AxNano and North Carolina A&T Partner to win $234,934 NSF STTR Grant

By Monica Doss

AxNano LLC, the technology acceleration arm of Triad Growth Partners, has received a $224,934.00 Phase I STTR Grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a slow release technology for remediation of contaminated waters that is safer and allows for sustained treatment over extended periods with fewer applications than conventional methods.

AxNano has partnered on the STTR with co-Principal investigator Stephanie Luster-Teasley, Ph.D., North Carolina A&T University, inventor and Chair of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) Department. Charles Gause, CEO of AxNano and President of Triad Growth Partners is the Principal Investigator for the project. Also involved is Alexis Carpenter, PhD,  Principal Investigator for Triad Growth Partners and AxNano.

AxNano’s proprietary platform technology is a versatile new controlled release polymer structure (CRPS) being developed for In Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO), an advanced remediation technology that has proven efficacy in reducing groundwater pollution.

“There are over 1300 sites on the EPA’s National Priorities list where hazardous contaminants have been or are expected to be released into the environment One out of every four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site. With aging infrastructure that compromises water sources compounded by growing water scarcity, CRPS can transform the $60 billion global remediation industry as a lower-cost, safer and more flexible remediation material” notes Charles Gause, CEO of AxNano.

Current ISCO remediation methods are expensive, time-consuming and disruptive, depending on strong liquid oxidizers that create serious worker safety hazards and are not effective in all environments. Some ISCO compounds disrupt the aquifer through reactions that cause unwanted effects on microbial life and may generate unwanted or toxic oxidation products. AxNano’s CRPS technology can be delivered as an easy to handle solid designed to treat specific contaminated zones over the course of months or years under natural conditions.
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The objectives of the Phase I project are to optimize the formulation, evaluate the performance in realistic environments and determine scale up design, manufacturing cost and deployment strategies in order to transition the technology to a commercial project.

Author: Monica Doss