By James Connolly

I hope you caught Rodney Brown’s story on Masshightech.com this week about TechMaine’s annual technology awards.  It reminded me of a comment from a relative who lives in Maine when she once told me, “We don’t have much technology in Maine.” When I ticked off a list of some of the companies doing interesting work in the state, she seemed surprised.

What’s neat about the tech goings on in Maine isn’t just the big success stories (Idexx, Fairchild, etc.). What’s really great to see is the type of ideas that people have. It was hammered home when Rodney’s story cited how several award recipients thanked the Maine Technology Institute for its support of their companies.

If you’re unfamiliar with the MTI, it’s a state-funded non-profit that helps early stage companies get off the ground. Several times a year, MTI hands out small grants (in addition to some larger awards), to companies trying to solve everyday problems, sometimes in somewhat unorthodox ways.

The awardee list makes for a fun read. Check out some of the ideas from a month ago:

• Phinney Enterprises in Trescott was awarded a seed grant of $12,500 to develop whelk culture and characterize the reproductive cycle of local whelk populations. (That’s whelk as in sea snail culture.)

• Lyman Morse Boatbuilding in Thomaston was awarded $12,400 for the development of Water Wheels, a self contained float system able to supply power to any power needs.

• Print Recovery Concepts Inc. in Yarmouth was awarded $12,500 to develop black and color soy inkjet samples to help reduce the use of the one billion inkjet cartridges, each containing several ounces of petroleum ink that are consumed annually.

• Foreign Auto & Supply Inc. in Harpswell was awarded $12,500 to develop a unique Engine Control Unit (ECU) and a Hydrogen Assist Generator (HAG) that work in conjunction with an automotive engine to burn hydrogen and oxygen in the combustion chamber for gas and diesel engines. The intended result is significantly better fuel economy producing cleaner emissions.

• Fox Islands Wind in Vinalhaven was awarded $12,358 to assess the technical feasibility of using their Active Noise Cancellation technology to help mitigate the potentially bothersome effects of wind turbine sound.

• Seacolors in Washington was awarded $12,500 to advance their low-impact dye process using solar thermal technology utilizing natural salts and acids. This next step will utilize excess solar capacity to create a drying station, test waste waters and implement a discharge system.

• Advance Electronic Concepts in Portland was awarded $9,400 to submit a patent application for an optical system for a solid state luminaire designed to operate in supermarket refrigeration cases.

• Jotul North America in Gorham was awarded $12,500 to create an innovative non-catalytic top-loading woodstove (to be branded as the Jotul 50 TL) which utilizes patentable cam lever technology to create an easy-to-load, clean burning, energy efficient product.