Clean Tech’s Hot New Tool
Date: 10/14/2009
Company: Advanced Electron Beams
Source: MIT Review
Electron-beam emitters that are one-hundreth the size and cost of conventional electron emitters could usher in a wide array of new uses for the devices that could dramatically cut the energy use of industrial processes. Advanced Electron Beams (AEB), a Wilmington, MA, startup, has developed a small, low-powered electron emitter that is the size of a microwave oven, compared to the conference-room equipment now needed for electron-beam processes.
“We think AEB is the most cutting-edge industrial-efficiency technology that we’ve seen in the 10 years we’ve been doing clean-tech investing,” says Charles McDermott of RockPort Capital Partners. In August, RockPort and several other venture capital firms announced the investment of $14.2 million in AEB.
Electron-beam devices have been around for decades and are used in sterilization and curing processes for coatings and paints. The units’ large size, however, makes it difficult to incorporate them into assembly-line manufacturing. For example, syringes coming down an assembly line, McDermott says, currently have to be collected in batches, transported to a separate room housing the electron beam, radiated with electrons, and then returned to the assembly line. Fitting the smaller beam emitters into assembly-line operations will also make it easier to use them for curing paint, rustproof coatings, and varnishes on metals, woods, and plastics–a process that is often now done using energy-intensive drying ovens.
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