Wooster Ohio Company and E4S Member wins MIT-Dept. of Energy Clean Energy Prize

For Immediate Release:

Thursday Night - MAY 7TH 2009 - MIT Campus - Boston.

Produced Water Absorbents LLC, (www.pwabsorbents.com) a subsidiary of Absorbent Materials Company of Wooster Ohio has won the MIT/US Dept. of Energy Clean Energy Innovation Prize for Clean Hydrocarbons

The team, led by Dr. Ruben Domike, Dr. Paul Edmiston and Mr. Stephen Spoonamore have developed a system which improves the water treatment systems used in oil and gas fields.     This water, called "Produced Water" by the industry is produced in huge quantities as a byproduct of oil and gas production.

Dr. Domike, the VP of Engineering for PWA described the problem:    "For every gallon of oil pumped out of the ground, between 3 and 20 gallons of `produced water` is pumped up with it.   This water is laden with organic acids and other dissolved materials which are very challenging to handle and often very dangerous for the environment.   The Oil and Gas industry spends many billions of dollars annually managing this produced water."

Dr. Domike and PWA llc, has developed a strategy using the patented swelling glass technology developed by Dr. Paul Edmiston of the College of Wooster and ABSMaterials, to create a solution which will reduce the cost of treating the produced water by a substantial amount.

Dr. Domike continued by saying:  "It is not only a demonstrable cost saving system for treating the produced water, it leads to as much as 95% less toxic material in the water after treatment.   It may in the future, as we refine the technology even allow Oil and Gas firms to recover resources in areas where the toxic water is too expensive to allow for profitable recovery today."

Dr. Paul Edmiston, the inventor of the basic materials used by the team said;  This is great.   This material has so many uses.   I am really proud of the work we are all doing."

The  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, and the US Department of Energy created the annual Clean Energy Prizes in 2006 to inspire and reward innovations in critical areas of research for CleanTech.    To qualify for review, a team must assemble meaningful academic research and qualified industry leadership from the commercial sector and develop a proposal judged on it`s ability to innovate.

Mr. Stephen Spoonamore, the company CEO joined Dr. Domike in making a final presentation to a 7 member judging panel of industry experts assembled by the Dept. of Energy.   "I am incredibly proud of our team.   The MIT Clean Energy Prize is the Academy Awards of our industry.    Over 200 technologies were nominated for review this year.   Five technologies were selected as Finalists and invited to present in each of five catagories.   We were incredibly honored just to be a finalist and present our work in toxic materials recovery among an amazing group of technology rock-stars.    To have won our division is humbling.    Now we have an even deeper obligation to fully develop and deploy our system after so many industry leaders have judged us so highly.   Fortunately I believe we are assembling an amazing team and will meet the challenge."

Mr. Spoonamore and Dr. Domike gave the presentation to the judges Thursday in Boston, and were presented their first place award, and a $25,000 research grant sponsored by British Petroleum (BP) later that evening.

The team is not done however.  By winning the "MIT Clean Energy Prize for Best Innovation in Clean Hydrocarbons", the team will present in front of larger panel of industry experts again this coming Tuesday.    After this presentation the Dept of Energy will present the   "Best Clean Tech 2009 Grand Prize" to one of the five finalists.     This award comes with substantial additional research money.

Mr. Spoonamore, said;  "The Team is good.   Our work is solid.   We will present what we are doing clearly to the panel.    Cleaning up toxic materials from moving water is not glamorous choice for the judges.    We believe our strength in the grand prize catagory is the massive size of the industry we are working to improve.   But we are now up against teams making Bamboo Bikes for underserved nations.   Making drinking water safe for children, and some very cool new developments in solar panel controls.     They judges will have three very sexy choices for the grand prize.    What we do is important, but not sexy."    Mr. Spoonamore does add "Perhaps what we do is a little bit sexier than the fifth finalist, those guys make specialized biomass insulations."

Mr. Stephen Spoonamore and Dr. Rueben Domike, receive the MIT - Dept. of Energy - Clean Technology Innovation Award and a $25,000 award to continue the Research and Development Work they are doing on Produced Water treatment and waste recovery.