things
have a way of impeding, such as bureaucratic and
funding issues. Those keep me up at night. Thankfully,
we just received a big award from the Department of
Energy, which should keep us afloat for the next
four years.
Our focus remains on energy storage; we try to
understand how batteries work and how to make
them work better. Right now, we only get about 25%
out of our batteries. Ideally, we’d like to double that.
What we don’t do is keep our eye on where the
technology might be used or how it might be used.
[Industry] knows that better than we do. What we do
want to do is close the gap between what the practical
energy storage capabilities are versus what they ought
to be.
Which sectors of battery research are showing
the greatest potential and promise (both within
NY and elsewhere)? Also, are there any budding
young researchers whom we should be watching
out for?
Worldwide, the most active and promising research
area remains in lithium-ion, improving cathodes
(oxides and phosphates). The younger folks [who are]
getting going are Louis Piper and Guangwen Zhou,
both at Binghamton. At a more senior level, you
should keep an eye on Lyndon Archer at Cornell.
Q
Q
Photos by Jonathan Cohen - Binghamton University](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/add4d3a2-ea9f-4df0-bd9e-641bc0635843-150515143409-lva1-app6892/75/NewEnergy-28-2048.jpg)
NewEnergy
- 1. Highlighting Clean EnergyInnovations in Upstate New York Pure Quantum American Fuel Cell Conamix EcoCeramic Envelopes Micatu Scalable Nanomaterials: Membrane Electrode Assemblies: Direct Growth Nanowires: Energy Efficient Building Façade: Rugged, High Precision Sensors: MOVING TECHNOLOGY FROM THE LAB TO THE MARKETPLACE
- 2. 2 Dear Friends, I joinedHigh Tech Rochester in September of 2013 when High Tech Rochester President Jim Senall offered me the opportunity to build a program to catalyze and accelerate clean energy start-ups in upstate New York – “a startup to help startups” as I like to say. Soon after- wards we settled on a name, the New Energy Xcelerator in UpState New York (NEXUS-NY), and began to develop our program while actively recruiting participants. Our story is similar to that of many startups: the first year went quickly; we made some mistakes along the way; and we are optimistic about future opportunities. NEXUS-NY was developed under the visionary leadership of NYSERDA. We are one of three NYSERDA sponsored clean energy proof-of-concept centers (POCCs). We pursue our mission by providing financial, educational, and business support to cohorts of clean energy “business discovery teams” located throughout the state. Our program has adopted, adapted and expanded upon the lean startup methodology to guide program participants towards three primary objectives: • To validate product-market fit • To develop proof-of-concept prototypes • To obtain third-party validation of their technologies and business models. Our first cohort has made great progress toward these objectives. NEXUS-NY is not your typical accelerator: our participants are solving difficult problems across multiple technologies, including advanced batteries, bio-fuels, fuel cells, building materials, demand response systems, sensors, solid-state lighting, and others. Most high-technology startups form well after a technical discovery leads to an “aha” moment in a research laboratory. Inside, you’ll learn how some of the NEXUS teams developed their inspiration and the realization that their technologies could solve signif- icant real-world problems. My personal aha moment came as I recruited and worked closely with several of the NEXUS-NY participants. While upstate NY is not universally recognized as a hot spot for clean-energy innovation, I believe the combined capability of our research institutions is unrivaled. Moreover, the passionate and serious pursuit of entrepreneurship, which typifies NEXUS-NY participants and the larger community of New York’s technologists, gives me hope that many world-changing innovations will continue to happen right here. I hope you’ll take the time to read about the exciting technologies and business opportunities the NEXUS-NY teams are pursuing. In lean startup terms, this magazine is our “minimum viable product” and your feedback will inform our “customer discovery” process. I feel compelled to brag a bit about the NEXUS teams and technologies and the emerging upstate clean-energy ecosystem - this magazine provides the platform to do so. If you like the first edition of New Energy, let us know and we’ll publish future versions. If you are a New York researcher who wants to see your clean energy technology emerge from the lab and solve real-world problems, I hope you’ll consider joining a future cohort of NEXUS-NY. Doug Buerkle Executive Director of NEXUS-NY Letter From the Executive Director of NEXUS-NY Cover Image: AFC MEA under test at Golisano Institute for Sustainability at RIT - © 2014 Mike Bradley (Images on pages 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 16,18, 23, and 37 - © 2014 Mike Bradley) www.nexus-ny.org
- 3. 3 NEXUS-NY is aprogram created and managed by High Tech Rochester (HTR), a venture development organization based in Rochester, NY. HTR’s programs and services span early stage tech commercialization, incubation of high-tech startups, and growth consulting services for small to mid-sized manufacturing firms. For more information on HTR and its impact on the Upstate NY region, visit: www.htr.org Pure Quantum Dr.Stanley Whittingham NYSERDA EcoCeramic Envelopes American Fuel Cell Eastman Business Park Cornell University Micatu Conamix About the Authors Reimagining how We Light our World with Quantum Dots An Interview with an Energy Pioneer How NYSERDA is Moving Energy Technology Out of the Lab and Into the Marketplace Building a Better Building, From The Outside-In Enabling Next Generation Clean Mobility Solutions Building an End-to-End Ecosystem for Energy & Materials Innovation An Innovation Hub in Energy Materials Developing Photonic Motion and Vibration Sensors for Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Transitioning Breakthrough Nanowire Technology Out of the Laboratory and Onto the Road Brief Profiles on the Authors High Tech Rochester 150 Lucius Gordon Dr. West Henrietta, NY 14586 585-214-2400 NEXUS-NY [email protected] @NEXUSNY Managing Editor Bob Loeb [email protected] Design bzdesign, inc. [email protected] www.bzdesign.co
- 4. 4 Pure Quantum isat the forefront of this movement. A clean-tech startup from Cornell University comprising professors, PhD candidates and master’s students, Pure Quantum believes solid state lighting (SSL) to be the future’s best bet for efficient, sustainable lighting. Its expertise in the creation and functionality of quantum dots—customizable and versatile nanoparticle semiconductors—has afforded the startup a unique opportunity with which to succeed in this expanding and evolving market. “The [SSL] industry is very vast, with many players and moving parts,” explains Pure Quantum’s Joseph Caron. “The challenge was never ‘could we sell our technology,’ but rather in identifying which appropriate industry segments and opportunities to pursue.” Enticed by the incentives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as well as the swelling demand for innovative and cheaper SSL sources, Pure Quantum, via its quantum dot technology, has focused its efforts exclusively toward improving the manufacture of the material used in light emitting diode (LED) bulbs: producing quantum dots in very large quantities with uniform quality and properties. SOLID STATE LIGHTING While LED popularity increases every year, the public’s overall awareness remains dim; incandescent bulbs and compact florescent lamps (CFL) persist as clear consumer favorites. CFL bulbs are a trusted, energy- efficient choice with an attractive price point; however, their price is not reflective of their disposal cost and environmental damage. Nor does their retail price reflect the opportunity cost of avoiding LED bulbs. When compared to CFLs, home LED bulbs are 30% more energy efficient with an average life span of 50,000 hours (CFL bulbs last around 10,000 hours). Additionally, LED bulbs eschew the dangerous, rare Like a race to claim a promised land, the U.S. Department of Energy’s initiative to adopt solid state lighting has sparked a frenetic interest from scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs from almost every sector of industry. It is an all-encompassing call to arms: Let’s reimagine how we light our world. CONNECTING THE DOTS by Kevin Carr
- 5. 5 earth elements andtoxicity so pervasive in CFL and incandescent bulbs, an attractive incentive for today’s more environmentally conscious population. Researchers in the last thirty years have unleashed the exciting potential of LEDs as alternative lighting sources. In supporting a somewhat nascent technology, government subsidies have been used to lower prices. Currently, LED bulbs can be found for sale below $10, a magnitude of order lower than their $100 introductory price. But this subsidized price is still not low enough to enable the mass paradigm shift the DOE has hoped for. As Caron explains, “Consumers are looking for low prices now. A one dollar incandescent bulb is a very attractive option when placed next to a ten dollar LED alternative. Awareness is secondary to price.” The DOE has spent millions on SSL-specific research since 2003. In 2014 alone, the DOE dedicated $10.5 million. The goal, of course, is to reestablish the market dominance: a wide adoption of LEDs as primary lighting sources for residential, commercial and industrial consumers, both public and private, a turning away from fluorescents and incandescents. The DOE estimates that switching to LED lighting over the next two decades could save the country $250 billion in energy costs over that period, reducing the electricity consumption for lighting by nearly one half, and avoiding 1,800 million metric tons of carbon emission. With $250 billion in the balance, it is easy to comprehend the DOE’s investment. But to accomplish this feat, LED bulbs must continue to improve in many areas: reliability, color, intensity and cost. Becoming ubiquitous, then, means that the SSL industry must continue to make strides in research and product development. For Pure Quantum, it is a challenge worthy of its reward: a big dream beginning on the smallest of scales. CONNECTING THE DOTS Quantum dots are surprisingly captivating nanoparticles. Manufactured in the laboratory, these materials offer the promise of customization. In their bulk state (many hundreds or more molecules grouped together), semiconductor materials exhibit specific and well know properties. When these same materials are made to be physically small, their properties can be designed/tuned for specific use. In the case of SSL, the physical property that is most interesting is fluorescence (the absorption of one wavelength and the emission of another). Joe Caron monitoring lab tests.
