We're excited to introduce MEIA's participating Startup Teams. MEIA's goal is to help create or expand Maryland-based clean energy businesses. Learn more about the teams below, and you can keep up with teams' progress on the MEIA Blog.
Carbon Plus is commercializing a new method to produce high-strength carbon fibers from inexpensive carbon black derived from methane pyrolysis. This process provides low-cost carbon fibers, significantly reducing energy consumption while producing green hydrogen. The new manufacturing processes will make carbon fibers more widely available and affordable for structural and composite material applications beyond their current market uses.
The team combines Maryland’s best, including team lead Canhui Wang, an Assistant Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University; Chao Wang, an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Prof. Liangbing Hu from the University of Maryland. Adding to this robust collective, Prof. Satish Kumar and Dr. Kishor Gupta, both leading experts in carbon fiber research from Georgia Tech, bring their specialized knowledge to the project.
CUPtech (Catalytic Upcycling of Plastics Tech) has developed a novel process for the catalytic conversion of waste plastics via a common refining process known as hydrocracking to valuable chemical building blocks. The process has been tested to accept low-value mixed waste plastic feedstock like the blue bin recycling container. The process has been demonstrated at a laboratory scale to produce high-value aromatic products (e.g., benzene, toluene & xylene (BTX)). CUPTech has received DOE/ARPA-E funding for process development and FEL-1 modeling of a demonstration facility. The IP on catalyst formulation and hydrocracker reactor design has been filed with JHU.
CUPtech has been co-founded by multi-time business builder Steven Davey and Dr. Chao Wang, Associate Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the Director of the Nano Energy Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
Enerytics develops a Decentralized Energy Management System by leveraging Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and blockchain to address the complex challenges of large-scale demand flexibility scheduling in commercial and industrial buildings. The system coordinates among DERs and provides comprehensive monitoring and management of energy consumption in a real-time manner. Our framework adapts to diverse objectives such as energy consumption optimization, carbon emission reduction, and maximizing energy self-sufficiency.
Dr. Sina Faridimehr is the Co-Founder and CEO of Enerytics. Sina has worked in the data science industry for over seven years. He was a member of the Judging Panel at the 2019 Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics and the primary researcher of Warner Media's team that received recognition in the 2018 INFORMS Edelman Analytics prize. Sina has published several papers in top academic journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Wayne State University and a master's and bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
Finev helps small and medium sized businesses transition to electric vehicles. Our platform provides EV loans that are more affordable than traditional lenders, enables SMB owners to find the right EVs and chargers for their needs, and surfaces incentives to reduce their cost of going electric.
Finev’s C-suite is uniquely equipped to tackle the challenges of enabling (SMBs) to transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Nic brings visionary leadership with a 25-year background in Financial Services, including significant roles in B2B lending and strategic partnerships at Amazon, Citi, and SVB. His deep understanding of launching innovative financial products and drive Finev’s mission.
Floraponics is a woman-owned, organic, sustainable cut flower farm revolutionizing floriculture via aquaponics, providing high-quality, long-lasting blooms to florists, floral designers, and the consumer. They are the only farm growing dahlias and lisianthus, two of the most highly sought-after varieties, in an aquaponic greenhouse in the world! The US floral industry is dominated by imported flowers, grown in South America predominantly, and with little to no regulation of how the flowers are grown. As a result, the overall industry is highly pollutive and carbon emission-heavy. In addition, many flower varieties don’t ship well and the quality of the product is poor, if not outright unusable. Florists and Floral designers especially are desperately in need of a higher quality floral product that aligns with their desire to help the environment and the domestic flower farmer. Floraponics addresses this urgent need by producing the greenest, highest quality, local flowers that elevate florists and floral designers’ work. Florists, floral designers, and the consumer have come to accept that imported flowers purchased either via wholesalers or at local flower shops or grocery stores must be of lower quality, cost more (due to excessive waste), and don’t last long in a vase. Floraponics addresses this problem by providing the freshest possible product, often being cut the same day or day before they are sold, transported a short distance to the customer, and very few if any, stems are wasted. Sarah Daken, majority owner, President, and Co-Founder is a practicing attorney who has 20-plus years of litigation experience. She is an expert at sales and marketing, business development, and customer relationship management. Tom Precht is a Ph.D.-trained neuroscientist with 10 years of sales experience and 8 years of research experience. He is the technical expert managing the aquaponics technology development, engineering solutions to the flower growing systems, and implementing plant growth optimization.
