“EarthMimic develops a more efficient catalyst material for tech based companies”

By Chris Pressley

APPLETON – An innovative nano-technology tool has been developed by Wisconsin-based EarthMimic and is drawing investor interest for its ability to speed up chemical reactions.

An experienced team of scientists and engineers at this Appleton firm have developed an improved catalyst that helps produce materials with high surface area, but in nano- and micron-sized structures. In other words, they make a smaller catalyst that can get the same job done as their larger counterparts, but with more efficiency.

“Our smaller sized catalysts are more efficient because they reduce metal costs in catalyst materials by using less expensive reactive material,” said Brian Hans, a biologist who is also the founder and CEO of EarthMimic. “They also improve catalytic properties and provide more reaction per given space of reactor, giving it a quicker reaction time.”

The new development provides cost benefits and helps growing technology based companies solve how they will commercialize processes that exist only in laboratory settings and in white papers. EarthMimic’s competitors only provide new technologies that have not gotten out of the laboratory and are expensive and restricted to using certain metals.

“We have a catalyst that does amazing things. We enable industries to enable themselves by providing niche solutions to companies that have a hard time in the market place because of cost,” Hans said. “We make large surface nano materials that help companies that need improved processes.”

Catalyst materials are highly reactive materials that enable chemical reactions to take place and are used in 90 percent of all industrial processes. They also exceed $1 trillion in sales, which leads to huge profits, but also hefty costs.

A familiar device that uses a catalyst in its processes is the catalytic converter that is used in automobiles. This catalyst, in the form of platinum and palladium, is used to convert harmful compounds that exist in the car’s exhaust system into harmless compounds before they reach our atmosphere. Expensive precious metals such as these are often used as reactors and decreasing their portions is important because it lowers cost and decreases the amount of waste.

EarthMimic can contribute to the market because its products help cut costs of these precious metals while being environmentally friendly.

“An increasingly important industry interest is selectivity. If a company can reduce the amount of waste there is to make a catalyst then they will be greener. We provide a better catalyst that is a green technology and saves money,” Hans said.

EarthMimic is in its early stages of development and is looking for seed money. The company received a boost in November 2007 when it emerged as one of the top three winners at the Elevator Pitch Olympics portion of the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium. This year at the same conference, the company was selected to present at a higher level.

Hans said winning the “People’s Choice Award” in the 2007 Elevator Pitch Olympics gave his team confidence and the ability to move forward with a market-specific plan. They plan to target the catalyst market where they are used to improve reaction speed, quality, quantity, selectivity and other processing parameters.

“The (Early Stage Symposium) is the big one, we practiced all the way up to the event and believe that we have a laser beam of a plan that will propel us into the market,” Hans said. “We want to deliver so everyone understands our significance in solving efficiency problems for current businesses in the industry.”

Pressley is a graduate student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.

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