- 6. 6 Scientists can engineerquantum dots to emit specific colors when excited. In this way a blue diode can be made to emit white light. “Quantum dots have been researched intensely for the past thirty years,” explains Caron. “But only in the last few years have [dots] been commercialized and used in products. There has been an absolute explosion of possibilities, a grab bag.” Caron’s sentiment is on point: Quantum dots are currently used in many industries and for many objectives, such as lighting, biomedical, solar power and security. Lately, this technology has proven especially useful for entertainment electronics. In 2013, Sony launched a line of TVs using quantum dots; Amazon used similar technology in the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and HDX 8.9. Apple’s iPhone 6 is rumored to be using quantum dot technology for its screens. inexpensive, highly scalable phosphor material for SSL manufacturers, helping to lower LED bulb price points to a more attractive and sustainable level. The Pure Quantum team – business lead Joseph Caron, 23; co-technical lead Curtis Williamson, 24; co-technical lead; Douglas Nevers, 27; advisor Richard Robinson; and advisor Tobias Hanrath - is achieving a lower LED price point in the research lab—a charge first inspired through the research of Robinson, a Cornell University professor. QUANTUM BEGINNINGS Richard Robinson’s work in nanoparticle synthesis, nanomaterials, and structures of materials culminated in The Robinson Group, a Cornell-based lab that focuses primarily on “nanoscale energy research.” A melting pot of experience and new ideas, his lab pairs undergraduates and graduate students with professors in a skillful and cutting edge manner. Joseph Caron, Curtis Williamson and Douglas Nevers first worked together in this setting. Williamson and Nevers are chemical engineering PhD candidates at Cornell who currently share the role of lead researchers at Pure Quantum. Williamson is a former employee of Evident Technology, a competing quantum dot manufacturer; as a Pure Quantum team member, he merges academic and industrial experience. Nevers brings to the team more than four years of chemical engineering experience with a specific focus on energy systems. Both were enthralled with the idea of expanding their work onto a larger scale. Caron is a first year master’s student in materials science and engineering. He became specifically interested in transitioning the discoveries and inventions that emerged from Robinson’s lab into commercial products: “I wanted to make sure what I was doing had real world implications.” This trio worked together in an unofficial capacity until NEXUS-NY offered them an opportunity to collaborate on the commercialization of their technology. “NEXUS-NY was the catalyst,” explains Caron. “We saw it as a great opportunity to take what we were doing to the next level.” Concerning lighting, quantum dots offer a solution to the LED’s biggest dilemma: the absence of a natural white light. The previous and still-ubiquitous solution blends blue, red, and green LEDs together in a unique way that emits a whitish color. This practice meets most consumers’ needs; however, Pure Quantum is betting on a better, more efficient way. By employing quantum dots to act as phosphors (i.e., light converters), a blue LED light is filtered, or absorbed, and quantum dots convert this energy into a warm, white light. Currently, the phosphors in phosphor-converted LED bulbs make up ten percent of its cost. By creating sustainable kilogram quantities of quantum dots, Pure Quantum’s research has the potential to generate Doug Nevers and Joe Caron
- 7. 7 MOVING FORWARD Pure Quantumformally joined NEXUS- NY in January of 2014 and has since thrived as a member of the inaugural cohort of the clean energy accelerator. In addition to the goals and fruits of their innovative quantum dot batches, the team now considers the health of the overall business. Says Nevers, “It is a crash course on the scientific method of business. Specifically, I am learning how to test and validate business propositions or hypotheses, and understand how my research efforts best fit within the larger economic market.” Pure Quantum has already made progress on multiple fronts. They’ve defined target markets, have focused on funding, and have improved their capability to develop and test its product. “NEXUS has been an eye-opening experience,” explains Caron. “Despite initial hurdles, all of us have found that we very much enjoy the challenge of creating a business.” Their work in the lab has progressed quickly. Impressively, Williamson and Nevers’ output per “The ability to finely control material at the nanoscale level enables mesmerizing applications. The vision to mass-produce [quantum dots] intrigues me, given the seeming paradox of nanometer precision at large production scales.” -Douglas Nevers quantum dot batch (in kilogram quantities) is already comparable to the world’s leading manufac- turers. Though still very much in research and development, the team is confident in their vision. But engineering challenges remain. Keeping the dots uniform while in big batch production is not as simple as “multiplying small recipes by ten.” The larger the batch, the more complicated the dispersity (i.e., matching of sizes). Nevers explains, “Designing a robust process to produce quantum dot phosphors at a large scale is the biggest challenge we are currently facing. Since we are relatively new to SSL, we are actively adapting our quantum dot expertise to meet the growing needs of the market.” Caron is also busy. As business lead, he is researching potential long-term relationships and partnerships to fuel and fund Pure Quantum for years to come. He presents with confidence and expertise as he aptly describes the markets, the competition, and the important need for specified focus in a vast LED industry. Caron’s fervor for clean technology is matched only by his passion for business leadership, and his abilities have guided him into the most outspoken role in the group, one that is beginning to look and sound increasingly familiar as a start-up CEO. “Joe is doing very well in our program,” explains NEXUS-NY executive director Doug Buerkle. “Joe has fully embraced the entrepreneurial process. He has actively and effectively engaged numerous customers and successfully led a pivot towards SSL after first exploring battery applications for his team’s quantum dot technology. The team as a whole has met many of the early challenges of a start-up business with great focus.” The potential of solid state lighting has never looked brighter. The path towards complete adoption, however, remains clouded. Pure Quantum aptly represents SSL’s greatest paradox: reliance upon disciplined science and willingness for intrepid adventure. If and when Pure Quantum succeeds, the Department of Energy may have them to thank for discovering new land. In the least, Pure Quantum will have played an active role in achieving $250 billion dollars in national energy savings.
- 8. 8 From Concept toPrototype to Viable Products Researchers and inventors across the New York State are innovating at a breakneck pace, especially in the energy technology sector. Capturing and commer- cializing this flood of innovation is the challenge that NYSERDA is addressing with its unique Proof of Concept Center (POCC) program. This program is designed to enable early market testing of product concepts, testing that helps inventors build viable business models around their inventions. The POCC model takes the classic ‘software startup accelerator’ model found in tech startups across the globe and applies many similar processes to the complex world of energy-related technology innovation. The goal is to rapidly move conceptual designs into practical use in the marketplace. To learn more about the basics of the POCC program, New Energy spoke with Jeff Peterson of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). About Jeff Peterson Jeff Peterson manages the Innovation and Business Development Program at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Activities within the group focus on catalyzing and building a long-lasting ecosystem in New York to accelerate the start-up and growth of early-stage clean energy technology businesses. Examples of active programs include six clean energy incubators, three proof-of- concept centers, and test centers for solar electric systems and small wind blades. Peterson participates in activities involving the promotion of renewable energy. He serves on the GAMECHANGER: How NYSERDA Is Moving Energy Tech Out Of The Lab & Into The Marketplace by Martin Edic
- 9. 9 board of directorsfor the American Solar Energy Society and provides peer reviews of manuscripts submitted to Energy Policy – International Journal of the Political, Economic, Planning, Environmental and Social Aspects of Energy. In the past he was a member of the National Academy of Engineering Committee on U.S. - Chinese Cooperation on Electricity from Renewable Resources and the National Research Council Panel on Electricity from Renewables, in both cases serving as the lead for the chapter on the deployment challenges to deliver technologies to the market. He received a bachelor’s/master’s degree in Wood Science from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s degree in Industrial Administration from Union College. What was the idea behind developing the Proof of Concept Centers and how did it evolve? The Proof of Concept Centers (POCC) program was launched by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to help inventors and scientists across New York State turn high-tech, clean-energy ideas into entrepreneurial successes. They enable universities, scientists, and research organizations to partner with business experts and early-stage investors in order to move technical innovations beyond the lab and into the market. This encourages the growth of clean energy in New York State. The POCC’s are part of a broad set of strategies to establish an active ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation in clean energy technologies. What are the principal goals for the program? The goal of the program is to increase the likelihood that clean-energy technology inventions will evolve into successful business enterprises. The centers are accelerating the creation of new startup companies and commercialization of innovative technologies by connecting the developers of promising new technol- ogies with business mentors and potential investors. Where are the POCC programs located? There are three POCC programs across New York State: • Columbia University in New York City, partnering with SUNY Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Cornell NYC Tech • High Tech Rochester Inc. • New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, partnering with the City University of New York How did NYSERDA select the organizations to run the POCCs? The three POCC programs were selected from a pool of proposals submitted in response to a NYSERDA competitive solicitation. Based on a review and technical evaluation by NYSERDA and outside experts, it was determined that these organizations offered the best and most creative approaches to the program. HighTech Rochester’s NEXUS-NY (New Energy Xcelerator in UpState New York) program utilizes the Lean Startup methodology designed by Steve Blank at Stanford. Are other programs using this process? If so, how has it impacted the success of the programs? The Columbia University and New York University programs, while independent, have established a combined brand called PowerBridge NY. They cooperate in running the program and offer combined training sessions. PowerBridge NY is also following the Lean Startup methodology. The first class of teams is still hard at work in the POCC programs. It is too early, therefore, to discuss success of the program. Based on input from the NEXUS-NY teams in particular, the Lean Startup approach to customer discovery is stimulating a lot of creativity and is helping the teams direct their attention to strong market opportunities. Q Q Q Q Q