Frederick, Maryland’s Forager Station, is making a major contribution to solving the global lithium shortage. The venture's mission is to increase the availability of lithium for everyone. It has a patent pending lithium refining technology with higher extraction efficiency, significant water savings, and applicability to more customer types than other technologies on the market. Forager Station’s customers are in the produced water industry, the salt mining industry, and the geothermal lithium brine industry. One major focus area is to create the first commercially viable lithium extraction tech that works for Appalachian lithium brines, enabling a new green industry to form.
Patrick Ho, founder of Forager Station, was born in Maryland and grew up catching blue crabs on the Chesapeake Bay. This has instilled in him the sense that with the right tools, life can come from the sustainable bounty found in water. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In school, he focused on machine design, entrepreneurship, and biomedical technology. His career spans roles in medical device reliability and software development for various industries. Patrick's passion for deep tech and sustainable solutions drives the company's mission to scale global lithium abundance
Team Leader Bob Gatte
Bob Gatte, recently retired CTO of WR Grace, is CEO of HighT-Tech Catalyst. HighT-Tech's patented method of manufacturing and tuning of high entropy catalyst materials will create high performance, perfectly mixed and stable multi-element catalysts. This technology enables energy-efficient, clean and low-cost catalyst manufacturing; enables discovery of new materials and performance optimization; enables multiple catalyst functions within one material; and enables alloying of low-cost elements to replace noble metals.
JJ Innovative Materials aims to reduce carbon footprint in the construction industry by using carbon-negative materials. This venture has developed prototypes for drywall and wall tiles that are 95% made of sustainable ingredients or recycled by-products of existing industries like industrial hemp, pumice powder, hydrated lime, and fly ash.
JJ Innovative Materials uses these sustainable materials in a process that does not require heating or cooling or any additional toxic chemical additives for fire/mold resistance, reducing the environmental footprint of industrial production. Overall, JJ Innovative Materials claims to have made a carbon-negative construction material that sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for each product they make.
CEO Taein D. Lee founded JJ InnovativeMaterials, has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Materials Science Engineering, and has published 10+ research journals on micro/nanoengineering techniques to control material properties.
Director of Compliance Chu Ding has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Civil Engineering and is a licensed structural engineer and LEED Green Associate. He has worked for 3 years in structural engineering consulting and uses his experience to ensure regulatory compliance and provide a more applied perspective.
Director of Manufacturing Mark Wo has a B.S. from Johns Hopkins University in Materials Science Engineering; he boasts 5 years of experience in DIY contracting, 10+renovation projects, and real estate management. He works on day-to-day R&D operations and prepares the product for manufacturing.
The venture is currently operating in Baltimore and is finding a manufacturing site to develop its manufacturing technology.
Loop Closing lowers the cost and environmental and socioeconomic impact of food waste disposal through a regenerative on-site composting solution that replaces dumpsters and hauling. Our service helps hospitality, academic, grocery and commercial food service customers recover their portion of the $11 billion Americans spend on food waste disposal every year. Loop Closing’s Jeffrey Neal, PE received 11 awards for meritorious service during a career solving the US Navy operations and infrastructure problems and leading change, holds engineering degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley, and receives support as an Echoing Green Fellow 2018, Bethesda Green Resident, and Soros Equality Fellow 2023.
Jeffrey Neal is the Founder and CEO of Loop Closing. Before starting Loop Closing, Jeffrey Neal served a 24-year career leading change and solving our most challenging operations and infrastructure problems for our US Navy and Marine Corps Bases around the world.
