13 January 2010

World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers: Embracing Disruption


The World Economic Forum made its selection of Technology Pioneers for 2010 last month.  The Energy and Environment group is an impressive list:


BioFuelBox
BioFuelBox builds, owns and operates modular bio-refineries that recycle brown grease and trap grease and waste water sludge for companies and cities, converting it into premium clean burning fuel for local use. It eliminates the waste streams on site and shares part of the fuel profits with its customers.
Steve Perricone, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.biofuelbox.com

Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy aims to change the way the world generates and consumes energy by converting a wide range of renewable and traditional fuels into electricity through a highly efficient electrochemical reaction, rather than combustion.
K.R. Sridhar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.bloomenergy.com

Boston-Power
Boston-Power is pioneering the use of lithium-ion and other materials capable of powering end applications ranging from portable consumer electronic devices to electric vehicles.
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.boston-power.com

Care Electric Energia
CARE has designed a turbine system that generates energy from the natural flow of a river, without any alternation of its natural state. It provides fish passage facilities and does not dam the normal flow of materials in the river, conserving the fauna, vegetation and ecosystem.
Johann Hoffmann, Founder

Epuramat
Epuramat’s technology promises to revolutionize waste water treatment. Its Extreme Separator achieves an efficiency of up to 99% in terms of solid/liquid separation of organic and inorganic particles in wastewater and liquids – and it does it in only one treatment step.
David Din, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.epuramat.com

eSolar
eSolar aims to become the first solar electricity company to reach parity with the cost of fossil fuel. It hopes to achieve that goal with technology that concentrates the sunlight of mirrors of one square metre to produce steam at centralized towers.
Bill Gross, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.esolar.com

Lehigh Technologies
Lehigh Technologies manufactures very small, micron scale, engineered rubber powders from material derived from scrap tires using a proprietary, cryogenic, grinding technology. These powders are novel materials that are currently used in the manufacture of new tires and other rubber goods.
Alan Barton, Chief Executive Officer
www.lehightechnologies.com

Metabolix
Metabolix aims to create a new class of materials that can serve as an alternative to petroleum-based plastics. It has developed bio-based and biodegradable plastics using both engineered microbes and engineered bio-energy crops that grow bio-plastic directly inside leaves and stems.
Richard P. Eno, President and Chief Executive Officer
www.metabolix.com

Serious Materials
The construction industry is responsible for 52% of C02 emissions worldwide, which is more than automobiles, transportation and industry combined. Serious Materials is tackling the problem with high tech building materials that include super insulating products.
Kevin Surace, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
www.seriousmaterials.com

Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL)
VNL has developed a solar-powered GSM system specifically for remote and rural areas where people have less than US$ 2 a month to spend on their phone bills. Its base stations, which cost one-quarter of traditional equipment, only require as much energy as a 50-watt light bulb.
Rajiv Mehrotra, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
www.vnl.in
    





The Technology Pioneers program is the World Economic Forum's way of identifying and integrating companies – normally in a start-up phase or in their first rounds of financing – from around the world that are involved in the design and development of new technologies. The innovations of these companies reflect society’s attempts to harness, adapt and use technology to change and improve the way business and society operate.


Each year, hundreds of innovative companies from around the world are nominated, and approximately 30 are recognized as Technology Pioneers in three categories:

1. Biotechnology and Health
2. Energy and Environmental Technologies
3. Information Technologies and New Media.

For more information on the Technology Pioneers, visit the web site or download the brochure.

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