- 10. 10 Are there plansfor physical locations for this and future classes of startups, i.e. labs, accelerators, etc? The POCC program is part of a broad strategy to support clean energy technology startups in New York State. In addition, there are six clean energy technology incubators in New York and an Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program (operated by HTR) that provide mentoring/coaching to early stage companies. What kind of early feedback are you getting on this year’s programs? Are there things you’d do differently? NYSERDA contracted with the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) to assist in the establishment of an advisory board for the program. The advisory board includes private, public and academic representa- tives from across the country with deep expertise in technology and innovation-based economic devel- opment. The first meeting of the advisory board was in June. Each POCC outlined its respective activities. Feedback from the board has been incorporated into the next round of requests for applications. Do you see this expanding? These are five-year programs. At the end of the second year, each POCC will provide NYSERDA with a plan to make the program sustainable, to be able to operate without NYSERDA funding support. Modification or expansion of the program will be considered at that time. What kind of impact do you envision this having on both local economies and the general climate for energy startups in NY? The primary goal of the program is to translate clean energy technology research and invention into successful business enterprises. To the extent that this is successful, we expect there to be a local economic impact as the businesses grow and add jobs. From a broader perspective, we expect the programs to have influence across the research community to build an entrepreneurial perspective and drive towards new business ventures. What program auspices does the POCC fall under? The program is within the NYSERDA Research and Development program and is a component of the Innovation and Business Development group. We also spoke to Doug Buerkle, who directs the High Tech Rochester NEXUS-NY POCC program. The program expects to graduate eight teams in the coming weeks. Many of these teams have already formed companies that will go on to receive seed funding and continuing support from both HTR and NYSERDA. Doug, what was the overall takeaway from your work with the first POCC NEXUS-NY ‘class’ experience? There are several things that stand out. I was initially pleasantly surprised by the high quantity of high-quality applications we received from scientists who wanted to join the program. We believed we had a strong value proposition but, as with any startup, you never really know until you launch. Part of this has to do with two other takeaways: the quality of research taking place in Western New York coupled with the entrepreneurial passion, especially amongst some of the younger scientists in our area. Western NY is not universally identified as a hotspot for energy innovation, but I’d put our research institutions up against any in the country. Our research happens to take place in a decentralized fashion, but the combined capabilities of our universities are astounding. Lastly, I wasn’t sure how strongly our commercialization Q Q Q Q Q Q
- 11. 11 objective would resonate.I believe many observers would agree that universities have largely struggled to commercialize their innovations. I have been extremely impressed with the seriousness and passion exhibited by participants of the first NEXUS-NY cohort. When you explain the program to area business people, what is your concise description and how does it resonate within the business community? We generally say that NEXUS-NY helps accelerate the commercialization of energy innovations emanating from New York’s research institutions. At the highest level we want our teams to accomplish three things through the course of our program. First, we want them to fully understand the customer’s problem as it relates to their proposed technical solution. This is where the customer discovery process comes in. Second, we want them to de-risk their technology by building early prototypes. Finally, we want them to generate third party validation of their technology, ideally by engaging early potential customers in sample evaluation and/or demonstration projects. What are the continuing plans for the NEXUS-NY program? Thankfully NYSERDA has funded NEXUS-NY for five years. As a startup ourselves, we’ve learned a lot during our first cohort. We’ll take what we’ve learned, make some adjustments and start our second cohort in January of 2015. By the end of 2015, we will have developed a sustainability plan that proposes how we can continue to operate after the initial five-year period. Q Q “The PRIMARY GOAL of the program is to translate CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY research and INVENTION into successful BUSINESS ENTERPRISES.” -Jeff Peterson
- 12. 12 AMERICAN FUEL CELL byJay Pfluke From our houses to our hospitals, to our factories and our 21st century communications capabilities, to the motorized vehicles we depend on, there is a new energy source, a non-polluting, renewable, and inexpensive source that can supply us with both the stationary and mobile power required for these and numerous other applications. Fuel cell technology is emerging as a viable, elegant, innovative, and clean alternative to our nation’s dependence on crude oil. Fuel cell technology has many advantages over other forms of energy gener- ation and storage, though perhaps the key advantage is that its fuel source is hydrogen, a truly clean and abundant resource. Based on its innovative approach to the development and production of the key element of a fuel cell, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), American Fuel Cell (AFC) expects to be at the forefront of the adoption of fuel cell technology as the next game-changing energy alternative. RIT scientists observe MEA under test at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability
- 13. 13 In fact, accordingto Daniel O’Connell, the co-founder and CEO of AFC, fuel cells are the answer to America’s dependency on oil. O’Connell, along with co-founder and COO Dave Wetter, and senior industry expert Edward Himes, make up the core team of American Fuel Cell. The three have worked together on alternative energy solutions for more than 25 years. They began AFC after leaving their previous employer, General Motors, where they worked exten- sively on advanced tech- nology and electric vehicle programs. Combined, the three principals have more than 90 years of automo- tive experience, with 40 of those years devoted to fuel cell and electric vehicle technology. All three have been working as consultants in the energy industry, which gives AFC a distinct and disciplined edge in the development of fuel cells: a particular focus on the design, manu- facture, and implementa- tion of fuel cell modules, “a process that can change the energy industry as we know it today,” says O’Connell. To put the advent of AFC into perspective, there is a need for startups in this field, according to Navigant Research: At the end of 2013, 20 companies accounted for more than 95% of total revenue for the stationary fuel cell sector. The downside of this concentration is an innova- tion pipeline that may not be sufficiently robust to drive the technological advances that this emerging sector will require over the next five to ten years. When compared to other teams in the NEXUS-NY program, AFC is somewhat unique: It doesn’t have an academic affiliation – the principals come from industry. Also, AFC didn’t invent the fuel cell. Rather, its unique value or niche is in the team members’ understanding of how to optimize the system’s interactions and their vision of lowering the cost of manufacturing by 20% or more. While it focuses on one individual component, the MEA, AFC has a broad understanding of the overall fuel cell system, including the stack of cells, which fits into a power module that, when supplied with hydrogen, creates the electrical power that drives a vehicle or device. In the cost breakdown of a fuel cell, 22% of the cost is in the MEA, the most expensive component of all. As it designs and develops its proprietary MEA, AFC’s focus is on reducing the platinum used as the catalyst within the MEA and on improving the manufacturing process to align with the fuel cells’ ultimate application. Now in the prototype phase, small-scale models of AFC’s MEA are being produced in a laboratory and are currently in testing phase; the scale-up to volume production will begin in late 2014. Beginning with the MEA for fuel cells, AFC also has its sights set on the production of unitized electrode assemblies, fuel cells stacks and modules. But for now, the name of their game is membrane electrode assembly. Many startups refer to their unique and possibly patented technologies as their secret sauce, a recipe of ingredients that coalesce into their unique technology. As in the case of many successful startups, some of the ingredients are tangible, some are in a process, and some are the intangible qualities of their leaders; AFC expects to generate advantages in all three areas. The current technology – OIL – WILL NOT SUSTAINAmerica’s fuel consumption, FUEL CELLTECHNOLOGY WILL. -Dave Wetter
- 14. 14 According to AFC,one of the premier locations to produce a Membrane Electronic Assembly is in Rochester, NY. One of the components of a MEA is the membrane itself - a thin film, which is what Rochester, and more specifically, Eastman Kodak, is known for. With Kodak’s coating equipment in close proximity to AFC’s lab, the company is primed to “enhance the Kodak equipment to produce a cost-effective, high-volume, high-quality MEA,” says Wetter. Mixing in the capabilities of several other local companies and prominent universities, it is clear that Rochester has the proficiencies and the qualified people to help AFC thrive. Despite the downsizing of many industrial giants, “the people with the technical savvy and passion for a cleaner environment have remained in the Rochester area” according to O’Connell. These are the people and this is the area AFC is planning to leverage. What really separates and distinguishes American Fuel Cell is its passion: for clean energy technology, for creating jobs in upstate New York, and for creating a cleaner environment. AFC is not only aiming to become a company that will optimize MEA technology, but one that creates jobs. They will reach out to people who have been displaced and get them back to work doing what they love. Wetter and O’Connell believe local suppliers will also play a large part in creating jobs. For example, there are manufacturing plants in New York that produce enough hydrogen (as a byproduct) to fuel the at least 1,000,000 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEZV). Harvesting and transporting that fuel source would employ many. AFC’s focus will be to create a synergistic community. For AFC, it is not just about creating jobs, it is also about becoming an advocate for the community. Anatomy of a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA)
- 15. 15 A key tenetof the NEXUS-NY program is “customer discovery,” a scientific process for validating product/ market fit. For AFC, the market, and interest in its value proposition, was confirmed: fuel cell manufacturers and users want MEAs that are lower in cost, that can be manufactured in large volumes, and that can be adapted and modified depending on the end application. Also, it doesn’t hurt that AFC’s MEAs are American-made. Among the applications for AFC MEAs and other components are backup power (such as for cell phone towers, hospitals, military and other mission-critical applications), mobility (such as for fork lifts and other off-road industrial vehicles) and automotive (with the need for a source of clean power, fast refill, and longer distances driving). Surveillance drones, temporary lighting, and communications equipment - currently all powered by fuel cell technology - are being used in war zones and disaster areas throughout the world. There will always be a need for these applications; therefore, there will always be a need to make a more efficient and affordable fuel cell stack. The integration of electronic vehicles is within AFC’s scope as well. “We would like to be a supplier to the automotive industry at some point,” said O’Connell. In the fuel cell industry there is a lot of talk, especially from combustion engine purists, about horsepower and performance. Let’s not forget that O’Connell, Wetter, and Himes are “car guys” at heart with decades of experience with GM. “Fuel Cell powered vehicles are all about torque, instant torque,” stated O’Connell. He refers to an electric drill to describe the amount of torque MEA’s provide. “When you hit the trigger on an electric drill, there is instant power that can really twist your wrist if you’re not ready for it.” That same torque is present in Electric Vehicles. O’Connell mentions that drivers of EVs begin to appreciate the power available as soon as they test drive one. He recalls the surprise and “EV smiles” he has seen on first-time test drivers Dan O’Connell outside the Fuel Cell Testbed at RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability
