America's Most Promising Startups
Making ‘Industrial Ecology’ Profitable
MAR Systems
Claude Kennard and Tony Lammers
No manufacturer wants to admit it’s failing to meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations when disposing of industrial waste. So when prospective factory clients call MAR Systems, a Cleveland maker of a sorbent that removes mercury and arsenic from industrial waste streams and water in municipal treatment plants, they lean on anonymity and the subjunctive. "Our phone rings all the time with questions like, ‘If I did have a problem, would your stuff work?’" says Chief Executive Tony Lammers.
The "stuff" is called Sorbster, and the way it works sounds magical: Within seconds of being added to contaminated water, Lammers explains, the patented product binds with a slew of heavy metals, making the resulting material disposable without restrictions, even sellable as concrete filler. He says the compound, made from an industrial by-product called alumina and sold by the pound in granular form, is a breakthrough invention that could turn the way waste water is cleaned on its head, drastically reducing the time, cost, and and hazards involved.
Sorbster, which has been on the market since last April, was developed by former BP (BP) procurement specialist Claude Kennard with EPA scientists. As the owner of Metaloy, a recycler of industrial waste materials, and founder of an earlier spinoff that processes waste material for reuse by refineries, Kennard has access to plenty of alumina. Lammers, 53, who met Kennard, 62, while both were earning MBAs at Case Western University, says the eight-person company has raised $2.5 million from investors and expects to be profitable by yearend, with more than $1 million in revenue.
