Robert L. McGinnis

Last updated
Robert L. McGinnis
Born
Robert Lloyd McGinnis
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Yale University
Occupation(s)scientist, inventor, technology entrepreneur
Years active2002 - Present
Known for Prometheus Fuels, Mattershift and Oasys Water
Notable workNH3/CO2 draw solution for the forward osmosis process

Robert L. McGinnis is an American scientist, [1] technology entrepreneur, and inventor who has founded a number of technology companies including Prometheus Fuels, [2] Mattershift [3] and Oasys Water. [4] [5]

Contents

As a scientist, McGinnis is known for his contributions in the domain of desalination and forward osmosis; [1] in particular he is credited as a co-inventor of the NH3/CO2 draw solution for the forward osmosis (FO) desalination process. [6] [7] [8]

McGinnis currently serves as CEO at Prometheus Fuels, an environmental technology startup company he founded in 2019. [9] [2]

Background

Robert McGinnis attended Cabrillo College [1] [10] and then Yale University, where he received his B.A. degree in Theater in 2002. [4] He then earned an M.S. in Environmental Engineering in 2007. Continuing his studies at Yale University, McGinnis finished his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering in 2009; his academic advisor was Menachem Elimelech. His joint work and thesis “ Ammonia – Carbon Dioxide Forward Osmosis Desalination and Pressure Retarded Osmosis" was published in the journal "Desalination" in April 2005. [11] [12]

McGinnis is a veteran of the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, where he also served during Operation Desert Storm defusing mines in the Persian Gulf's harbors and battlefields. [4] [1]

Academic career

In 2002, McGinnis was assigned as CTO and research engineer at Osmotic Technologies Inc., (OTI), a Yale University Incubator for commercialization of forward osmosis desalination and water treatment, which later became a pilot project under the auspices of EUWP program (Expeditionary Unit Water Purification Consortium). In 2006, McGinnis received an NSF-GRFP Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation for his Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Menachem Elimelech, who founded Yale's Environmental Engineering Program. [13] [11] [14]

McGinnis' scientific research interests at Yale included the development of osmotically driven membrane processes, novel membrane design, and nanoscale membrane sensing with the main focus being on engineered forward osmosis methods and its practical applications in desalination and water treatment processes. [15]

His work has been published in chemistry and environment technology-related journals. [1] McGinnis is also co-inventor on more than 20 granted patents in the fields of membranes, energy, desalination, and nanotechnology assigned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. [16] [17] In 2018, McGinnis received an AIChE Innovator Award for Innovation in Chemical Engineering Education granted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). [18]

Business career

Oasys Water

The research of forward osmosis methods in Elimelech's lab at Yale led to the formation of Oasys Water in 2008, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the main purpose of making the technology of functional desalination systems called engineered osmosis (EO) commercially applicable. [4] [19] [6] The company sprang out as Yale's technology startup project. [20] [21] McGinnis directed the company as CTO until 2012. [5] Eventually, Oasys Water built five large water treatment plants in China [5] and was later merged with Beijing-based Woteer Water Technology company. [22]

Mattershift

In 2013, McGinnis launched Mattershift, a technology company developing carbon nanotube membranes for molecular factories. The company further sought to convert CO₂ from the air into fuels, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and construction materials without the use of fossil fuels. The San Francisco Bay Area-based company was initially located at the University of Connecticut (UCONN) as part of its Technology Incubation Program. [3] [23]

The company's technology in scaling up carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes was published and peer-reviewed in Science Advances in March 2018. [24] The open-access study was also reviewed by The Chemical Engineer. [25]

Prometheus Fuels

McGinnis founded his next technology startup company, Santa Cruz, California-based, Prometheus Fuels, an energy startup developing tools to filter atmospheric CO2 using water, electricity, and nanotube membranes to produce commercially viable fuels. He started the company in 2019 and has served as CEO since then. [26] The project was one of two selected for investment in March 2019 by Y Combinator after the incubator's request for proposals to address carbon removal. [27]

Selected publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desalination</span> Removal of salts from water

Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible to desalinate saltwater, especially sea water, to produce water for human consumption or irrigation. The by-product of the desalination process is brine. Many seagoing ships and submarines use desalination. Modern interest in desalination mostly focuses on cost-effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few water resources independent of rainfall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semipermeable membrane</span> Membrane which will allow certain molecules or ions to pass through it by diffusion

Semipermeable membrane is a type of synthetic or biologic, polymeric membrane that allows certain molecules or ions to pass through it by osmosis. The rate of passage depends on the pressure, concentration, and temperature of the molecules or solutes on either side, as well as the permeability of the membrane to each solute. Depending on the membrane and the solute, permeability may depend on solute size, solubility, properties, or chemistry. How the membrane is constructed to be selective in its permeability will determine the rate and the permeability. Many natural and synthetic materials which are rather thick are also semipermeable. One example of this is the thin film on the inside of an egg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forward osmosis</span> Water purification process