MEST is developing applications of thermoelastic cooling for environmentally friendly and cost-effective refrigeration. Thermoelastic cooling is a novel solid-state cooling technology based on the latent heat of the reversible martensitic phase transformation. Thermoelastic cooling is a novel solid-state cooling technology based on the latent heat of the reversible martensitic phase transformation. MEST experimentations have shown that the refrigerant COP (coefficient of performance) is double that of the most widely used vapor compression systems.
Dr. Ichiro Takeuchi is the inventor and co-founder of MEST. He is a world leader in combinatorial materials science and has more than twenty-five years of experience in functional materials. Prof. Takeuchi received his PhD in Physics from the University of Maryland (UMD) and is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Mrs. Sherry Xie manages operations and business development for MEST. Additionally, she has extensive experience in marketing and business development. Her first entrepreneurial experience began in 2009 in a wholesale business. Sherry received her MBA from Stern Business School of New York University.
Metallic Luxury is a sustainable community development company - created to initiate the chain of generational wealth with foreclosure prevention education through homeownership. To meet the evolving needs of housing we have an opportunity to disrupt the market with modular homes, climate resilient features, and crisis budgeting. We're committed to creating buy-in for all buyers being priced out of home ownership. Follow our journey to revitalize Baltimore's housing market!
Randi Williams is a modern facilitator that challenges corporate spaces to keep community in mind - currently serving as an Environmental Health Officer Consultant. She's an eight-year public policy professional that previously developed programs and products to comply with regulatory systems for implementation. She volunteers at urban farms in West Baltimore with a dream of owning one.
She has an education in traditional public policy and a background in insurance, community development, and public health projects, centered around improving internal policies and programs - starting her PhD in Architecture, Urbanism, and Built Environments at Morgan State University. Her services have awarded her multiple Board Member positions for Smalltimore Homes, The LeadHership Project, and The Maryland Comptroller’s Women Economic Empowerment Council. To that end, she is ready for the new challenge of building Baltimore's first Modular Container Community.
NewCopper has developed liquid printable copper ink for flexible hybrid electronic technologies. The directed printing of copper-based conductors opens the market for manufacturing high-performance and low-cost, flexible hybrid electronics. The venture technology has shown flexibility in the product range it can support, including antenna, heater, pressure/flow, and Resistance Temperature Detector sensor electronics for high temperature and flexible current collectors for Li-ion batteries.
Dr. Shenqiang Ren co-founded Coppertech and is a Materials Science and Engineering Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. His expertise focuses on materials-by-design, self-assembly, and advanced manufacturing of multifunctional and stimuli-responsive materials for extreme environments. He is a postdoc fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and in 2015 he received the National Science Foundation – CAREER Award. 2014 Professor Ren earned the RSC Emerging Investigator – Journal of Material Chemistry.
Ratnesh Tiwari is co-founder and CEO of NextGlass. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He worked for companies like Larsen and Toubro Limited, ADNOC and University of Maryland before joining NextGlass. He has received several research grant awards from the Organizations like NSF, DOE and ARPA-E.
NextGlass is developing a novel process to fabricate low-cost vacuum insulated glass (VIG) windows that are five times more insulating than regular dual pane windows and are as insulating as walls. Traditional VIGs are manufactured at high temperatures using costly equipment, making them unaffordable. NextGlass has developed a low-temperature fabrication process that reduces VIG cost by 80%, bringing it to a similar cost range as double and triple-pane windows, facilitating economical replacement. Upon widespread implementation, this VIG technology has the potential to annually save up to $42 billion in energy bills and reduce 3% of total US energy and 140 million tons of annual CO2 emissions.
OASIS Energy Partners is a venture revolutionizing energy data technology, providing a comprehensive suite of data automation software solutions to empower grid resilience and decarbonization efforts. Their innovative solutions harness the power of data to optimize grid operations, enhance reliability, and accelerate the transition to a clean energy future.
Brooke Smallwood is the founder and CEO of OASIS Energy Partners. She has over 20+ years of leadership positions in the energy field with large utilities and Fortune 500 companies, including Exelon, Alta Gas, Southern Companies, Honeywell, JCI, Lockheed Martin, and AECOM.