- 16. 16 Productivity is essentialin a world of logistics. Forklifts and pallet trucks do a tremendous amount of the loading and unloading within the logistical chain. Currently, there are an estimated 6,575 fuel cell forklifts throughout the United States and Canada, and that number is sure to increase as companies are finding these vehicles are living up to their promise. “Fuel Cells are not just about torque,” Wetter added. “As long as there is fuel, the power remains constant.” In turn, productivity remains at peak levels. There are not too many startups that can boast about longevity and numerous successes. A major point of differentiation that separates AFC from other clean-energy start-ups is trust. O’Connell, Wetter, and Himes have known and worked together for more than two decades. Wetter and O’Connell promote a culture of faith. Passion, knowledge, and experience are common characteristics, but their resolve and ability to execute will define their company. Both Wetter and O’Connell cite trust amongst their team for allowing them to “deliver and do what we said we would do.” What they have done and continue to do is fuel each other’s desire to create jobs in Rochester and help contribute to a cleaner environment: “It really comes down to providing a technology that will make our world a better place,” they say. “We have seen first-hand what small teams can do, from start to finish, produce technology that supplies clean energy.” Creating the right team has been fairly easy with such a wealth of local talent. Starting a new fuel cell component manufacturing company is not without its trials. Despite coming from a corporate world, AFC’s abundance of experience has not necessarily prepared the principals to run a small company. As a startup company, AFC now has to approach developing and optimizing the company holistically. Decisions on parts, labor, office space, and marketing are team-based. “There’s no more picking up the phone and getting someone else to order parts,” says Wetter. This is where NEXUS-NY has helped AFC grow, providing strategic elements to help manifest the company’s vision. NEXUS-NY provides partial funding to accelerate the growth of AFC’s technology. However, optimization of an MEA requires additional funding. AFC is projecting it will take significant investment over the next two years to produce its ideal MEA. In progressing this far, however, O’Connell and Wetter both agree that NEXUS-NY‘s help has helped them move forward with their goal of forming a successful and profitable manufacturing company. American Fuel Cell MEA prototype
- 17. 17 The t-shirts andbumper stickers in the tourist shops around Cornell University read Ithaca is Gorges. In time, they may be selling trinkets that say Cornell is Energy Innovation. Tucked away amongst the bucolic waterfalls and ravines of central New York are Cornell scientists working in state-of-the-art research facilities second to none in the United States. AN EMERGING INNOVATION HUB IN ENERGY MATERIALS by Andrew Harrison Hector Abruna, Director – Energy Materials Center at Cornell (EMC2) Paul Mutolo, Director of External Partnerships – Energy Materials Center at Cornell (EMC2) Michele van de Walle, Industrial Outreach Director – Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) Lyndon Archer, Co-director – KAUST Center for Energy and Sustainability Emmanuel Giannelis, Co-director – KAUST Center for Energy and Sustainability NEW ENERGY RECENTLY SPOKE WITH FIVE CORNELL INNOVATION LEADERS: WHY IS THE WORK AT CORNELL IMPORTANT? Emmanuel Giannelis explained where the collective drive comes from. “As a society, the energy question is one of the two biggest questions we need to address in the next several years, and pretty quickly (the other being health). If we are able to solve the energy question, we can also address the water and environmental impacts. Energy needs are predicted to double by 2050 and we don’t have a good way to say that we are going to be able to meet that demand.” The work of these leaders ranges in focus, but not in magnitude. They are trying to solve problems that will fundamentally change how energy is created, stored and transmitted. Theirs and others’ innovations at Cornell will affect the cars we drive, the computers we use, and the cell phones we carry.
- 18. 18 The Cornell Centerfor Materials Research (CCMR) has been part of many high impact projects. Funded since the 1960s by the National Science Foundation (NSF), CCMR distributes grants to Cornell faculty members as well as to industry participants within New York State and beyond who would like to work with faculty or use the school’s facilities and tools. CCMR accepts grant applications regardless of an affiliation with the university. At CCMR, Michele van de Walle explains her role: “My mission is to connect industry scientists and Cornell faculty members to develop partnerships and help New York State small businesses in all areas related to materials. “We do that by assisting in quite a few areas such as developing prototypes, exploring new markets, solving technical roadblocks, conducting QA/QC, and developing new materials,” she adds. “In addition we are helping by developing innovative products, improving manufacturing processes, characterizing image materials, validating technologies and developing sustainable materials. We also work on technology transfer and economic development.” Cornell has tools, instruments and facilities that most companies either can’t afford or don’t buy because they don’t need them all of the time. “In addition, we have world class experts in their respective fields and we can find the right experts for businesses and provide a flexible and cost-effective way to get help,” she adds. In terms of industry, the work at CCMR has also helped bring businesses to Ithaca in order to be closer to the Cornell talent and facilities. Numerous successful start-ups have sprouted in the central New York region based on work funded by CCMR. One of the groups on campus that CCMR helps fund and also taps as experts is the Energy Materials Center at Dr. Richard Robinson with Joe Caron and Doug Nevers CCMR HAS ACTIVE PROJECTS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS: • Atomic Membranes • Controlling Complex Electronic Materials • Mechanisms, Materials, and Devices for Spin Manipulation • Seed Projects - Exploratory Research o Nanometer-scale patterning from templates of covalent organic frameworks o Diamond MEMS for quantum control and sensing o Characterization of Ligand Passivation Strategies for Semiconductor Nanocrystal Solids
- 19. 19 Cornell (EMC2). AtEMC2, they talk about the research they are doing in trying to develop better performing materials in fuel cells and batteries. “Fuel cells are the most efficient means we know of for converting a chemical fuel into electricity,” Paul Mutolo said. “In a heat engine, like the engine in your car, the maximum theoretical efficiency is about 50%,” Hector Abruna adds. “The actual efficiency of your car is about 25%. Cars have been around for a long time so they are highly optimized. A fuel cell, which is relatively new and un-optimized, is already at 50% to 60% in the lab. And it could go up to 90% efficiency.” Their work also focuses on what is next, with long term goals for developing revolutionary innovations. “We are looking for science-based solutions to problems that are in a five to ten-year time frame, not next month. These are complex problems that require multiple inputs,” Abruna said. In recent years, industrial participants have proven to be very good at incremental innovation, optimizing the performance of what already exists. But, disruptive technologies usually come from basic research. “Industry looks to groups like us for the future,” Abruna explains. “I’m paraphrasing, but no amount of optimi- zation will take you from a candle to a light bulb - it requires a very different knowledge base to get from one to the other.” Making a shift like that - candle to light bulb - is not so simple. “The innovation ecosystem starts in the lab. You need materials to make big drops in cost, big improvements in durability and big jumps in perfor- mance. Those materials require deep knowledge of atomic level processes that govern how a battery works and how a fuel cell converts a fuel into electricity. Knowing what the roadblocks are to current material sets gives us ideas on how to overcome those obstacles and get to a new material that will overcome those problems,” Mutolo says. In many academic settings, research has a very hard time transitioning from the lab to the commercial space, no matter how good the technology. “There must be a link between the basic research we perform and the end application within industry,” says Abruna. “Paul (Mutolo) shepherds the discoveries here into the application space, trying to get around the valley of death that can happen in academia.” “We are not working tucked away in a research lab hoping a groundbreaking technology will then find a home. We try to have industry conversations early, understand their needs, and solve important problems. That is market pull. It’s not just cute science followed by technology push,” Mutolo says. “It’s addressing real needs and providing scientifically sound solutions to their problems.” At the KAUST Center for Energy and Sustainability, they are working on their own solutions to complex problems. Giannelis has a broad portfolio of work in A FEW SELECT INNOVATIONS FROM EMC2: • High performing oxygen reduction catalysts, one of the stumbling blocks in fuel cells. • Development of alkaline membranes that allow researchers to work in base rather than acid. These membranes enable lower cost materials and higher efficiencies. • Development of a polymer system for batteries that allows the use of metal anode electrodes, such as metallic lithium. This innovation helps reduce dendrite formation, one of the primary failure mechanisms in lithium-ion batteries. • Theories to understand reactions at electrified interfaces. “We have Thomas Ariis here and he is a genius,” says Abruna. • Development of experimental tools to inves- tigate fuel cell technology under operating conditions. “This is very hard because these are very reactive interfaces and to observe them at the atomic and nano scale while they are operating as designed is complicated,” Mutolo observes.
- 20. 20 three main areas:carbon capture and conversion, water (developing better membranes for water purification), and energy conversion and storage. “On the capture side, we are developing absorbents. These are porous materials that act as sponges to absorb/capture CO2. If you put them at the exhaust of a power plant, and as you burn coal or natural gas, you need to grab that CO2. You fill the sponge with CO2. And you need to release it. You can’t take the sponge to landfill. It’s not economically feasible,” he explains. “As you reuse the sponges, they may start with 10% CO2, but after capture, you have 100% CO2, which you can use for various applications including getting more oil out of an oil well or to make fuels and organic compounds,” adds Giannelis. “We have a grant from New York State to take that to the next level and commercialize that technology. The conversion part is still exploring different options.” And the options in the conversion process could lead to great things. Lyndon Archer explained a potential application: “If you look at internal combustion, you can define a hybrid vehicle in a different way by using a battery that captures CO2 from the exhaust of your engine and coverts it into electricity. Initially it sounded like science fiction. But a year ago we showed it could be done. “What this means is you’d have a car burning fossil fuels, but instead of CO2 being put into the air, the CO2 gets captured and converted into electricity. You’d have a little cylinder in your car that would accumulate the CO2 as it’s released from the battery. Then like an oil change, you’d flip that cylinder out and off you go,” he adds. “A zero emission vehicle using the hybrid power system would allow us to do carbon capture in an automotive format. We are hot on that trail.” Regarding water filtration, the KAUST Center is working with a collaborator from Yale on membranes that don’t foul. Typically, when a filter is exposed to water, it picks up microorganisms that make the membrane inefficient. The more microorganisms it picks up, the more they foul the filter, which in turn requires more energy to get the water clean. “We have developed technology that makes membranes that don’t foul as easy and that can also be cleaned. We can make these membranes easily and in a scalable process. We’ve demonstrated this, we’ve measured the properties and we have applied for a patent and are looking for partners in the water industry,” Giannelis said. On the energy conversion and storage side, they are working on renewables. “For solar and wind, you have to convert energy, store it and then deliver it as needed. Sometimes it’s sunny, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it is windy, sometimes it’s not. Batteries and super-capacitors are required to store that energy and use it as needed. Like a memory device, it’s about storage capacity. How much can you store per volume? The more efficient the battery, the more you can store per volume,” described Giannelis. This also relates to the auto industry. In an electric car, a drawback is how much space you need for batteries in order to operate the car. If you had very efficient batteries, you could store a lot of energy into a tiny space in terms of weight and volume. Part of Archer’s work has been focused on boosting batteries that use metals as their anodes, such as lithium, aluminum and sodium. “The common problem from all three, over multiple discharge cycles of the battery, is that the metal forms complicated electrodeposits (dendrites). The dendrites, over many cycles of charge and discharge, will pierce the separator in the battery and short circuit the cell, which can cause the battery to catch fire. This is a problem relevant for the safety of batteries but also in the quest to get high energy out of batteries. In a lithium ion battery, if you remove the carbon, the capacity for storage goes up by a factor of three, and some argue a factor of ten.” This gives current battery technology a jolt. But the grand challenge is how do you stop these metals from forming dendrites, which ultimately cause the battery to fail? Archer and his group think they have a potential solution. “There is a fundamental stabilizing mechanism where the membrane is able to prevent the dendrites from growing.