Forward osmosis (FO) is an osmotic process that, like reverse osmosis (RO), uses a semi-permeable membrane to effect separation of water from dissolved solutes. The driving force for this separation is an osmotic pressure gradient, such that a "draw" solution of high concentration, is used to induce a net flow of water through the membrane into the draw solution, thus effectively separating the feed water from its solutes. In contrast, the reverse osmosis process uses hydraulic pressure as the driving force for separation, which serves to counteract the osmotic pressure gradient that would otherwise favor water flux from the permeate to the feed. Hence significantly more energy is required for reverse osmosis compared to forward osmosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osmotic power</span> Energy available from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water

Osmotic power, salinity gradient power or blue energy is the energy available from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water. Two practical methods for this are reverse electrodialysis (RED) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO). Both processes rely on osmosis with membranes. The key waste product is brackish water. This byproduct is the result of natural forces that are being harnessed: the flow of fresh water into seas that are made up of salt water.

Thin-film composite membranes are semipermeable membranes manufactured to provide selectivity with high permeability. Most TFC's are used in water purification or water desalination systems. They also have use in chemical applications such as gas separations, dehumidification, batteries and fuel cells. A TFC membrane can be considered a molecular sieve constructed in the form of a film from two or more layered materials. The additional layers provide structural strength and a low-defect surface to support a selective layer that is thin enough to be selective but not so thick that it causes low permeability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menachem Elimelech</span> American engineer

Menachem Elimelech is the Nancy and Clint Carlson Professor at Rice University, with joint appointments in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to his appointment at Rice University, he was the Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Elimelech moved from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to Yale University in 1998 and founded Yale's Environmental Engineering program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanofiltration</span> Filtration method that uses nanometer sized pores in biological membranes

Nanofiltration is a membrane filtration process that uses nanometer sized pores through which particles smaller than about 1–10 nanometers pass through the membrane. Nanofiltration membranes have pore sizes of about 1–10 nanometers, smaller than those used in microfiltration and ultrafiltration, but a slightly bigger than those in reverse osmosis. Membranes used are predominantly polymer thin films. It is used to soften, disinfect, and remove impurities from water, and to purify or separate chemicals such as pharmaceuticals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Membrane fouling</span>

Membrane fouling is a process whereby a solution or a particle is deposited on a membrane surface or in membrane pores in a processes such as in a membrane bioreactor, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, membrane distillation, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, or nanofiltration so that the membrane's performance is degraded. It is a major obstacle to the widespread use of this technology. Membrane fouling can cause severe flux decline and affect the quality of the water produced. Severe fouling may require intense chemical cleaning or membrane replacement. This increases the operating costs of a treatment plant. There are various types of foulants: colloidal, biological, organic and scaling.

Sidney Loeb (1917–2008) was an American-Israeli chemical engineer. Loeb made reverse osmosis (RO) practical by developing, together with Srinivasa Sourirajan, semi-permeable anisotropic membranes. The invention of the practical reverse osmosis membrane revolutionized water desalination. Loeb invented the power generating process pressure retarded osmosis (PRO)--making accessible a rich previously unknown source of green energy, and a method of producing power by a reverse electrodialysis (RED) heat engine, among other inventions in related fields. The production of energy by PRO and RED, among others, is sometimes called "osmotic power."

Richard Lindsay Stover, Ph.D., pioneered the development of the PX Pressure Exchanger energy recovery device Energy recovery that is currently in use in most seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants in existence today.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a semi-permeable membrane to separate water molecules from other substances. RO applies pressure to overcome osmotic pressure that favors even distributions. RO can remove dissolved or suspended chemical species as well as biological substances, and is used in industrial processes and the production of potable water. RO retains the solute on the pressurized side of the membrane and the purified solvent passes to the other side. The relative sizes of the various molecules determines what passes through. "Selective" membranes reject large molecules, while accepting smaller molecules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osmosis</span> Migration of molecules to a region of lower solute concentration

Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential to a region of low water potential, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves across a selectively permeable membrane separating two solutions of different concentrations. Osmosis can be made to do work. Osmotic pressure is defined as the external pressure required to prevent net movement of solvent across the membrane. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the osmotic pressure depends on the molar concentration of the solute but not on its identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pressure-retarded osmosis</span>

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a technique to separate a solvent from a solution that is more concentrated and also pressurized. A semipermeable membrane allows the solvent to pass to the concentrated solution side by osmosis. The technique can be used to generate power from the salinity gradient energy resulting from the difference in the salt concentration between sea and river water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fertilizer burn</span> Plant disease caused by excess fertilizer concentration

