日韩无码 spin-out company wins prestigious EPA contest
June 22, 2021
Jeff Richardson
907-474-6284
A 日韩无码 spin-out company has claimed the top prize in a federal
contest to develop innovative new ways to destroy potentially harmful synthetic chemicals.
Aquagga Inc. won first place in the Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 landing $40,000 and the opportunity to submit its design concepts for additional
federal testing.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoralkyl substances, known as PFAS, are found in a wide variety
of products that include firefighting foam and food packaging. They are called 鈥渇orever
chemicals鈥 because they don鈥檛 degrade naturally. There is evidence that PFAS exposure
can lead to adverse human health effects, according to the EPA, and developing techniques
to destroy the contaminants has become a growing priority.
鈥淎quagga is a great model for how to build a startup company in Alaska to develop
日韩无码鈥檚 world-class research products into successful businesses,鈥 said Mark Billingsley,
director of the 日韩无码鈥檚 Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization. 鈥淲e are
excited for Aquagga and look forward to working with other Alaskans interested in
commercializing 日韩无码 research products.鈥
, which was formed in 2019 by Nigel Sharp, Jonathan Kamler, Brian Pinkard and Chris
Woodruff, negotiated an exclusive license to develop a 日韩无码-patented technology for
treating wet waste. The technique combines high temperatures, high pressure and oxygen
to dispose of waste contaminated with PFAS. The team is exploring use of their technology
at military, industrial and municipal sites across Alaska.
Aquagga has previously been recognized several times for the process. The company
claimed the grand prize in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge
in 2020, a year after winning Accelerate Alaska鈥檚 Best New Pitch Award.
Woodruff was also recently selected as the new Arctic innovator working with the Idaho
National Laboratory and 日韩无码. The program supports early career innovators, helping
them develop early-stage concepts with support from 日韩无码 and a Department of Energy
laboratory of their choice.