- 21. 21 p a rt n e r | c o - c r e a t e | d e l i v e r www.bzdesign.co | [email protected] | Rochester, NY graphic design Our award winning graphics team has found success in a wide variety of work. From newsletters to corporate websites, we establish a cohesive brand identity from the ground up. Our specialized teams create powerful design solutions on a wide range of branding, print, web and digital media projects. industrial design Our bzdesign 5-phase model-driven industrial design process produces results that work for your development team and your customers! Our SolidWorks experience and rapid visualization techniques allow us to create timely mockups, prototypes and form studies which we use in exploring any design problem. This method allows you to cycle lithium metal-based batteries for hundreds of cycles and thousands of hours with no evidence of these dendrites being formed. We showed this in a paper last year,” Archer said. “Very recently we discovered that if the surface coating is enriched in lithium fluoride or in general, lithium halides, the batteries can be stabilized, even in a liquid electrolyte. In other words, by adding a little bit of a special salt in a special electrolyte, you can now suddenly solve this really massive problem of dendritic growth in lithium. This work was just highlighted in Nature Materials. “Both of these enable very high capacity anodes in batteries. Batteries can have much longer lifetimes. Cars, on a single charge, can travel distances that are comparable to gasoline-fueled engines. The goal is longevity and reducing cost. This can also be applied to robotics, where there is a big need for long-lasting batteries.” In looking at all the different work taking place at Cornell, it is apparent that technological advances in materials are not a wish, they are a must. But that is easier said than done. The groups’ innovation efforts and collaboration with industry can be applied in many ways. The end result may help shift the scale in energy materials science in the same magnitude as the shift was from the candle to the light bulb.
- 22. 22 Journey to Commercialization: Therewere no TV cameras or representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records present, but in February of 2013 in Ithaca, NY, a world record was broken. Perhaps not the kind of record that inspires the popular media or comedy monologues on late-night TV, but a record that could someday affect how the world travels. In a lab at Cornell University, Dr. Tobias Hanrath, associate professor of chemical engineering and one of his graduate students, Ben Richards, set the record for producing the largest quantity of silicon nanowires: 3 grams, an accom- plishment that could revolutionize the field of clean energy, and in particular, the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. The duo has created and patented a technology for manufacturing high performance, functionalized silicon. Moreover, their process enables a scalable approach whereby nanowires are grown directly on a flexible current collector and without costly CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) equipment. Silicon has established itself as the material of choice in solar cells and is positioned to do the same for next generation, high capacity Lithium-ion batteries. The prospect of creating much higher capacity batteries based on silicon anodes has inspired intense world-wide research activities. While there have been tremendous advances in fabricating lab-scale electrodes and understanding their performance, there is growing recognition that this progress is insufficient; significant barriers concerning scalable and cost-effective manufacturing have yet to be resolved. by Andrew Harrison Transitioning Breakthrough Nanowire Technology Out of the Laboratory and Onto the Road Car companies, environmentalists, academics and politicians would love to be able to help solve the electric car battery/clean energy/oil dilemma. Higher capacity and/or lighter weight batteries could revolutionize the transportation industry. Enter the work of Hanrath and Richards. “A single electric vehicle would require on the order of 10kg of nanostructured silicon for the high-capacity battery. Conventional thin film technologies are unable to meet that demand. That’s where our process comes in.” -Tobias Hanrath
- 23. 23 Much of theprevious work done in the field was based on technology typically used in computer microchip manufacturing – an approach in which thin films of material are deposited onto a current collector in complex and costly ways. The approach used by Hanrath and Richards grows silicon directly onto copper in a solid state reaction, allowing production to scale and the tuning of nanowire features to be more precise. Hanrath and his colleagues have been working on silicon nanowires for a while, but recent breakthroughs in their application in batteries have underscored the need for a high-throughput process. “To success- fully transition [the technology] we need to be able to fabricate these materials at the level of hundreds of kilograms” says Hanrath. “Moreover, one would like to directly grow the materials where we need them (i.e. on the electrode) to avoid additional processing steps. We recognized that our process stands out as a very attractive solution to address this scalability challenge.” Fabricating 10,000 grams (10 kilograms) of silicon nanowires is a daunting engineering challenge, but Hanrath and Richards believe they’ve taken an important first step in their lab. Hanrath believes the challenge is similar to the development of polymers and plastics 50 years ago. “Transforming polymers from a bench-scale scientific discovery to a multi-billion dollar industry involved several interesting chemical engineering challenges,” Hanrath noted. “We’re excited about the prospect of applying similar concepts to develop methods for the scalable production of high-quality nanowire electrodes to enable the deployment and commercialization of emerging energy technologies,” he adds. The potential is exciting, too, resulting in batteries that can hold a charge three times that of present day conventional batteries, resulting in three times the driving range between charges. Alternatively, batteries can be three times lighter in weight with the same range. Hanrath explained, “It’s relatively easy for us to scale this up; we’ve demonstrated we can do this. We can take it from three grams to three kilograms. It’s a matter of using it in a bigger reactor and addressing the processing technologies to structure the silicon on a larger scale.” The team’s business mentor, Charles Hamilton, explains: “Functionalized silicon for battery anodes has been very exciting to a lot of people for a number of years, but it hasn’t lived up to its potential because of the inability to scale the manufacturing. The missing link is the ability to scale in a different way. “ “People have been trying to use the methods of microchip manufacturing, which are great if you’re going to make a high value microchip, but that is not scalable if you need to make 10kg of battery material at a cost effective price.” “The solid state growth of these functionalized materials shows great potential in regards to scalability,” Hamilton Charles Hamilton, Dr. Tobias Hanrath, and Ben Richards
- 24. 24 adds. “The methodsTobias and Ben have discovered allow us to tune the manufacturing so we can adjust the characteristics of that material. Sometimes you’re going to want to have a certain density or certain form factor to get the results you want given a specific application.” “The method they have discovered allows us to manufacture functionalized silicon at scale and do it in a precisely tunable way. Those are the two key advantages we saw that made us say ‘OK this makes sense as a start-up company’.” In January 2014, the team turned its idea into a start-up company called Conamix. I’m here as a coach to help them transition that into the commercial world,” Hamilton described. The transition is not a small one. Hamilton continued, “If we are making things at the three gram scale but we need to make them at the kilogram scale, there is a lot of road between here and there. My role as a mentor in the program is to help identify what those barriers are and help make a path forward together in trying to overcome those barriers.” “I work on the business risks, such as interacting with patents, investors and commercial partners and they help determine the key technical risks.” The NEXUS program is assisting the team in figuring out how to move a technology that they think is ready for the market from the lab bench to the commercial space. “It’s one thing to write an academic paper about the potential of a material or technology,” says Hanrath. “It’s another thing to talk to people in the commercial space and test hypotheses and see if the opportunity is really there. Ben is getting his PhD experience with the work we are doing, but how do you transition that knowledge to the commercial space? It’s been an interesting learning experience for both of us.” Passing the Stink Test Phase one of the NEXUS-NY program consisted of a lot of customer discovery, early prototyping and some preliminary testing: Does this technology that you thought was commercially viable in the lab translate into a real life scenario? Or as Hanrath explained in his blunt but intellectual style, “Does it pass the stink test?” Partnering with NEXUS-NY To take their innovation to the next level, the duo applied to be part of the NEXUS-NY program. Out of 56 applicants, the group was one of 12 selected to participate and receive assistance, including funding to develop initial prototypes. Conamix used the NEXUS-NY funds to build and test early coin cell batteries and to build a crude roll-to-roll reactor. NEXUS paired them with Hamilton, whose entre- preneurial background in startups and clean energy was an ideal match. “I was looking to partner with great innovators. I’m kind of like the ambassador of the commercial side. These guys are about technical innovation and discovering new materials. “We were intrigued because NEXUS-NY was focused on how to commercialize research and how to transition from the lab to the commercial side. Beyond the scientific challenges tackled in our lab, we wanted to learn how we could commercialize this. We saw the NEXUS-NY program as really interesting opportunity to explore this.” -Tobias Hanrath.