Fertilizer burns occur when the use of too much fertilizer, the wrong type of fertilizer, or too little water with a fertilizer causes damage to a plant. Although fertilizer is used to help a plant grow by providing nutrients, too much will result in excess salt, nitrogen, or ammonia which have adverse effects on a plant. An excess of these nutrients can damage the plant's ability to photosynthesize and cellularly respire, causing visible burns. The intensity of burns determine the strategy for recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capacitive deionization</span>

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a technology to deionize water by applying an electrical potential difference over two electrodes, which are often made of porous carbon. In other words, CDI is an electro-sorption method using a combination of a sorption media and an electrical field to separate ions and charged particles. Anions, ions with a negative charge, are removed from the water and are stored in the positively polarized electrode. Likewise, cations are stored in the cathode, which is the negatively polarized electrode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zero liquid discharge</span> Water treatment process used to remove liquid waste

Zero Liquid Discharge(ZLD) is a classification of water treatment processes intended to reduce wastewater efficiently and produce clean water that is suitable for reuse (e.g., irrigation). ZLD systems employ wastewater treatment technologies and desalination to purify and recycle virtually all wastewater received.

Water shortages have become an increasingly pressing concern recently and with recent predictions of a high probability of the current drought turning into a megadrought occurring in the western United States, technologies involving water treatment and processing need to improve. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been the subject of extensive studies because they demonstrate a range of unique properties that existing technologies lack. For example, carbon nanotube membranes can demonstrate higher water flux with lower energy than current membranes. These membranes can also filter out particles that are too small for conventional systems which can lead to better water purification techniques and less waste. The largest obstacle facing CNT is processing as it is difficult to produce them in the large quantities that most of these technologies will require.

There are many water purifiers available in the market which use different techniques like boiling, filtration, distillation, chlorination, sedimentation and oxidation. Currently nanotechnology plays a vital role in water purification techniques. Nanotechnology is the process of manipulating atoms on a nanoscale. In nanotechnology, nanomembranes are used with the purpose of softening the water and removal of contaminants such as physical, biological and chemical contaminants. There are variety of techniques in nanotechnology which uses nanoparticles for providing safe drinking water with a high level of effectiveness. Some techniques have become commercialized.

Prometheus Fuels is an American energy startup developing tools to filter atmospheric CO2 using water, electricity, and nanotube membranes to produce commercially viable fuels. When powered by renewable electricity sources, e-fuels produced by such direct air capture methods do not contribute further emissions, making them carbon neutral. The project was one of two selected for investment in March of 2019 by Y Combinator, a prominent Silicon Valley business incubator, after requesting proposals which address carbon removal.

