Six NJ carbon capture, clean-tech startups getting $86K in state funding

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Six New Jersey startups are getting a combined $86,250 in state support to finance operations, and to research and develop clean energy technology.

Under the Clean Tech R&D Voucher Program, the six startups can apply for multiple rounds of up to $15,000 within a year, which they could use to develop technology that would capture carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Another 10 applications are being reviewed on top of the six announced Sept. 28, according to a joint statement that day from the state Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology.

Gunjan Doshi, who chairs the CSIT, said the program would “support the cultivation of innovative technologies in our state’s earliest stage companies.”

The program is being run in coordination with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which regulates the state’s utilities, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which provides financial support to the state’s private sector.

“We encourage all emerging companies to explore how this program can further their growth,” Doshi, the founding chief executive officer of Manhattan-based consulting firm InRhythm, continued in a statement.

The technology serves the Murphy administration’s overall goals of a “clean energy economy” for New Jersey that would be developed by the middle of the century, said Joseph Fiordaliso, who heads the NJBPU.

Eion NJ Corp., based in Princeton, was awarded $15,000 to develop a “fine-grained material product that rapidly captures and stores carbon dioxide when applied to agricultural soils.” It’s being developed in coordination with Rutgers University’s School of Environmental and Biological Science facilities.

HiT Nano, based in Bordentown, was awarded $11,250 for the development of “high-temperature nanotechnologies” that would be used for lower-cost and better-performing lithium ion batteries and other energy-storage technology. It’s being provided with equipment at Princeton University’s Princeton Institute of Materials, specifically the Imaging and Analysis Center, and Micro and Nano Fabrication Center.

BRISEA Group, based in Parsippany, is developing mass disinfection technology for personal and medical equipment, and is getting $15,000 for its R&D. Michrinik Technologies, based in Cedar Knolls, is getting $15,000 of support to develop new energy-storage materials. Both BRISEA and Michrinik are getting support from the Otto Work Center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The Newark-based Nanosepex is getting $15,000 of support to develop desalination and water-treatment technology that would be used to treat industrial wastewater. It’s getting support from NJIT’s Laboratory for Analytical Chemistry and Nanotechnology.

RRTC, based in Belle Mead, is getting $15,000 to develop composite materials that could be used for wind turbine blades, wood substitutes and carbon capture. It is getting support from Rutgers’ Materials Science and Engineering facilities.