Success Stories: HY-TEK Bio

HY-TEK Bio is an early-stage company that has been working since 2008 to devise a patent-pending process to remove carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases from smoke stack flue gas.

HY-TEK scrubs the gas by funneling it into a sealed bioreactor that contains algae, waste water and LED lights. The algae feeds on pollutants in the waste water and flue gas, yielding cleaner water and cleaner emissions. The process also produces large amounts of high-lipid-oil algae – a key ingredient in some skin care products, nutritional supplements, medications, paints, bio- plastics and biofuels.

HY-TEK and the City of Baltimore about to embark on a $450,000 pilot project that will use algae to clean emissions from a methane-fired power plant while also producing feed stock for biofuels.

HY-TEK scrubs the gas by funneling it into a sealed bioreactor that contains algae, waste water and LED lights. The algae feeds on pollutants in the waste water and flue gas, yielding cleaner water and cleaner emissions.

HY-TEK will begin demonstrating its technology this summer at Baltimore’s Back River Waste Water Treatment Plant. The city granted HY-TEK $250,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the project. HY-TEK will cover the remaining $200,000 in expenses.

Robert Mroz, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said he struggled to tap funding and testing opportunities until he began working with the Maryland Clean Energy Center. HY-TEK Bio employs eight people and will need more if tests of the technology prove it is scalable.

Click here for HY-TEK Bio’s web site.