The solution-friction model is a mechanistic transport model developed to describe the transport processes across porous membranes, such as reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF). Unlike traditional models, such as those based on Darcy’s law, which primarily describes pressure-driven solvent (water) transport in homogeneous porous mediums, the SF model also accounts for the coupled transport of both solvent (water) and solutes (salts).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 F. Service, Robert (2019-07-03). "This former playwright aims to turn solar and wind power into gasoline". Science.
  2. 1 2 Temple, James (2022-04-25). "This $1.5 billion startup promised to deliver clean fuels as cheap as gas. Experts are deeply skeptical". MIT Technology Review.
  3. 1 2 McBride, Jessica (2018-04-25). "Startup Advances Carbon-Zero Fuels through UConn Partnership". UConn Today.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Winter, Caroline (2011-03-10). "Innovator: Robert McGinnis of Oasys Water". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  5. 1 2 3 Zaleski, Andrew (2015-02-17). "A start-up that's solved fracking's dirty problem". CNBC.
  6. 1 2 Patent Landscape Report on Desalination Technologies and the Use of Alternative Energies for Desalination - Rob McGinnis Yale University(p.77). World Intellectual Property Organization. November 2011. ISBN   978-92-805-2166-5.
  7. ↑ "Robert L. McGinnis' Contributions". SCISPACE.
  8. ↑ Wasserman, Shawn (2013-10-28). "Green Desalination through Forward Osmosis". Engineering.com.
  9. ↑ Brustein, Joshua (2019-04-30). "In Silicon Valley, the Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air". Bloomberg.
  10. ↑ Erickson, Doug (2019-11-26). "Making Gasoline Out of Thin Air". Santa Cruz Works.
  11. 1 2 "Past Ph.D. Graduates - Robert McGinnis (p.8)" (PDF). CURRICULUM VITAE of Menachem Elimelech.
  12. ↑ McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; McGinnis, Robert L.; Elimelech, Menachem (April 2005). "A novel ammonia—carbon dioxide forward (direct) osmosis desalination process". Desalination. 174 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2004.11.002.
  13. ↑ "For the Second Year, Environmental Engineering Makes The U.S. News' Top 10". Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  14. ↑ "American Chemical Society Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award". Yale University: Elimelech Research Group.
  15. ↑ "Robert L. McGinnis's research while affiliated with CUNY Graduate Center and other places".
  16. ↑ "Patents by Inventor Robert L. McGinnis". Justia Patents.
  17. ↑ "Rob McGinnis". American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 3 October 2018.
  18. ↑ "AIChE Awards in Review: 2018". American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 27 November 2018.
  19. ↑ "Oasys Water raises $10M for new". Venture Beat. 22 February 2009.
  20. ↑ Kanellos, Michael (2009-02-17). "Forward Osmosis: Can a Startup Reverse Desalination?". Green Tech Media.
  21. ↑ McBride, Ryan (2009-03-02). "Oasys Water Aims to Make Desalination Cheap Enough to Crack Mainstream Market, Relieve Shortages". Xconomy.
  22. ↑ Freyberg, Tom (2017-12-05). "Oasys looks to sell forward osmosis IP as cash flow dries up". WaterWorld.
  23. ↑ "Startup scales up CNT membranes to make carbon-zero fuels for less than fossil fuels". EurekaAlert. 2018-03-09.
  24. ↑ "Mattershift scales up CNT membranes; potential for zero-carbon fuels for less than fossil". Green Car Congress. 2018-03-10.
  25. ↑ Doyle, Amanda (2018-03-15). "Carbon nanotubes could make carbon-zero fuels cheaper than fossil fuels". The Chemical Engineer.
  26. ↑ Service, Robert F. (3 July 2019). "This former playwright aims to turn solar and wind power into gasoline". Science Magazine .
  27. ↑ Brustein, Joshua (30 April 2019). "In Silicon Valley, the Quest to Make Gasoline Out of Thin Air". Bloomberg.com. Y Combinator, a renowned early-stage investment firm, made a show of calling for new companies working on carbon removal.
  28. ↑ McGinnis, Robert L.; Reimund, Kevin; Ren, Jian; Xia, Lingling; Chowdhury, Maqsud R.; Sun, Xuanhao; Abril, Maritza; Moon, Joshua D.; Merrick, Melanie M.; Park, Jaesung; Stevens, Kevin A.; McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; Freeman, Benny D. (March 2018). "Large-scale polymeric carbon nanotube membranes with sub–1.27-nm pores". Science Advances. 4 (3): e1700938. Bibcode:2018SciA....4..938M. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700938. PMC   5844709 . PMID   29536038.
  29. ↑ McGinnis, Robert L.; Hancock, Nathan T.; Nowosielski-Slepowron, Marek S.; McGurgan, Gary D. (March 2013). "Pilot demonstration of the NH
    3    /CO
    2     forward osmosis desalination process on high salinity brines"    . Desalination Journal. 312: 67–74. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2012.11.032.
  30. ↑ Cath, Tzahi Y.; Elimelech, Menachem; McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; McGinnis, Robert L.; Achilli, Andrea; Anastasio, Daniel; Brady, Adam R.; Childress, Amy E.; Farr, Isaac V.; Hancock, Nathan T.; Lampi, Jason; Nghiem, Long D.; Xie, Ming; Yip, Ngai Yin (March 2013). "Standard Methodology for Evaluating Membrane Performance in Osmotically Driven Membrane Processes". Desalination Journal. 312: 31–38. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2012.07.005.
  31. ↑ McGinnis, Robert L.; Elimelech, Menachem (December 2008). "Global Challenges in Energy and Water Supply: The Promise of Engineered Osmosis". ACS Publications. 42 (23): 8625–8629. Bibcode:2008EnST...42.8625M. doi: 10.1021/es800812m . PMID   19192773.
  32. ↑ McGinnis, Robert L.; McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; Elimelech, Menachem (November 2007). "A novel ammonia–carbon dioxide osmotic heat engine for power generation". Journal of Membrane Science. 305 (1–2): 13–19. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2007.08.027.
  33. ↑ McGinnis, Robert L.; Elimelech, Menachem (March 2007). "Energy requirements of ammonia–carbon dioxide forward osmosis desalination". Desalination Journal. 207 (1–3): 370–382. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2006.08.012.
  34. ↑ McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; McGinnis, Robert L.; Elimelech, Menachem (July 2006). "Desalination by ammonia–carbon dioxide forward osmosis: Influence of draw and feed solution concentrations on process performance". Journal of Membrane Science. 278 (1–2): 114–123. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2005.10.048.
  35. ↑ "Ammonia-Carbon Dioxide Forward Osmosis Desalination Process". Water Conditioning and Purification. January 2006.
  36. ↑ McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; McGinnis, Robert L.; Elimelech, Menachem (April 2005). "A novel ammonia—carbon dioxide forward (direct) osmosis desalination process". Desalination Journal. 174 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2004.11.002.
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