First Momentum Ventures’ Post

Want to know more about our work to serve a new future? Check out this great article by Ami Sao for MathWorks and MATLAB and Simulink for Startups: "#Bioo – Creating a Self-Sustaining Greenspace" 🌿 Urban Oasis. Project designed by ON-A incorporating Bioo's biotechnologies. #MATLAB #MathWorks #startup #biotech #revolution #future 

#Swedish startup Adsorbi has secured €360,000 in seed funding for a cellulose-based #airpurification material that can be used in air filters and odour removal products. Adsorbi was founded last year by a team out of Chalmers University of Technology in #Gothenburg, #Sweden. Their research within applied chemistry has been focused on developing efficient #biobased materials for air purification and odour removal. The team approached the issue of air purification by recognising that the current industry standard for air purification – activated #carbon – has many drawbacks: its production has a negative impact on the environment, it has a short life cycle and it performs poorly in removing health hazardous volatile organic compounds. The material they have developed, they claim, answers this need. It is flexible, has a longer lifetime, and is more energy efficient. And unlike activated carbon, it doesn’t release any #VOCs back into the air. The material is bio-based, its original raw material is sustainably harvested from the #Nordic forests, and it has a wide range of applications. Above and beyond air purification, Adsorbi are keen to emphasise its utility to the odour removal industry, citing shoes, bags, and cars as examples of its potential applications. They are also to target the #technology at museums and art galleries, where it can protect artefacts from air pollutants as well as removing the harmful particles that the artwork itself might emit. Adsorbi say the funding – from Metsä Spring, Chalmers Ventures, and Jovitech Invest – will be used to continue studying product application possibilities and ramp up sales in odour removal and art conservation, while concentrating on product development and field testing with air filter companies. Co-founder and CEO of Adsorbi, Hanna Johansson said: ‘We have a dream team of investors who understand deep tech, material startups, as well as novel usage cases for cellulose. Our patented material can be used wherever air pollutants are a problem – in air filters, products that remove bad odours, and in museums to protect works of art. This means we can tackle several significant markets with one unique material.’

#ICIQKTT | 🌿 Two new technologies from ICIQ have been selected by Mobile World Capital Barcelona in its venture builder programme The Collider. The technologies, focused on green inventions, have been patented by ICIQ-KTT thanks to their industrial possibilities in applications related to materials: 🍊 Bio-based materials: “Biobased epoxy resin composition for adhesive and coating applications” technology, from Prof. Arjan Kleij group in collaboration with Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. This invention relates to an epoxy resin composition useful as thermoset for paint, coatings or adhesives comprising a polyepoxide derived from poly(limonene carbonate), a polymer derived from biomass, and a polyamine hardener. ⚗ An outstanding catalyst: "Method of synthesis of transition metal nitrides and their use when they have two, three or four metals as catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction", from Prof. José Ramón Galán-Mascarós group. This invention describes an innovative methodology for the synthesis of multi-metallic transition metal nitrides (TMNs) in a single step using readily available and cheap metal precursors. This technology allows access to multimetallic nitrides with 1-4 different metals through very cheap raw materials. Read more 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e_TkMQvy ICERCA - Centres de Recerca de Catalunya | Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) | SOMM Alliance

With the potential to upend the rare-earth elements industry – and implications for sustainability and even national security, Alexa Schmitz PhD '18 has developed a cleaner process for extracting the essential elements used in electronics components and renewable energy technology. Currently most of these elements are extracted overseas in costly and environmentally damaging process. Through research in the Barstow Lab in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering in the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Schmitz and doctoral student Sean Medin MS ’22, engineered microbes to extract and purify rare-earth elements from minerals and recycled materials without the negative environmental consequences. Recognizing the breakthrough’s potential to revive the domestic rare-earth industry, the two researchers evaluated the product-market fit of their technology in a regional course from the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program in 2021. The program played a pivotal role in Schmitz and Medin’s shift from a researcher’s perspective to a customer-focused mindset. “We needed to test our hypotheses and avoid assumptions, especially coming at it with our academic backgrounds and perspectives,” Schmitz said. After I-Corps, Schmitz and Medin launched REEgen, armed with valuable insight into the rare-earth industry. Last month, the startup won a $275,000 Small Business Innovation Research award from the NSF to further refine its technology. Since 2017, 342 Cornell teams have participated in I-Corps and have gone on to raise more than $60 million in capital and create over 100 new jobs in total. #entrepreneurship #studentsuccess #startups #sustainability #rareearth #greentechnology #elements #minerals #recycling #innovation https://lnkd.in/eF7uDwMW

Using Bacteria in Soil as a Power Source Spun-out of the University of Bath, emerging start-up Bactery has come up with a new way of sustainably drawing energy from the surrounding environment. Normally energy harvesting will rely on mechanical vibrations, incident light, thermal gradients, etc. What the engineering team at Bactery are proposing is to leverage microorganisms located in the ground instead. The bacteria-powered energy storage reserves they have developed are referred to as ‘Bacteries’. These will be able to power the IoT hardware currently seeing deployment as part of smart farming initiatives. Bacteries will utilise the metabolic activity of microorganisms found in soil that are known as electrigens. These effectively excrete electrons after consuming organic compounds. Via the Bactery approach to energy harvesting, the ongoing capital expense of procuring cell batteries, along with the logistical challenges of subsequently replacing them after they are depleted (especially when situated in remote locations), can be avoided. In addition, the environment impact of battery disposal will no longer be an issue. Once installed, Bacteries are expected to have a 25-year operational life span. This will result in a relatively low overall cost of ownership, alongside the convenience of being maintenance free. “Our initial goal is to leverage the unique Bactery technology to accelerate the shift toward digitalisation within the agriculture sector,” states Bactery CEO, Dr. Jakub Dziegielowski. According to Prof. Mirella Di Lorenzo, one of Bactery’s directors; “Farmers are... READ MORE https://lnkd.in/e6cdz3ni Benjamin Metcalfe Will McManus

Epishine wants to create self-charging electronics — making batteries and cables a thing of the past. -The EU has granted €3.3mn to a consortium led by Swedish startup Epishine. The group’s mission is to boost the development of organic solar panels.    In this case, organic refers to solar panels that are carbon-based. Instead of using silicon to conduct electricity, these solar panels utilise organic molecules. -Organic solar cells are very lightweight, cheap, semi-transparent, printable, and flexible. They can also convert indoor light into electricity. That can be from sunlight streaming in through an open window or completely artificial light, such as LEDs or halogen bulbs.