Pirl has developed next-generation electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to accelerate the transition to electrified transport. Using the latest Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, they deploy stations that charge rapidly, have a lower environmental footprint, and delight owners with an engaging user experience. Pirl has an R&D partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and has received seed funding from TEDCO.
Pirl was founded by Kobby Osei-Kusi, who has a Harvard Business School MBA and has managed the deployment of large power plants.
Redhelm Labs is revolutionizing the drone industry with its innovative wireless long-range in-flight recharging technology powered by laser. This groundbreaking solution eliminates the need for risky manual battery swaps during flights and significantly reduces dependence on gas-powered drones. Currently, Redhelm Labs is backed by a DARPA SBIR Phase 1 contract and has successfully completed the MEIA Pre-accelerator, further validating its potential in the market.Redhelm Labs was founded by Neil Sorkin, a graduate of the University of Maryland with a major in Computer Science and a concentration in Statistics; Neil has a robust background in machine learning and computer vision. Neil's previous experiences include impactful roles at the US Naval Research Lab, Reinventing Geospatial Inc., and AT&T, where he developed key technological innovations. An active participant in industry conferences and academic collaborations, Neil continuously seeks to push the boundaries of UAV efficiency and safety in operational environments. He envisions a future where power beaming safely liberates us from the constraints of wired power. This vision reflects his commitment to enhancing human capabilities and driving technological advancement.
Salient Direct Ocean Capture (DOC), founded by WIlliam MacLeod is developing electrochemical technology for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from seawater. Their approach is designed for scalability and cost. The electrochemical approach uses only electricity and seawater as inputs, avoiding supply chain constraints on plant operations. It also employs the ocean as its carbon dioxide contactor, concentrating it to a hundred times that of the atmosphere by volume. Carbon dioxide removed from seawater can be sequestered through any durable storage mechanism and the effluent seawater returns to the ocean to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere. These efficiencies position Salient Direct Ocean Capture to meet the projected need for 10-20 gigatons per year of global CDR capacity. Byproducts of the process will generate co-benefits and additional revenue streams to offset the cost of CDR and provide financial stability in nascent carbon removal markets.
William MacLeod is a first-time entrepreneur seeking to commercialize his graduate work at Johns Hopkins University. He has previously worked as an engineering consultant for US Government clients across a breadth of technical fields including energy, wireless communications, cybersecurity, industrial control systems, space systems, and human reliability analysis. William is also an Army veteran of five years and received his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
SpinQi is a Rockville-based spin-out of Weinberg Medical Physics, which has successfully launched billion-dollar companies. SpinQi is working with two-dimensional materials (e.g., MXene) to build capacitors for energy storage needs of HVDC transmission lines and offshore wind facilities, with applications to electric vehicles and directed energy. Unlike conventional capacitors and ultracapacitors, the SpinQi capacitors are optimized for high voltage, increasing the energy density by orders of magnitude. The new high-voltage high-energy density (HV-HED) capacitors still have the rapid charge and discharge advantages of conventional capacitors.
Dr. Mair is a materials scientist who received a PhD from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at NIST. He then came to the Weinberg Medical Physics incubator and is a founder of the SpinQi spin-out from that incubator. Dr. Mair is an expert in the synthesis of macroscale shape-defined structures with nanoscale specifications. He is the developer of the MXene high-voltage capacitor, which features unprecedented energy storage and discharge capabilities.
SpringGem Weather Information, LLC is a Small Business Administration certified women-owned small business. Founded in 2017 by a university faculty, Springgem integrates Internet-of-Things, smart sensor, remote sensing, machine learning and traditional weather physical model to provide solutions for smart city and smart road needs. SpringGem has been awarded US patent on IcyRoad technology, a cutting-edge sensor+software technology to monitor and predict road ice formation across US and Canada. This IcyRoad technology was funded by NSF SBIR, Montana Department of Transportation, and NASA.
