Upstate New York Companies Receive $250,000 in Sustainability Grants

PULASKI, N.Y. — Five upstate New York companies received a total of nearly $250,000 as part of a program to promote the commercialization of innovative green and clean technologies.

The Syracruse Center of Excellence and CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity awarded the grant part of its Commercialization Assistant awards.

The program, which aims to keep environmentally focused businesses in the region, has awarded more than $1.3 million to 26 upstate New York companies since 2001.

Paid for a grant secured by state Assemblyman William Magnarelli (D-120), the awards go to projects that commercialize new products and services in the fields of indoor environmental quality, water resources and clean and renewable energy — the three focus areas of the Syracuse Center of Excellence.

The current round of projects could create 111 jobs and tens of millions in new revenue for central and upstate New York over the next five years, according to the center.

To date, the awards center says it has created or retained more than 152 green and clean technology jobs in the region.

The companies that received the grant include:

– ACT Bioenergy of Schenectady, a producer of commercial-scale, high-efficiency wood pellet/wood chip gasification boilers.

– Orthogonal of Ithaca, a company commercializing a patent pending, non-toxic light-sensitive material for producing organic electronics, including photovoltaics and energy-efficient solid state lighting.

– Vette Corp. of Ontario, which produces the Open Sidecar, a passive “in-row” data center-cooling product based on patent-pending technology. The current prototype design enables complete neutralization of up to 40kW of heat generated by IT equipment mounted within an IBM NetBay Enterprise rack.

– e2e Materials of Ithaca, N.Y., which will use the grant to build a scale facility that will enable in-house manufacturing of molded products and flat sheets for sale, prototype development of molded building product concepts and molded cubicle wall concepts, and future rapid development of other molded products to respond to partner interest and develop new markets.

The company focuses on the acquisition, installation, testing and trial of a press and custom tooling to make prototype forms for its petroleum-free, biodegradable composites, including a corrugated “i-core” shape for structural applications, as well as complex shapes like boxes and corners.

– Cameron Manufacturing & Design of Horseheads, N.Y., which will create a comprehensive commercialization plan for the patented grid electrode precipitator, a device to remove air contaminants currently in the final stages of design and manufacturing by Cameron at Clarkson University.

– Synex Controls, a developer of control technology for the steam, hydronic, and thermal fluid heat transfer system market,
will use the money to gain a foothold in the competitive energy management market.

“Our Commercialization Assistance Program is a key element of our efforts to create jobs in central New York by accelerating innovations focused on energy-efficient and high-performance technologies into the marketplace,” said Ed Bogucz, executive director of the Syracuse Center of Excellence.