2009 Presenting Companies

Below is the list of Midwest-based alternative energy start-ups that will present their technologies at the 2009 MAEVF. These dynamic companies were selected by a distinguished panel of venture capitalists, which included:

Shez Bandukwala – ThinkEquity LLC
John Banta – Illinois Ventures, LLC
Travis Bradford – The Prometheus Institute
John Denniston – Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers
Amy Francetic – Invention Bridge
Nitin Gupta – Element Partners
Bret Maxwell – MK Capital
Courtney McColgan – DFJ Portage 

Air Water Treatment
Air Water Treatment’s (AWT) innovation lies in using biofiltration as a solution for drinking and waste water treatment. To date they have designed and installed 23 operational plants in Spain and abroad. AWT provides scalable water treatment solutions for suppliers, operators, and users of water treatment facilities. They are targeting international expansion in markets where the need is greatest for advances in desalination, ground water treatment, and water reuse; combined with a favorable environment for technology transfer and private sector participation. Working with established commercial partners, AWT aim to provide solutions to both public and private sectors. In doing so, they will advise, design, install, train, support, and maintain for all projects subject to requirements.

Bias Power
Bias Power has developed and markets highly efficient patented low watt power supplies that are the world’s smallest and most reliable. The market for internal low watt power supplies is well in excess of $2 billion; they are used in products from TVs to sensors to kitchen appliances to vending machines to LED lighting and many others. For each of these products, Bias provides the only efficient low power solution that can be employed on a ‘drop-in’ basis, without custom design for implementation. Bias services a wide variety of customers on a direct basis, through distributors, and through manufacturer reps.

Coskata
Coskata is biology-based renewable energy company that will enable the low-cost production of ethanol from a wide variety of input material including biomass, agricultural and municipal wastes, as well as other carbonaceous material. Using proprietary microorganisms and patented bioreactor designs, Coskata will produce feedstock flexible ethanol to advance energy security, economic growth and environmental sustainability. Founded by leading renewable energy investors and entrepreneurs, Coskata has compiled a strong IP portfolio of patents and has assembled a first-class team for the development and commercialization of its syngas-to-biofuel technology, beginning with flex ethanol. Commercial scale production is anticipated in 2012.

Digital Optics International
Digital Optics (DOI) is a leading LED system and lighting company focused on revolutionizing the $38 billion global market for directional lighting such as spot, flood, task and wall wash lighting. DOI’s patented product designs achieve 2X-6X in improved energy savings over existing lighting solutions, are 3X – 12X slimmer, 3X-6X lighter weight, and provide uniquely versatile illumination patterns. DOI’s products provide owners, building contractors, architects, and facility managers with commercial lighting solutions that have never previously been available, spanning both large segment and niche applications.

e-One
e-One assists small and medium-sized organizations to design, implement and manage sustainability programs that make the most economic sense for them. Essentially, e-One will serve as an outsourced sustainability officer. Organizations of any size would benefit from a sustainability program that helps them determine the most effective of many available efficiency improvements. Until now, however, most small and mid-size organizations did not have the means for such a traditionally expensive undertaking. By combining industry patterns to determine the greatest impact items and aggregating member volumes for market power, e-One hopes to bring innovations, such as those developed through Midwest alternative energy ventures, to a wider audience.

KGRA Energy, LLC
KGRA Energy, LLC develops small-scale, modular, geothermal power generation assets. KGRA avoids the costs and risks associated with drilling for its fuel by leveraging the heat associated with the extraction, distribution, and processing of hydrocarbons to produce power. Combining the data from existing reservoirs with recent advancements in low-temperature geothermal power production equipment, the company employs a fully financed solution to provide clean and renewable energy to the oil and gas industry.

Intelligent Generation
Intelligent Generation offers a software-based whole-building electricity management system (the “optimizer”) than can triple the cost savings of a small (<3 kW) photovoltaic (PV) solar system, cut the payback period by more than half, and reduce annual electricity bills by more than 50%. Intelligent Generation’s patented method leverages existing PV and lithium-ion battery technologies to create a small footprint, low maintenance commercial/residential electricity arbitrage system that will create the breakthrough cost/benefit results required for wide-scale adoption of solar power.

Paradigm Sensors
Paradigm Sensors, winner of a 2008 R&D 100 Award for its i-SPEC® Q 100 biodiesel handheld analyzer, is a clean-tech company located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company is positioned to take advantage of the $5 billion market in the alternative fuel industry with its proprietary i-SPEC®, which is the industry’s first affordable, portable, handheld field analyzer that tests for total glycerin, acid number, methanol, and the percent blend (Bxx concentration between B2 and B99) in biodiesel by utilizing proprietary correlations between key Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) parameters and biodiesel composition and characteristics.

PyroPhase
The founders of PyroPhase have invented innovative technology that uses electromagnetic radio frequency (RF) heating to recover fuels from unconventional resources. The process can store wind power in the resource, where it produces useful fuels. It can also help to stabilize the electric grid, by adjusting the RF load to meet variations in wind and demand. The US has 2.6 trillion barrels of oil locked up in unconventional resources, which include tar sands, oil shale and heavy oil. PyroPhase has the only in site technology that has been field tested in tar sands and meets the tough operating, economic and environmental standards. The mission of PyroPhase is to scale up and commercialize this technology.