- 25. 25 The NEXUS-NY advisorssay you’ll find out your answers to the stink test really quick when you call potential customers and other players in the field. “In our case, the initial idea and what we were aiming for pretty much held up,” Richards says. They worked through the customer discovery with Hamilton guiding them. He explained, “Phase one and beyond is really about identifying the barriers and the resources to get over them. I have experience doing that and have been through it a few times, scaling up new materials and figuring out how to find resources to keep these things moving forward. From grants, to outside investment, to partnerships with big commercial companies, each one of those pieces is a tool to help you overcome one of those hurdles.” NEXUS has given the group some financial assistance to work on bridging the barriers, in particular with early prototyping and testing. This will help the team build their business case to prospects and investors. “When you talk to a potential customer, you find out what you need to show them to convince them that you have something real, tangible, and something with a lot of potential,” says Hanrath. “We took that feedback from phase one back to the lab and built a prototype, so when we have a second conversation with the customer, we’ll be able to show them, ‘We’ve built a prototype- we’ve demonstrated that we can actually do this,’” he adds. Both Hanrath and Richards said the journey of commercializing their work has been more compli- cated than they pictured. “The barrier for transi- tioning into the industry is steeper than I initially thought,” says Hanrath. “I may have been naïve because in an academic environment you generally don’t have much exposure to that. “ Blending Two Worlds There may be a lot of road to travel, but they are charging forward. “NEXUS gives us a time-frame, support and money. There is a gap between commercializing technologies that are discovered in a laboratory setting in academia, and trying to bridge it is a large part of this. It’s really a blend of the two worlds.” Their work is poised to be a game changer for car batteries. Yet, in an emerging technology field, there are a range of potential applications that their research could also impact. Their customer research has also shown some compelling opportunities in thin film display or thin film electronics. Interfacing nano-electronics with biological systems as sensors for normal interfaces is another potential arena for them. “These are all interesting and opportunities we are aware of and will look into, but you can’t start a company and say we are going to try five different things,” says Hanrath. “Then you run into no focus and not much progress on any of the five things. We have found that batteries stand out as the most clear and present opportunity for us.” The drive toward the 10kg of silicon in a car battery continues. NEXUS brought the team of three together. Then they formed a startup. And the future of Conamix could bring new innovations, new jobs and new world records to the state of New York. Germanium Nanowire SEM
- 26. 26 Dr. Stanley Whittinghamis a local living legend. His early research in the 1970s led to breakthrough technology in lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that has since enabled breakthroughs in mobile computing, telecommunications and personal mobility. He is the holder of 16 patents; an author of more than 200 research papers; a professor of chemistry and materials science and the director of the Institute of Materials Science at SUNY Binghamton; and the director of the Northeastern Center for Chemical Energy Storage - Energy Frontier Research Center at SUNY Stony Brook. Admirably, Whittingham’s immense presence is also a humble one, and his reclusiveness might just make him New York’s most interesting and unique hidden gem. New Energy asked Whittingham about his legacy, his future, the state of energy storage, and why, after all these years, upstate New York remains his home. You have conducted research all across the country and throughout the world. With Silicon Valley leading the world in technology innovation, what is it about upstate New York that has kept you here all these years? Binghamton is a good place to do research; it is the right size. It is not too big, and it is easy to collaborate. I’ve been here since ’89. I think to some extent New York State is friendly to researchers. We have NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) to help us. In the battery sector, we now have NY BEST (New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium). All these organizations in the back- ground are willing to help develop projects and get things commercialized. Plus, we’re different. Silicon Valley doesn’t do all that much clean energy. Their biggest advantage is Sand Hill Road, where all the venture capitalists live. Startups have greater difficulty getting started here, but there is a growing number, specifically in batteries. Energy Pioneer Profile: DR. STANLEY WHITTINGHAM by Kevin Carr Your research in the 1970s cleared a path for much of the technology we use today. Do you consider yourself the father of the rechargeable lithium-ion battery? In a sense, yes. We built the first ones, but [the batteries] weren’t necessarily a commercial success. Some folks have said it paved the way to come up with viable materials, so that is special to hear. Considering so, do you enjoy today’s technology? Are you an iPhone or Macintosh person? Do you drive an electric vehicle? I’ve had a Mac since day one of the Apple business. Today, I use a Mac Air computer, an iPhone and an iPad, and they all automatically talk to each other. It has also been interesting and very difficult to explain to today’s students that these things didn’t always exist. I recently drove a Tesla car and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, they’re not yet winter vehicles. I need four-wheel drive to survive Binghamton’s snow. Q Q Q
- 27. 27 Your commitments asa director and a professor must keep you busy. Is there any time left in the day to get your hands dirty in the lab? Right now, yes, because we’re moving building locations and I’m helping with that. We have a new energy center, the Center of Excellence. It is a better space, air conditioned. But usually I’m more of a mentor these days. I think the students would object if I went into the lab. I would mess things up (laughs). Up to about ten years ago, I would go in and fix the equipment, but they do that all themselves now. I do miss getting in there sometimes, but there are just too many people and not enough time. Now that you research exclusively within academia, do you miss working in industry? Sure, but both academia and industry have their pros and cons. I worked in industry for 15 years. It was a great place to be, early on. They really wanted to make some breakthroughs, and if you wanted something, you got it instantly. Research [back then] could really move fast. Today, you still get to do what you want in academia but the process takes longer. What are the greatest obstacles facing energy storage? Are we closer to where we want to be? Energy storage gets better every day. You go back a few years, and you didn’t have your iPads and iPhones; you had these big clunkers that had huge batteries in them. But it is getting better all the time. I don’t think there will be any huge breakthroughs, what they call quantum leaps. Most likely, energy storage will increase a few percent every year. The biggest issue right now is dollars. And trying to get the price down. Are we on the cusp of an energy crisis? No, not in the sense that we were in the ‘70s. There’s energy out there if you are willing to pay for it. It is not like the water crisis in California. New York is very lucky when it comes to energy. We have hydropower coming from Niagara; we have hydropower coming in from Quebec. Then why the rush to improve energy storage? Why care? Because without improved energy storage we are not going to get the next generation of vehicles. Switching to hybrid-busses, as New York City wants Q Q Q Q Q Artist Rendering: Smart Energy Research and Development Facility at SUNY Binghamton
- 28. 28 to do, requiresbetter batteries. I expect in the next five or six years all cars will be hybrid, what they call stop-start. In almost every case now, when you rent a car in London, the vehicles are already stop-start. But we still need better batteries. Additionally, if you’re going to have a grid system powered by solar and wind, the energy comes when Mother Nature decides and not necessarily when we want it. A) you’ve got to store the power, but B) you also have to smooth it out; solar and wind power goes up and down from second to second; batteries can be used to smooth the energy for a constant output to the grid. Considering all that you have accomplished, explored, and discovered, what remaining quandaries or unanswered questions are you most excited about? What keeps you up at night? Big things will always move along but the little things have a way of impeding, such as bureaucratic and funding issues. Those keep me up at night. Thankfully, we just received a big award from the Department of Energy, which should keep us afloat for the next four years. Our focus remains on energy storage; we try to understand how batteries work and how to make them work better. Right now, we only get about 25% out of our batteries. Ideally, we’d like to double that. What we don’t do is keep our eye on where the technology might be used or how it might be used. [Industry] knows that better than we do. What we do want to do is close the gap between what the practical energy storage capabilities are versus what they ought to be. Which sectors of battery research are showing the greatest potential and promise (both within NY and elsewhere)? Also, are there any budding young researchers whom we should be watching out for? Worldwide, the most active and promising research area remains in lithium-ion, improving cathodes (oxides and phosphates). The younger folks [who are] getting going are Louis Piper and Guangwen Zhou, both at Binghamton. At a more senior level, you should keep an eye on Lyndon Archer at Cornell. Q Q Photos by Jonathan Cohen - Binghamton University
- 29. 29 BUILDING A BETTER BUILDING, FROMTHE OUTSIDE-INby RobertBarlow Shay Harrison and Jason Vollen are technologists who needed some luck to make a connection that could significantly impact the building construction industry. Harrison started a ceramic manufac- turing business, Tegula Tile, in 2010 and was searching for high-volume product opportunities. Vollen, associate director of the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), was looking for a manufacturer willing to produce his customized High-performance Masonry System (HpMS) building tiles. They met through the Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES) at RPI and soon afterwards had their “aha moment.” It occurred during a demonstration that Vollen and his grad students had constructed involving a heat lamp shining onto an HpMS facade tile assembly. On the back side of the assembly, the collected energy was sufficient enough to drive a piston in a mockup engine. It was at this point that Harrison and Vollen knew they had something special. They subsequently began laying the ground work for the company they co-founded, EcoCeramic Envelopes. Harrison and Vollen believe building facades can evolve into environmentally interactive components, performing temperature regulation in a similar way as does the human skin. Their early work demon- strates bricks can become much more than simple environmental barriers: they can regulate the flow of energy in and out of a building. In an era of heightened awareness about energy consumption and conservation, HpMS can make a significant impact on efficient use of energy in one of the largest energy usage markets in the United States.
