Thirty-two individuals comprising 28 startups were chosen to advance to the semi-finals and compete to join Chain Reaction Innovations’ Cohort 6. A broad range of energy innovations are represented in this year’s applicants, including energy storage and generation, water, decarbonization, circular economy, quantum, manufacturing, and materials.
Responding to a nation-wide call for proposals, 199 applications were collected by the October 31 deadline. After reviews by CRI staff and Argonne scientists to narrow the field, the semi-finalists were chosen.
The 32 will pitch their startups’ technology in a 30-minute interview to a review panel over five days during the first two weeks of December. From this group, approximately 15-18 finalists will be chosen to pitch at the virtual final competition on February 22-23rd, 2022.
Congratulations to Cohort 6 Semifinalists
Gabrielle Abizeid, Hydrogen Sensor/Safety Device
Sergey Antipov, Laser Microfabrication and Customization of NV-centers in Diamond for Quantum Sensing
Zachary Berquist, Transparent Refractory Aerogels
Ryan Goethals, Metal-Air Harvester
Kristian Gubsch, Low-cost, Low Carbon Acrylonitrile
Ryan Hackler & Robert Kennedy, Chemical Recycling of Plastic Waste to Higher Value Lubricants
Thomas Horseman, Solar-powered Water Treatment Technology
John Howard & Matthew Shieh, Enabling Commercial Hypersonic and Reusable Launch Vehicles through Scalable Manufacturing of Smart Composite Thermal Protection
Brandon Howe, High Critical Field Strength Ultrawide Bandgap Gallium Oxide for Energy-Efficient High-Power Electronics
Malek Ibrahim, Hydrogen Production from Hydrogen Storage Organic Molecules
Rong Jiang, Proton-conductive Polymer Membranes for Iron-titanium Redox Flow Batteries
Jason Jordan, Mobile Solar Micro Grid
Kwaku Jyamfi, FTF Biomass Electricity Generator
John Krzeminski, High Power, Light Weight, Range Extender Internal Combustion Engine
Tae Hwan Lim, Distributed Direct Air Capture System
Paula Moon, Biotechnology to Select Optimal Strain for Biomethane
Christopher Nicholas, Bio-based Acrylics from Lactic Acid
Vikas Nandwana, Oleophilic Hierarchical Multi-functional (OHM) Membrane
Manas Pathak, Long Duration Energy Storage
Harrison Paul, OleoSponge Oil Sorbent
Joanne Rodriguez, Mycoremediation of Waste into New Materials
Michelle Ruiz, Valorization of Wastewater for Nutritious Food Product Production
George Sadler, Magnetic Induction for Industrial Thermal Processing
Manish Kumar Singh & Sean Sullivan, Silicon-compatible Integrated Platform for Quantum Communication
Ever Valasquez & Adam Uliana, Ion Solutions – Advanced Adsorbents and Multifunctional Membrane Separation
Tony Valayil Varghese, Multiprinter compatible Nanomaterial Inks for Additive Manufacturing
Steve Xiao, Flexible Aluminum Smelter for Grid Stabilization
Pei Zhang, Microbial Clean Tech Metal Oxide Manufacturing and Decarbonization
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Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) is a two-year program for innovators focusing on energy and science technologies. Through an annual call for innovators, four to six teams will be selected to join CRI. Program participants will receive the financial and technical support needed to perform early-stage research and development (R&D) that may launch energy or manufacturing businesses in the future.
