April 01, 2007
Terrenew, LLC Receives grant from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Terrenew, LLC, announced today that it has received a grant for $80,000 from the USDA under the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) for development of spill absorbent pads made from agricultural wastes.
Terrenew has exclusive license to develop, manufacture and market a variety of absorbent products for oil and other liquid spills based upon a patent application filed by Drs. Gary Harman and Terry Spittler of Cornell University’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. The sorbent products will be made from different agricultural wastes including tree bark or processed, dried cow manure. Harman and Spittler, together with President and CEO Thomas Bourne, local businessmen John Hicks, and Dr. Daniel Berler, an environmental scientist located in Atlanta, are founders of the Company.
The SBIR grant will allow Terrenew to complete research on sorbent pad development, commence pilot scale production and move toward commercialization of oil absorbent pads, pillows, socks and booms. These products will be highly effective and offer economic advantages to the users, which will include auto and truck repair shops, manufacturers, and spill response contractors. Effective prototypes already have been produced in cooperation with Southeast Nonwovens, which is a R&D company located in Clover, SC. Oil absorbent products typically are made from plastic fibers which are petroleum based. Terrenew’s products will move away from the petroleum based fibers toward natural, renewable materials—up to 70% of the pads will be oil—absorbent agricultural waste products. In addition the use of these wastes will also provide additional markets for farmers and foresters.
The sorbent pad products will be sold through a network of distributors and retailers, along with Terrenew’s loose absorbent product which is trademarked as OilMaster7X. This latter product is also produced from agricultural waste and is lighter, easier to handle, and about 7 times more effective than the clay products most commonly used in oil spill applications.
Contact Persons for Terrenew:
Thomas Bourne
President and Chief Executive Officer
500 Technology Farm Drive
Geneva, NY 14456
585-202-3586
tbourne@terrenew.com
Dr. Gary Harman
Chief Scientific Officer
500 Technology Farm Drive
Geneva, NY 14456
315-521-2498
gharman@terrenew.com