Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Region:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the selection of 30 projects, including two local recipients, that would receive $57.9 in funding from its Advanced Manufacturing Office. According to the announcement, the selected projects will help decarbonize the U.S. industrial sector, advance clean energy manufacturing, and improve America’s economic competitiveness. The projects will also advance manufacturing innovations needed to drive economy-wide reductions in carbon emissions.

The local recipients are Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Trillium Renewable Chemicals, a fairly new start-up that we spotlighted in mid-January in this teknovation.biz article. The two were awarded a combined $4.5 million in two of the three topical areas – Manufacturing Process Innovation and Advanced Materials Manufacturing.

• ORNL was awarded $2 million for a project titled “A Holistic Approach for the Processing Science of Next Generation Ultrahigh Temperature Materials for Heat Exchangers.” As part of its work, the lab will be partnering with Siemens Corporation, North Carolina State University, and Alleghany Technologies Inc.
• Trillium received $2.5 million for its project titled “Sustainable Manufacturing of Acrylonitrile.” Collaborators include AIChE RAPID Manufacturing Institute, Solvay, ChemePD LLC, Koch Modular Process Systems LLC, and MATRIC.

From Maryville and Knoxville:

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner David Salyers have announced the winners of the 2022 “Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Awards,” and two are from the local region.

• The City of Maryville Water and Sewer Department received the “Water Quality” award; and
• SkyNano LLC was named recipient of the “Clean Air” award.

The winners will be formally recognized for their achievements and positive impact on the state’s natural resources and communities at an awards ceremony July 25 in Franklin. Click here to read the news release.

From Oak Ridge:

ORNL announced last week that some of its researchers have developed an upcycling approach that adds value to discarded plastics for reuse in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. The readily adoptable, scalable method introduces a closed-loop strategy that could globally reduce plastic waste and cut carbon emissions tied to plastic production. Results published in Science Advances detail the simple process for upcycling a commodity plastic into a more robust material compatible with industry 3D-printing methods. Learn more here.

From Johnson City:

As previously reported, Matt Keasey and Kay Baker of Green Llama took home the grand prize of $10,000 in “The Pitch,” a competition organized by FoundersForge. The company is now participating in the inaugural “Spark Cleantech Accelerator.” We did not have information at the time on the other winners; now we do. Second place went to Sam Bellevance of The Stable Mode, CityID (Mitch Miller and Michelle Black) came in third, and J. Allen Hughes with Shower Crown captured the “Crowd Favorite” award. Eight aspiring entrepreneurs were pitted against the clock to pitch their ideas in five minutes or less to a panel of judges.

From Cookeville:

We reported in last week’s “News & Notes” feature that Angela Regitko has been named as Upper Cumberland Regional Director for the Tennessee Department of Economic Development (ECD), succeeding Cody Huddleston who is moving to the private sector. At the time, information had not been published on Huddleston’s plans. His next role is now known; it will be as Vice President of Business Development for Veloture Development Group.

From California but with Oak Ridge Ties:

A member of Cohort 3 of the “Innovation Crossroads” program operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory served as a commencement speaker a week ago at her alma mater. Leila Safavi, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Purist Inc., earned her B.S. in Chemistry and her Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of California Irvine. She spoke to graduates of the School of Physical Sciences.

From Washington, DC but With Ties Back to Nashville:

Mike Schoenfeld is on the move after serving since 2008 as Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations and Chief Communications Officer at Duke University. Before joining the Atlantic Coast Conference university, he spent 12 years at Vanderbilt University as Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and was Senior Vice President for Policy and Public Affairs at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington before that. He is joining Brunswick Group as a Partner on August 15.

 

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