Dr. Jin is an entrepreneur in climate science with strong research and teaching background. Dr. Menglin Susan Jin is currently a visiting associate professor of Earth Science Disciplinary Center of University of Maryland, College Park. Formerly an assistant professor at San Jose State University, Dr. Jin has been working on climate modeling, satellite remote sensing, and urbanization impacts on aerosol-clouds-rainfall interactions. With a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, Dr. Jin has published 40+ papers from the projects mainly funded by NSF, NASA, and DOD. In 2017, Dr. Jin founded SpringGem Weather Information, LLC (https://sg-weather.com/) to transfer research results on industry. Dr.JIn’s primary enterpretunare experience includes NSF regional and national I-Corps, NSF SBIR Phase 1. When not working, Dr. Jin enjoys reading, cooking, and hiking.
USPlasma Inc. (USP) is a spinoff project from the University of Maryland College Park and Princeton University. It was funded by distinguished University of Maryland Professor Liangbing Hu, Ji-Cheng Zhao, Professor and Chair of the University of Maryland Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Yiguang Ju, Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Princeton University.
USPlasma is electrifying manufacturing leveraging renewable energy sources and 4th state of matter, plasma. Its unique, innovative plasma includes tip-enhanced carbon electrodes that provide a uniform, stable, ultrahigh-temperature plasma (USP) reaching 8000 K at atmospheric pressure or higher with a record low-initiation voltage (~40 V) and operating power. USP overcomes several shortcomings of traditional plasma processes, including plasmas’ limited volume, instability, temperature nonuniformity, reactor design flexibility, scale-up issues, and cost competitiveness. The technology of USPlasma, Inc. enables scalable synthesis and manufacturing of bulk, ultrahigh-temperature materials, refractory metal alloys, amorphous high-melting-point oxides, sintering of materials containing volatile elements, and carbon nanotubes directly from carbon black without any catalysts, upcycling, and treatment of non-landfillable wastes such as military wastes, low-level radiative wastes, and asbestos into reduced-volume glassy slag materials.
Dr. Hamideh Soltani is the Director of USPlasma Inc. She is an accomplished and impactful leader with a broad educational background and work experience. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Delaware, an M.S. in Water Resources from Villanova University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. Dr. Soltani intends for USPlasma to develop and commercialize impactful technologies addressing humankind’s challenges by creating 21st-century advanced manufacturing for a better life. She will drive and advance the USPlasma based on the core values of LIFT, Leadership, Integrity, Focus, and Total Employees Development.
Venki Energy is developing technical solutions to residential solar’s biggest barriers, with the goal of connecting all households to solar energy and its benefits. Venki Energy is first tackling the top two reasons that customers who want solar don’t get it- the high upfront costs and long length of financing options. To do this, the company is developing solar a solar racking system that can be easily installed and just as easily removed with no damage to the roof. Venki Energy’s technology will empower millions of households in the U.S. alone to reap the benefits of rooftop solar.
Betty Watson been leading advances in clean energy policy and product development for 15 years. After completing a Master’s degree in Environmental Management- Energy Concentration at Duke University, she accepted a Fellowship at the Regulatory Assistance Project, where she worked on policies at the nexus of electricity and decarbonization in the U.S., Europe, India and China. From there, she moved to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, leading the agency’s stakeholder proceedings on capacity markets and advising the Commissioners on numerous issues. In her roles at SolarCity and Tesla, Watson led state and wholesale market policy for energy storage and worked closely with the companies’ product development teams to create cutting edge energy products and services the responded to market needs. As head of policy for Modern Energy, Watson founded the organization’s policy team and led policy for its portfolio companies. At Apple, Watson provided energy policy and power systems expertise to help launch a new feature, “Grid Forecast” as a part of Apple’s Home services. In 2024, Watson founded Venki Energy to use to her expertise in clean energy policy and product development to develop and commercialize technical solutions to the biggest barriers to residential solar.
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator
5000 College Ave., Suite 31010, College Park MD 20740
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator is an
initiative of the Maryland Clean Energy Center
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