Alchemity Wins a $1,000 prize from the MD Dept of Commerce at MEIA Pitch Event

Clean energy innovators, business leaders, and government supporters celebrate MEIA’s 2023 Cohort.

College Park-based Alchemity was named the Grand Prize winner of the pitch competition during the Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator (MEIA) 2023 Pitch Competition Finale, held on June 22. Four Startup Teams showcased their innovative clean energy product or service for a panel of judges from Energy Impact Partners, VoLo Earth, HAX, and the Maryland Momentum Fund from the University System of Maryland. The event was the culmination of work by teams participating in the latest MEIA cohort.

Alchemity was awarded a $1,000 Grand Prize sponsored by the Maryland Department of Commerce.

“The Alchemity Team is excited to have been selected for the MEIA Pitch Finale Award, especially given the high quality of the other finalists. We thank MEIA and the sponsors for their commitment to bringing great new energy technologies to the marketplace and the recognition this award provides to Alchemity in furtherance of that goal,” said Rodger McKain, Ph.D., CEO Alchemity LLC, who also gave the pitch at the event.

Alchemity’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology will convert natural gas that might otherwise be flared or vented, a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to value-added chemical products. This membrane reactor technology is a platform to improve efficiency and reduce the cost and GHG emissions for numerous industrially important chemical reactions. By turning a waste gas source into a liquid commodity chemical, this technology can reduce industrial operations’ emissions. The integrated design provides a potential step change reduction in capital cost by combining catalysis and separation in a single unit, which also increases overall system energy efficiency and drastically reduces carbon emissions.

Alchemity competed with other Maryland Climate Tech ventures: Living Canopies, Ionic Devices, and BrightWave.

• Living Canopies is a startup revolutionizing how cities approach mobility while solving heat islands in urban areas. Their flagship product, the Cool Green Shelter for Transit Stops, is designed to address the growing need for public mobility options in cities providing a sustainable and cool environment for those city residents taking advantage of cleaner transportation.

• Ionic Devices is commercializing a novel methodology for lithium-ion batteries by leveraging semiconductor manufacturing methods. These batteries have energy and power metrics that are orders of magnitude higher than conventional solid-state systems and are comparable to current market standards for liquid systems.

• BrightWave has developed and patented an innovative microalgae photobioreactor (PBR) that produces lab-quality biomass at an industrial scale with the smallest land footprint in the industry. The PBRs are internally illuminated and self-cleaning. They reduce downtime and contamination risk to practically zero.

View recordings of the entire event, and individual team pitch presentations.

Rodger McKain, Ph.D., CEO of Alchemity LLC, delivers the $1,000 prize-winning pitch presentation during the
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator’s 2023 Pitch Competition Finale.

“Congratulations to BrightWave, Iconic Devices, Living Canopies, and Alchemity LLC, who made tremendous progress in developing impactful ventures with commercial opportunities,” said Wade Haerle, Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator. “With the support of our program sponsors, MEIA has accelerated the development of 47 climate tech startups over its history growing the economic engine of the Maryland Climate Tech Ecosystem.”

MEIA is a venture development program, commercializing climate technologies from Maryland-based businesses, universities, and laboratories. MEIA takes an ecosystem-based approach to innovation by surrounding Startup Teams with the people, services, and connections they need to form and accelerate a Maryland-based clean energy and climate technology business.

MEIA sponsors, supporters, and partners include: U.S. Economic Development Agency, Banner Witcoff, Nemphos Braue, Points North Studio, Snyder Cohn, Exelon, The Butz Foundation, Constellation, Whiteford Law, and Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI2), Johns Hopkins Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI), providing both financial and in-kind support to MEIA and Startup Teams. MEIA is an initiative of the Maryland Clean Energy Center. The program welcomed its inaugural cohort in January 2020. The program is now looking to expand its relationship with Maryland Universities to get more students, lecturers, and researchers to join the Climate-Tech Ecosystem. MEIA is also currently accepting applications for inventors and newly formed companies and for business executives who want to become energy executives in residence. To learn more about MEIA and participation opportunities, please visit www.mdeia.org.

MEIA will be hosting a Climate Tech Exchange on October 16, ahead of the Maryland Clean Energy Summit– a regional conference bringing together forward thinkers in policy and research, business and utility sector leaders, capital providers, and finance partners for vibrant conversations and thought-provoking presentations focused on Decarbonization Strategies and Solutions. The MEIA pre-conference event will feature some of the latest climate technologies and support resources for Startups, as well as provide opportunities to network with university and agency partners, and the founders and investors who are creating a better environment with commercial business models.