Wastewater treatment at the U.S. Publicly Owned Treatment Works accounts for 2% of total U.S. electricity, emits 30 million metric tonnes CO2e or 0.3% of total GHG emissions. California has an ambitious goal to increase water recycling from 650,000 to 2 million acre-feet/year by 2030 and the U.S. needs to update treatment plants is projected to increase by $74 billion by 2040. Commercial processes offered are multi-step, require several thousand gallons of chemicals that makes them expensive and complex. CPWaterTech offers a chemical-less, novel one-step process, mediated by an inexpensive gas, that could reduce land and processing cost by at least 70%.
E-Wave is a wave energy converter which is installed on the nearshore seabed and activated by the surge motion of ocean waves. Integrated with an award-winning mechanical controller, E-Wave is highly efficient in converting wave energy into electricity. For isolated coastal areas, such as Alaska islands, military bases, and national parks, E-Wave produces wave power that is 50% cheaper than the mostly used diesel power. For populated coastal areas which are prone to coastal disasters, E-Wave provides both power generation and disaster mitigation by reducing beach erosion and creating distributed power generation sources.
Founded by a team of Cornell information and network scientists, EINO is building a critical network infrastructure software that will empower smart cities. EINO's contextual intelligence understands mass population movement and intentions in urban areas to optimize the mobile networks, improving the energy efficiency while reducing the operational and capital costs. The technology includes a knowledge-base on temporal and spatial human movement and intentions and portfolio of machine learning methodologies to accurately predict demand and optimize infrastructure resources.
QUATCARE provides sustainable eco-friendly antimicrobial solutions for industrial water treatment systems and heating/cooling filtration applications reducing maintenance and infection risks from bacteria. Our patented system is comprised of embedding low-cost quaternary ammonim compounds in surface structure of materials during manufacture or applied as durable coatings. When our system is incorporated into the water treatment systems for manufacturing it supports high water flow rates and kills bacteria on contact without the addition of toxic chemicals or costly traditional filters that rapidly clog, increasing water recycling thereby reducing water pollution disposal. Similarly, we provide bacterial control through antimicrobial coatings for heat-exchange surfaces.
RETech has created a clean, metallothermic process for extracting rare earth elements out of the 15-20 tons/day of waste powder that sits unused from recycling fluorescent lightbulbs. Our process will reduce the US’s nearly complete dependence on China for these valuable, commonly used materials and make them available to U.S. distributors and the DoD. The same core technology can also be applied to produce metal nanoparticles, some of which can cost $1,000’s/ounce. Because our process is much simpler than existing methods, we will produce both products for at least 30% lower cost and energy consumption
Invasive species transported around the world in the ballast water tanks of ships have created an international environmental calamity that costs the global economy $1.4 trillion annually. Currently, ships are required to install on-board ballast water treatment systems that are costly, prone to failure, and occasionally unable to meet regulations. At sHYp, we are developing a novel in-port ballast water treatment system based on an innovative electrochemical process that will offer ship and port operators a more reliable and cost-effective option for meeting the most stringent ballast water treatment regulations.
Sunthetics improves sustainability in the chemical industry through scalable and easy-to-implement solutions, starting with Nylon 6,6. We offer technology to manufacture the key intermediate of Nylon 6,6 using renewable electricity instead of fossil-fuel heat, while reducing raw material and energy usage by up to 50% and manufacturing costs by up to 30%. In a market with limited suppliers, growing sustainability needs in the textile industry, and frequent shortages, our technology enables Nylon 6,6 manufacturers to take control of their supply while improving their competitiveness through increased and differentiated market share.
With $10M in funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), PowerBridgeNY’s mission is to turn cleantech innovations from the academic research labs of our six partner institutions into strong, cleantech businesses in New York State. We do this by offering teams up to $150K each to conduct 100 Customer Discovery interviews and develop a prototype or conduct in-field testing to move the technology closer to commercialization via a startup (preferable) or license. During the program, we host a series of events and monthly check-ins using the NSF I-Corps/Lean LaunchPad Methodology as well as subsidize the cost of necessary services, provide industry Mentors, and arrange pro bono office hours with experts in law, finance, grant writing, and more.
PowerBridgeNY is two separate proof-of-concept centers (POCC), both funded by NYSERDA, collaborating as one program. One POCC is led by Columbia University and includes Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell Tech, and Stony Brook University. The other POCC is led by the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University and includes the City University of New York.