- 30. 30 According to theUnited States Department of Energy, buildings account for 40 percent of energy consumption in the U.S. and 48 percent of commercial energy is used for heating and cooling. With traditional facades, heat and energy may be generated on one side of the building and lost through the opposite side. The HpMS system intercepts, transforms, stores and redirects energy flows throughout the entire building envelope. The problem, according to Harrison, is that more than half of all energy gains and losses occur through a building’s exterior. “In conventional practice, building envelopes are not-climate based and respond the same despite significant differences in environment, location and utility,” Harrison said. “The solution is to customize a building’s exterior for those differences.” This customization is what Harrison and Vollen had in mind when they developed the HpMS as an energy-managing building facade system that integrates ceramic materials and advanced digital design. Unlike conventional building materials such as brick, concrete or terracotta, HpMS components are made of refined ceramic materials resulting in stronger and more durable building blocks with improved insulating properties. But that’s only half of the story. By coupling advanced digital design, Harrison and Vollen can tailor the HpMS-based façade to a specific building’s exact site location. Not only are site measure- ments taken of the positioning of the building and its immediate surroundings but also the locale’s climate patterns and historical weather data. These measure- ments allow for the fine-tuning of the custom-designed ceramic elements, which absorb or reflect the heat or cold and which compose the building’s façade exterior. Vollen began working on the HpMS concept and computer design methodology when he was a professor at the University of Arizona and continued its development, with help from a couple of his graduate students, during his tenure at RPI. Much of his technical research focus is on the relationship between archi- tecture designs and the surrounding environments. The collaboration between these two entrepreneurs came out of necessity. “Jason needed to find a manufac- turer willing to work on producing HpMS shapes, which are three-dimensional – not flat bricks – and therefore require different processing approaches from traditional facade brick manufacturing,” Harrison said. “I was, and still am, really excited about the concept so we began our collaboration in 2012.” Among the design variables that can be implemented in a custom HpMS system are the ceramic material, tile color, texture, and angle of orientation. These factors are selected in order to optimize thermal exchange. The façade tile system will be installed using industry-standard attachment methods and will initially operate in a passive mode. Harrison and Vollen are contemplating second-generation designs that could integrate thermoelectric materials that would generate electricity in order to supply the building’s heating, cooling and electrical loads. “The occupants of an HpMS building won’t notice a difference in interior climate when compared to a ‘normal’ facade brick system, unless they are the ones paying the energy bills,” Harrison said. “Then they’ll notice a lot!” According to Vollen, HpMS offers enhanced thermal performance and mechanical robustness combined into an aesthetically unique and innovative exterior wall that generates significant energy savings and a fast return on investment. In Harrison and Vollen’s vision, building envelopes will have climate “intelligence” and their response will be “WETOOK CUES FROM ANIMALS AND PLANTS AND HOWTHEY MANAGETHEIR BODIES AND SURFACE AREATO INTERACT WITHTHE ENVIRONMENTTO KEEPTHEM COOL OR WARM,” VOLLEN SAID.‘IT WAS NOT OUT OF OUR SCOPE TOTHINKTHAT WE COULD COME UP WITH A TECHNOLOGYTHAT COULD DOTHE SAME FOR BUILDING MATERIALS.” -JasonVollen
- 31. 31 completely customizable tothe environment, creating more insulation capacity for colder climates and energy generation capability in hotter climates. According to Harrison, the deployment of EcoCeramic Envelopes follows a climate-based strategy, but also allows for many different customizations. “With these HpMS bricks, buildings can deploy more windows and consume less energy heating and cooling than with conventional façade materials,” Harrison said. Harrison and Vollen are utilizing the NEXUS-NY program to create an initial prototype and a demonstration wall that will serve as a data collection test bed. The data gathered will be compared to estimated HpMS energy savings from computer modeling of the technology and help refine the design methodology. Harrison and Vollen initially estimate an energy savings of between 10 and 20 per cent, though this estimate has the potential to increase substantially. The support they are receiving from NEXUS-NY will enable them to continue their laboratory studies and make a strong case for further development. “Without assistance from the NEXUS-NY program, we would never have been able to move ahead to the next stage in this project,” Vollen said. To start, a full-size experimental chamber will be built and several experiments will be performed under different conditions with the objective of stabilizing thermal fluctuations of the typical building’s energy profile. “There are still a lot of new things to learn about this technology and being able to study actual effects of something physical will only help the process move forward,” Vollen said. “There are very few products out there that can respond directly to climate, and HpMS is one of them.” Harrison believes HpMS will carve out a significant niche in the building facade market, but that it will not replace simple brick walls on every building. “The entities and people who will be interested to implement our facade system will have an affinity for green technologies, are early adopters of new technology, or want to offset significant expected energy costs,” Harrison said. “They will be willing to pay upfront and get a longer-term payback.” Typical of the clients and client relationships they’ll pursue are those with architectural and engineering firms, construction firms and installers, and real estate developers. Harrison and Vollen already have a commitment from the Schodack Central School District, near Albany, to participate in a live, “real-world demonstration” next summer on a school building. They have applied for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority funding to assist with this project. Further, they’ll use the data from the Schodack demonstration to create an estimate for commercialization. It’s their hope the first fully commercial project incorporating HpMS-designed tiles into a building structure will begin sometime in 2016. HpMS tile prototype
- 32. 32 EASTMAN BUSINESS PARK The Rochester,NY region holds a long history of being a technological powerhouse that dates back to the beginnings of the twentieth century. Business leadership in film and photography, high-tech manufac- turing, photonics and optics, and digital imaging carried the Rochester economy well into that century; but, like many aging models, growth slowed as technology changed. Unlike the so-called ‘rustbelt’ cities, reliant on commodity industries like coal and steel, Rochester maintained its technology focus and is reemerging as a burgeoning center of energy and materials innovation led by a seemingly unlikely juggernaut built during its heyday years, the massive industrial resource now known as Eastman Business Park. Eastman Business Park, known for years as Kodak Park, is a huge complex (see sidebar on page 34 for some amazing stats about the facilities) unique in the nation for the infrastructure and specialized capabilities it encompasses. These include on-site power and utility resources, facilities dedicated to research, specialized distillation and other chemical processing as well as extensive film-to film coating (pictured above) and test labs. Once it was thought that these facilities were too specific to aging business models like analog photography, but the emerging high-tech energy storage and material science sectors are reviving the usefulness of these resources. And that’s only the beginning. Eastman Business Park is being actively developed into an end-to-end resource for research, product commercialization and manufacture of these technically complex products. Closing the Product Development Lifecycle Loop Developing energy storage products like batteries, ultra-capacitors and fuel cells requires a complex process of research and development, product design and prototyping, and the testing of scalable manufac- turing processes. Each step must be completed and validated before these innovative technologies can reach the market. Because of the unique history of By Martin Edic Building an End-to-End Ecosystem for Energy & Materials Innovation 400mm wide coating/printing machine (Photo: Eastman Business Park)
- 33. 33 Eastman Business Park,all of these activities can be supported within one ecosystem, giving companies the ability to leverage costly infrastructure and expertise all in one location. Citing the example of a company developing ultra-capacitors for energy storage, Michael Alt, director of the Park, describes the challenge Eastman Business Park is facing: “If you look at the processes and facilities needs to develop a capacitor like this, Ultracap, the company developing the technology, ideally needed a complete end-to-end solution. This included access to: • Sophisticated Metal Foil Coating Technology • Metal Fabrication • Test Beds for Accreditation • Short Run Manufacturing • Dry Rooms for Assembly In our case, we offered all of the above, excepting dry rooms. So, to capture this business and create jobs here in Rochester, we’re investing in new needed technology resources right on site at the Park, next to our extensive existing facilities. As we add these needed capabilities, we’re upgrading our existing infrastructure to support current and future technologies. We think it’s a great transition strategy and we’re seeing a lot of interest from companies across the globe.” Alt went on to answer some follow-on questions regarding the immediate future plans for the Eastman Business Park (EBP). Please describe the new facilities you have planned or that are underway to complement the extensive existing facilities at EBP. There are many new and exciting EBP projects on the planning horizon. However, most are still too early-stage to discuss. One that we can talk about publicly is a cornerstone of our burgeoning innovation ecosystem at the Park, the Bioscience Manufacturing Center at EBP. This will be a state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot fermentation center containing stainless steel tanks ranging from 40K-250K liters. Operating as a toll manufacturing facility for a variety of bio companies, it will convert tons of sugars into a wide range of renewable chemicals, products and fuels. We anticipate the Center will create hundreds of new advanced manufacturing jobs. How are these facilities funded? Like many of these types of projects, funding for the Bioscience Manufacturing Center comes from a multi-tiered capital stack, consisting of NY State grants, private equity, loans and user fees. What is the relationship between Kodak and Eastman Business Park? Eastman Business Park had been Eastman Kodak Company’s primary film manufacturing hub for over a century – and has developed into what is today one of the largest, most diverse industrial and technology parks in the United States. Kodak currently owns the Park, but on March 25th, the company announced that it would pursue the sale of EBP, stating that it believed the uniquely well-equipped site can best continue its transformation into a multi-use, multi- tenant industrial facility under the ownership of a firm focused on its redevelopment. Q Q Q Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Test and Commercialization Center (Photo: Eastman Business Park)
- 34. 34 End-To-End Energy Storage EastmanBusiness Park has targeted two markets for its unique facilities and the expert scientists and engineers working there: energy storage technology and biomaterials innovation. Though both areas have their unique requirements, there is a surprising amount of crossover between the two technological challenges as scientists and engineers explore how the two fields can complement each other. The ability to serve both fields is unique to the Park. The two disciplines can share a unique menu of available services and technology at EBP including: • Chemistry and polymers development capabilities to create new materials • Thin film coating and handling capabilities for the development, testing and manufacture of next generation electrodes and membranes • Knowledge, facilities and equipment to produce materials in a low cost, roll-to-roll format • Dry rooms and cell assembly equipment to complete the manufacturing process • Access to technologists with extensive, hands-on knowledge of these processes Eastman Business Park combines these capabilities with a unique campus designed to support large and small-scale high-technology manufacturing - an overall facility with no comparable counterpart worldwide. The goal is to create an end-to-end destination for researchers and engineers seeking rapid commercialization of their complex energy and materials-related products. With companies like Intrinsiq Materials, Nohms Technologies, NatcoreTechnology and the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium already working on-site, Eastman Business Park is on track to make Rochester a global center for energy storage commercialization. For more information or to arrange a tour visit www.eastmanbusinesspark.com A Look At EASTMAN BUSINESS PARK By The Numbers • 1200 acre campus • 16 million square feet of manufacturing, lab, warehouse and office space • 18,000 square foot NY-BEST Center onsite for energy storage testing and validation • 88 reactors for specialty chemical applications, from 100-1000 gallon capacity • 5-50 FPM (foot per minute) range of coating options onto substrates at thicknesses from 100nm to 500nm • Strong connections with partner universities, companies and public/private laboratories in the energy storage sector • 5-5000 FPM intermediate scale costing machine on webs up to 17” wide and 5-500um think for batteries, photovoltaics and more • 200 acres of shovel-ready parcels for advanced manufacturing of energy storage materials • World class analytical labs onsite for creating prototypes for new energy storage and delivery systems • 8-station inline high-volume coating machine up to 1000 FPM at web widths up to 63” wide
- 35. 35 The average windfarm in the US has 134 wind turbines, typically located on hillsides or offshore where the steadiest winds blow. Each turbine is a massive machine with many moving parts, most located high above the base and subject to significant physical forces. With parts rotating under heavy loads, even slight problems can spiral out of control quickly, requiring shutdowns and costly visits from repair crews who must often deal with inhospitable and remote environments. Wind turbines are very sensitive to internal mechanical wear or breakdowns, which can often be detected prior to catastrophic failure by their vibrational signature. If left undetected, costly repairs and idle turbines ensue. One solution to this problem is sensing equipment installed at critical points within the turbine. When used in conjunction with advanced algorithms, sensors can operate remotely and continuously, and predict failure before it occurs. Given these cost and downtime issues, predictive condition monitoring of these complex turbines becomes a mission-critical task. Unfortunately, currently available sensor solutions involve very high costs and do not significantly reduce the need for onsite inspections and repairs. This is the problem the team from Micatu, an upstate NY technology and engineering company based near Corning, took on as a test bed for its new series of remotely accessible motion, temperature, and vibration photonic sensors known as PHOCOM. Micatu has selected the wind turbine market as a demonstration and market entry point for its sensors because the need is immediate, the solution is applicable to multiple problems, and the PHOCOM solution is very cost-effective relative to existing sensor and monitoring solutions. The wind farm market also supports Micatu’s core competency of applying advanced engineering technology to address environmental and energy-related issues. by Martin Edic Cutaway turbine drawing with PHOCOM sensor locations.
