{"id":136483,"date":"2018-04-25T08:55:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T12:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=136483"},"modified":"2018-05-01T10:14:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T14:14:49","slug":"startup-develops-carbon-zero-fuels-uconn-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/04\/startup-develops-carbon-zero-fuels-uconn-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Advances Carbon-Zero Fuels through UConn Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Rob McGinnis needed a well equipped lab for his startup company, his graduate school friend, Jeff McCutcheon, associate professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, suggested he apply for\u202fUConn\u2019s Technology Incubation Program<\/a> (TIP) at the Storrs campus.<\/p>\n

The lab gave McGinnis the research facilities and access to other University resources that he needed to launch his business. He developed carbon nanotube technology that will have multiple, far-reaching business applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn is far ahead of other institutions,\u201d says McGinnis, who met McCutcheon when they were both at Yale University working on their doctorates. \u201cIt\u2019s\u202fnot just the physical space that provides value. I am pleased to be treated as a member of the University community.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGinnis joined TIP when he formed Mattershift, a company that designs and manufactures nanotube membranes for carbon-zero fuels, optimized air and water, and precision medicine. The company seeks to convert carbon dioxide from the air into fuels, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and construction materials without\u202fusing fossil fuels as inputs.<\/p>\n

\"Nanotube<\/a>
Nanotube membrane developed by startup Mattershift through the TIP program. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McGinnis sought to find a way to make carbon nanotube membranes \u2013 which he calls a \u201cwonder material\u201d \u2013 in a way so they could be mass produced. The technology had been around for about a decade when he started his company.<\/p>\n

“This technology gives us a level of control over the material world that we’ve never had before,” McGinnis says. “We can choose which molecules can pass through our membranes and what happens to them when they do.”<\/p>\n

Currently, the company is working to remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into fuels, a task that has been done using conventional technology, but is too expensive to be practical.<\/p>\n

“Using our tech, I think we’ll be able to produce carbon-zero gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels that are cheaper than fossil fuels,” says McGinnis.<\/p>\n

McGinnis didn\u2019t share intellectual property with McCutcheon or explain how he cracked the code. But McCutcheon tested the technology and confirmed its accuracy. McCutcheon, who owns less than a 1 percent stake in Mattershift, says his credibility as a scientist is paramount because he has a reputation to maintain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy serving as a consultant and as a member of their Scientific Advisory Board,” says McCutcheon. “But as with any new tech that comes into the membrane field, I am going to be extremely critical. Mattershift needs someone like me to be impartial evaluating their technology. I can be that person since I don\u2019t work with competing forms of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s environment, a good idea is not enough to garner research and development funding from some sources, McCutcheon says. Entrepreneurs need this type of unbiased review to prove\u202fthat their theory works. They also need partners to publish this work in the scientific literature and seek grants.<\/p>\n

McGinnis says he benefits from proximity to researchers like McCutcheon and highly trained student talent. McGinnis, who says he \u201clives in a sea of risk,\u201d says he appreciates the resources offered through TIP. Universities typically offer startups some desks with laptops, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery few places provide material science space for a startup,\u201d says McGinnis. Unlike some universities, UConn provided the lab space\u202fand assistance\u202fwith no strings attached. His inventions and intellectual property belong to him exclusively, the entrepreneur says, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s no attempt to try to own it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCutcheon and his students benefit\u202fas well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was glad to be part of it. I was excited to see a startup from the inside, and I learned a lot about not only the business aspects, but how technology is vetted by different members of the finance community,\u201d McCutcheon says. \u201cHaving Rob around gave me a sounding board for my ideas and I learned how the two groups, academics and entrepreneurs, with divergent incentives, could work together for mutual benefit.”<\/p>\n

There are more tangible benefits as well.\u00a0The group published a paper March 9 in Science Advances<\/a>. And, one of McCutcheon\u2019s graduate students, Kevin Reimund, from East Haven, Connecticut,\u202fworked\u202ffor McGinnis as an assistant for two years, gaining\u202freal-world experience before pursuing his Ph.D. with another one of Mattershift\u2019s advisors, Benny Freeman, professor of chemical engineering at the\u202fUniversity of Texas, Austin.<\/p>\n

Mattershift has completed development of its programmable molecular gateway technology, and the company has already booked its first sales to Trevi Systems of Petaluma, California. It will ship products later this year for use in a seawater desalination process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcademics should seek to work with someone like\u202fRob,\u201d says McCutcheon. \u201cHe\u2019s a pure entrepreneur. He offers me a window into a world I know little about.\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of the Technology Incubation Program (TIP), Mattershift is developing ways to convert carbon dioxide from the air into fuels, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and construction materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":136983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,1731,2076,1862,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-136483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-entrepreneurship","category-research","category-busn","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 18:09:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136483"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137257,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136483\/revisions\/137257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/136983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136483"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=136483"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=136483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}