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Energy Concerns Boost Innovations

Long before gas prices hit $3 and Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” was released, Chicago-area entrepreneurs with an environmental bent were inventing products designed to conserve petroleum and other natural resources.

But until recently, finding a market for their green innovations was an uphill battle.

“At IIT, we’ve been worried about energy and the environment for 30 years, and people laughed at us,” said Robert Anderson, president of All Cell Technologies, a 5-year-old company founded by Illinois Institute of Technology professors Said Al-Hallaj and J. Robert Selman, whose thermal management technology is being used to develop rechargeable lithium batteries for use in plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

Growing concerns about energy and the environment, however, are giving a boost to All Cell and other environmentally friendly start-ups, experts say.

“In the past, people thought anything related to the environment would cost jobs. But the reality is, it’s an opportunity for growth,” said Jack Lavin, director of the State Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which funded the recent Innovate Illinois contest. “If we don’t embrace innovation in this area, we’re going to fall behind in the global economy.”

Entrepreneurs by nature are often first to target an unmet need. But many of today’s start-ups with an ecological focus are setting out to do nothing less than improve the world.

Take Ori Sivan, president and co-owner of Greenmaker Supply, a Chicago distributor and retailer that this month won an Innovate Illinois award in the environmental category. The year-old company is projecting $1 million in revenue for 2006, as consumers and builders turn to environmentally friendly building materials for their homes and projects.

Sivan, an environmental engineer, said he started the company because he didn’t want to spend his career trying to fix other people’s environmental mistakes. Cleaning up pollution instead of preventing it “is a very reactionary way to be living our lives,” he said. “It’s also expensive and not very creative.”

Sivan saw lots of opportunity in Chicago for a company that would offer low-impact products, from non-toxic paints and stains to energy-efficient windows and recycled glass tile, he said.

He teamed up with longtime friend Joe Silver, who for the past 15 years has worked for his family’s business, Remodelers Supply Center, and now is heading up Greenmaker’s business operations. “Most of the green stores are ma-and-pa boutiques. We’re trying to bring it more mainstream,” Silver said, noting that the partners plan to expand the company nationally.

Erika Horigan, co-owner with husband Bruce of 3-year-old Horigan Urban Forest Products in Glenview, also has seen growing interest from furniture-makers, builders and homeowners for the company’s lumber, which is milled and kiln-dried from urban trees that have been cut down. “We’re saving a tree that would otherwise be cut down in the forest,” she said. “It’s a great alternative to any other type of wood that would be harvested.”

The Chicago area’s old-growth oak trees, elms, black walnut trees, silver maples and cherry trees are ideal for furniture, she said. “It’s good for the local economy. It provides jobs for local furniture-makers and builders, and it uses a resource that’s in this area,” she said. Now the company is developing a prototype to turn urban-forested wood chips into an environmentally friendly hollow-core composite board. “We’re trying to give these products a whole other life,” Horigan said.

Meantime, Solvent Systems International, based in Elk Grove Village, is reducing waste through its Grease Gator invention. The device, invented by University of Illinois professor Tim Lindsey and others, uses a water-based cleaning fluid to clean mechanical parts in factories and auto repair shops, then separates the oil from the detergent so both can be reused.

“The oil and grease comes out dry enough so it can be used as heating oil,” said Steve Rundell, president of the company, which was launched in 1983 as a mobile recycling center. It had revenue of about $5 million in 2005, he said.

The water-based detergent solution also comes out of the Grease Gator purified for reuse. “Without the oil the cleaner doesn’t biodegrade, so companies can continually reuse the cleaning solution,” Rundell said. “There is virtually no waste.” And the system’s aqueous cleaners take the place of toxic mineral spirits-based solvents most parts-washing machines use, eliminating a health hazard.

Companies spend about $600 on average per year to buy the Grease Gator, but save much more than that by reusing the solvent and reselling the oil, he said. Once separated from the solvent, the oil can be resold for 70 cents to $1 a gallon to steel mills, ocean liners and other high-energy users, he said.

Without a device like the Grease Gator, most companies need to pay to safely dispose of their used cleaning solutions, Rundell said.

Reuse is also the focus of All Cell’s lightweight lithium batteries, which like cell phone batteries can be recharged for continual use. All Cell figured out a way to prevent overheating by using a waxy material to absorb heat from the batteries, Anderson said.

The batteries were first developed for military applications with funding from the government a decade ago. Today, the lightweight batteries are being tested in a City of Chicago Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, which is getting up to 60 miles to the gallon, Anderson said. The batteries are also in use in Chrysler GEM, an electric car that can go for 25 to 50 miles without a recharge.

Not only does the battery-powered energy help reduce reliance on oil, but if the electricity for the batteries is generated from nuclear, solar or wind power, it will cut down on carbon dioxide emissions, Anderson said. Ideally, he said, “In the long run, there’s no global warming.”

Source : http://www.chicagotribune.com/

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