- 36. 36 Testing the SolutionThrough the Nexus NY Customer Discovery Process Micatu was selected to participate in the 2013-2014 NEXUS-NY accelerator program for startups and growth businesses developing energy-related technologies in New York State. The program uses the Lean methodology developed at Stanford University, which guides businesses to commercialize technology successfully by exposing it to the market prior to an intensive development process. Customer input is sought to validate the viability of the products before extensive resources are applied to their commercialization. During its three-month customer discovery process, Micatu tested its hypothesis that photonic sensors could enable a breakthrough in monitoring the more than 500,000 wind turbines currently in use. The team interviewed more than 50 industry participants including experts from both sensor businesses and the wind energy industry. Those interviews validated several premises and informed significant refine- ments to their planned business model. The result was a Condition Monitoring System (CMS) utilizing their PHOCOM Monitoring System. How It Works PHOCOM combines an array of Point Optical Detection Sensors (PODS) mounted at various sites within the turbine. These sensors are passive, with no moving parts and requiring limited power sources within the turbine. They are connected to a central processor unit that communicates sensor data up to one kilometer away via a wireless or fiber network. The passive nature of the sensors greatly reduces mainte- nance and the wireless 24/7 monitoring reduces site visits and helps repair crews identify issues before they become serious problems, further cutting costs and reducing downtime. Reduced Install Costs and Increased ROI For Operators Existing sensor technologies involve complex and costly equipment and installations. PHOCOM has a cost structure that is less than half that of current systems, thus enabling a quicker return-on-investment (ROI). Micatu predicts a PHOCOM user will save $2.20 for every one dollar invested over a three-year window, far above the current industry standards. During the discovery process, the Micatu team identified high interest not only among wind farm operators and the alternative energy industry, but also from large makers of existing sensor systems. The team has several provisional patents and are completing early stage development with the help of funds from the NEXUS-NY Program. Larger Market Opportunities The wind turbine market is viewed as a market entry and test bed for Micatu’s technologies. Further, Micatu has identified other large market opportunities including defense, aerospace and OEM plug-in markets. While wind represents a $20 million/year market, these larger sensor and monitoring markets create the potential for an overall $30-50 million annual business. Current Status Micatu has invested more than $200,000 to date and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to enter the initial market. They are in discussions with multiple companies in the sensor space, both large and small, that have expressed a high interest in partnering opportunities. These companies recognize the photonic sensor as a potential game changer with many potential applications beyond those mentioned here. Rendering of PHOCOM Sensor
- 37. 37 Interview With MichaelJagielski of Micatu First off, where did the name Micatu come from and how do you pronounce it? It is a combination of Michael and Atul, our founders Mic---Atu. It’s branded to reflect precision in the optics space. It is pronounced Mic – ahhh ---tu . Talk a little about how the company started and the kind of work you’ve been doing that led to the development of PHOCOM. The company was started back in 2011 as a research and development company working in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) space. We have extensive backgrounds in product development, research and commercialization. We won a Phase 1 SBIR grant and successfully delivered a marketable cancer research product (www.micaarray.com) in less than 10 months for the National Institute of Health (NIH). This resulted in a nomination for a Smithsonian Award and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award based on our “exceptional” work within NIH. We were recently awarded a Phase 2 grant from NIH for continued product development and research in the cancer “histology” space. PHOCOM was an accidental discovery in the lab one day as we were trying to solve a different problem. Dr. Pradhan was in the lab and noticed vibration occurring from an optics bench that should have been isolated from all vibration. Upon further investigation, it was determined that we were picking up minute vibrations from across the technology campus from other tenants. As a result, this measurement of minute vibrations was being optically detected and the photonic sensor was born. What led you to identifying the problems that your sensors are designed to detect? Were you previously working in the wind power industry? Our founders are optics and electrical engineering experts. We made an accidental discovery whose commercial potential needed to be evaluated in a more formal setting. That is how we got into the NEXUS-NY program. Wind turbines represent an energy play that has a very low barrier to entry. Only 10% of the current installed base utilizes sensors, thus the market is grossly underserved. Talk about how the photonics sensor system works. PHOCOM replaces an age-old piezoelectric sensor technology, which has been around for more than 150 years, with a photonic technology that has many benefits associated with photonic technologies. These include electronics separated from the actual sensor, EMF protection, very long cabling range, greater sensitivity, and resistance to harsh environments. The optical sensor picks up minute vibrations and converts these to electrical signals for measurement. A practical application would be for use in measuring vibration in a large industrial machine (electrical generator, fan motor, wind turbine, gas turbine) and establishing a fingerprint baseline where any deviation from the baseline would indicate wear characteristics. These can be monitored over time for standard deviations from the norm and modeling can be used to predict maintenance requirements in real time as opposed to OEM recommendations. Companies can tailor their maintenance routines and operational environments to optimize longevity and increase output efficiency while reducing costs for unscheduled downtime. This is commonly referred to as “condition monitoring”. Q Q Q Q Pat Govang with Micatu CEO Michael Oshetski
- 38. 38 Does it requirepower supplies within the turbine? If so, how do you power the sensor? Power supplies can be from the turbine or from a remote source as the electronics can be centralized at a remote location if necessary. The power requirements are very low. How does the system send the data to the remote monitoring computer operator? Wi-Fi? Cellular, etc.? You can set it up like that if you like or you can run a fiber drop and connect it that way. There are many different ways to accomplish this. Have you developed software to handle the data distribution and remote monitoring aspects of the product? We will be partnering with software vendors on the back end for the analytics. Right now, there are no standards in the industry for condition monitoring. Siemens and Mitsubishi are trying to develop their own and are spending large sums of money to build more robust standards for condition monitoring. What is the current state of technology develop- ment? Is there an operating prototype, market- able product, early adopter/beta customer, etc.? We are in the phase of developing an operational prototype in late Q4 2014. We are in contact with several OEMs and wind farm operators for beta development and testing platforms as well as in contact with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for testing in its wind turbine simulation environment. We expect to be ready for “go to market” product launch in 18 to 24 months. What are next steps for this product? Prototype development and refinement and beta-level testing agreements with several wind farm operators and/or OEMs. How did the NEXUS-NY program affect your product startup process? It was invaluable to our development of a structured way of going out into the marketplace and speaking with potential customers and competitors as well as industry experts. We have a great deal of commer- cialization expertise in-house but NEXUS-NY offered a great benchmark to sanity-check our processes and to validate our commercialization assumptions. Their Phase 1 program is an outstanding platform for any small business wanting to really explore the market opportunity first, rather than the science. They really did an outstanding job! Micatu has internalized the NEXUS-NY methodology with our own and it is in use every day for any new product development opportunity we pursue. What are your future plans? For example, what would another use-case for the technology look like? There are hundreds if not thousands of possible market applications anywhere you need to precisely measure motion or displacement or vibration. Again, anywhere you have an industrial electronic sensor that measures motion or displacement or vibration, you have the ability to replace that technology with an optical technology at a much lower cost with higher reliability and sensitivity. Q Q Q Q Q Q Q About the Authors Robert Barlow is a freelance journalist who has reported on anything and everything from murder trials and local politics to film festivals and concerts for more than five years. Kevin Carr is a freelance writer, copy editor, and playwright. He blogs at TheNumberKevin.com and studies entrepre- neurship and creative writing at the University of Rochester. Jay Pfluke is a freelance writer and creative minimalist. Martin Edic is a business writer and B-B marketing consultant in the Rochester, NY area. He is the author of eight books on business and design. Andrew Harrison is the Innovation Ambassador at Idea Connection Systems/HumanGrid, the author of Love Your 84,000 Hours at Work: Stories on the Road from People with Purpose and Passion and the writer of The Invisible Element: A Practical Guide for the Human Dynamics of Innovation.