Stanford Nitrogen Group
Stanford Nitrogen Group’s innovative CANDO process not only removes waste nitrogen, but also converts it into a combustible gas that can “turboboost” energy recovery from wastewater treatment systems. Nitrogen runoff as ammonia accounts for a growing number of “dead zones” in coastal waters, more than 400 around the world, and billions of dollars in economic losses from damaged fisheries and lost tourism. Uncontrolled nitrogen run off contributes to the swelling burden of wastewater treatment that imposes a 3 per cent load on the U.S. energy supply alone. Cleaning up water discharges is often the highest energy expenditure for US municipalities, accounting for 30-60 per cent of city energy budgets. At its core CANDO relies on novel combinations of microbes that have the potential to reduce the cost of treating nitrogen by 50 per cent while generating nitrous oxide, a new energy source never before considered in the management of wastewater. Limiting nitrogen discharge has become a legislative priority in the US and Europe, creating a growing $1.6 billion annual market for nitrogen disposal processes such as CANDO. Scherson says the company’s next steps will be to build a pilot facility and begin testing a scaled up version with municipal partners and waste treatment corporations. Contact: Yaniv Scherson, yaniv@stanford.edu .
The company’s cleaning service is centered on a robotic vehicle (“GB1”) that drives directly on top of rows of panels, brushing panels clean with very little water, no gasoline, and minimal human assistance. Greenbotics’ launch market consists of utility-scale PV projects greater than 10 MW in California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona. This market currently represents 368 MW of installed capacity across 18 plants, and is expected to grow significantly to 20GW of installed capacity across 135 plants by 2015. This annual beachhead market for Greenbotics is $200M.
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WEBSITE: greenbotics.com
Solar power currently accounts for just 1% of the electrical energy market and one reason is that low-cost, thin film solar cells are somewhat inefficient energy converters. Xite Solar’s founder Will Regan says that by fine tuning the junctions between the materials comprising today’s commercial thin film cells, Xite can improve efficiencies by 20% to 40%. Even more exciting: the technology could also open up the commercial viability of a whole new group of cheap, non-toxic semiconductor materials which will make solar affordable. Altogether, Xite will tap into an estimated addressable world market of $3 – $4 billion for thin film solar cells. The company’s next steps will be to work with thin film manufacturers and other corporate partners to perfect the commercial applications and begin developing prototypes and a low-cost fabrication facility. Contact: wregan@berkeley.edu ; will_greene@mba.berkeley.edu
FLOW’S EXCITING RUNNERS-UP:
Building Robotics: a UC Berkeley start-up, Building Robotics is a software service for commercial buildings that provides an immediate 10-30% reduction in energy costs without requiring any new capital expenditures. Contact: Andrew Krioukov andrew@buildingrobotics.com.
Chingoo Researh Partners (CRP) has designed, tested, and patented a novel photobioreactor system for the large-scale cultivation of algae-based biofuel.
Roadwise Technologies: A UC Davis spinout, Roadwise has developed a thin film, DynaFilm™, which when installed under asphalt, captures wasted energy from the Sun’s heat and the pressure of passing vehicles through the integration of thermoelectric and piezoelectric nanomaterials.Contact: Ryan Lore: ryanmlore@gmail.com
