Research organization gets new leader
Charleston Daily Mail
October 4, 2007
http://www.dailymail.com/story/Business/+/2007100433/Research+organization+gets+new+leader/
By George Hohman
Daily Mail business editor
There's a lot happening in the 22 offices and 14 labs occupied by the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center at the South Charleston Technical Park. One change is the location itself. The entire enterprise -- commonly referred to as MATRIC -- recently moved from Building 701, which is being demolished, to Building 740. Dow Chemical's Union Carbide Corp. subsidiary gave the building to West Virginia University in August, creating the WVU Charleston Research Campus at the front of the technical park.
Another change is growth. MATRIC had 47 employees and had won $6.4 million in contracts at this time a year ago. Today the organization has 70 employees, including 50 who are full-time, and has won a total of $13.8 million in contracts.
There's also a major change on the board of directors. Tom Potter, who has chaired the nonprofit organization since it was established 31/2 years ago, is stepping down. His successor is Paul Arbogast, president of the West Virginia Business Roundtable.
Arbogast said MATRIC will always be grateful to Potter for his leadership. It was during Potter's chairmanship of the Business and Industrial Development Corp. -- now the Charleston Area Alliance -- that Potter spearheaded the effort to form MATRIC and harness the brainpower that Union Carbide had brought to the Kanawha Valley over the decades.
MATRIC is patterned after the Research Triangle Institute at Research Triangle Park, N.C. That organization has attracted more than 100 high-tech companies that employ thousands of workers in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.
As for MATRIC, "BIDCO provided some initial funding -- a $25,000 grant, and that was a real gamble," Arbogast said. Later, the Alliance extended a $500,000 line of credit, which MATRIC is still using. "They were our source," Arbogast said of BIDCO. "Potter was stirring the pot."
It was BIDCO, led by Potter, that attracted former Union Carbide researcher George Keller, former Union Carbide vice president for research and development Parvez Wadia, and St. Albans native Keith Pauley to MATRIC, Arbogast said.
"Potter kicked it off the cliff, Keith started flapping his wings and the four of them made it fly," Arbogast said. "And I have big shoes to fill."
Perhaps the most surprising change is the work MATRIC is doing. One year ago the organization has spun off two companies: Transparent Armor, which developed a bullet-resistant polymer material, and Mid-Atlantic Fuels, which was working on biomass-derived fuels. MATRIC had also created license agreements with commercial companies for a coal deicing solution and a process that allows existing and new biodiesel plants to increase their capacity.
Those spin-off companies and license agreements are still going strong. MATRIC is especially bearing down on biomass-derived fuels, particularly biodiesel. Best Energies of Madison, Wis., hired MATRIC last year to develop a continuous biodiesel process and to oversee construction of an eight-million-gallon-per-year plant in Cashton, Wis.
Pauley said that because MATRIC's system uses a continuous rather than a batch process, the cost of equipment is reduced by almost half. Also, MATRIC's process uses a wide variety of feed materials, from vegetable oils to animal fats from restaurant kitchens.
"About 80 percent of biodiesel plants today can only use refined soybean oil as their feedstock," Pauley said. "At this time that oil is more expensive than you can sell the biodiesel for, even with the federal tax break. So those plants all lost money last year. Our technology allows use of these cheaper feed materials and makes our process viable with or without the tax credit."
Wadia said, "The emissions from our technology are orders of magnitude lower than conventional processes. The liquid emission is water and the air emissions are organic. That's important for costs and for community acceptance."
MATRIC also is going in some entirely new directions. The organization is working on several projects for NASA, which is now MATRIC's largest single customer.
"We're working on devices for the new lunar colony and the lunar rover and lunar ascent and descent modules," Pauley said. "It's a lightweight heat pipe that would remove excess heat from those missions. It's made of silicon carbide ceramic fabric over a very think copper tube.
"NASA currently uses ammonia radiators to remove heat," he said. "They're toxic if released into the cabin atmosphere."
If this project works out, dozens of the devices would be sticking out of the lunar ascent module. "We're participating in the architecture and design of these things," Pauley said. "So in a few years, we will see some of MATRIC's technology on the moon."
MATRIC has four employees at NASA's center in Fairmont who have done software assurance work on all of NASA's missions, including the space shuttle, the space station, all of the missions to Mars and the the New Horizon Mission to what was formerly the planet Pluto.
"We test and review the software to make sure all of it is safe, reliable and meets the mission requirements of NASA," Pauley said.
No, you don't have to watch a space launch to see MATRIC's handiwork. It is as close as the nearest Kroger supermarket.
MATRIC has helped a company develop a polylactic acid currently used to make containers that hold salad greens. The product looks like a clear plastic container but is made from 100 percent corn and is biodegradable.
Although MATRIC isn't allow to name the company it is working with because of licensing agreements, it isn't hard to figure out the product. Just look for the clear container with the "PLA" recycling stamp on it in the Kroger produce section.
MATRIC's annual meeting is Wednesday. Although it is not open to the public, there is a public annual meeting reception at 6 p.m. in the Benedum Grand Lobby at the Clay Center. For reservations e-mail Tonya Huffman at tonya.Huffman@matricresearch.com or call her at (800) 611-2296, Ext. 80.
Contact writer George Hohmann at business@dailymail.com or 348-4836.