Wednesday, November 11, 2009

IntAct Labs snags top Ignite Clean Energy prize

By Jackie Noblett

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A team of MIT scientists looking to generate electricity from cleaning wastewater are the winners of the 2009 Ignite Clean Energy prize.

IntAct Labs LLC of Cambridge is developing a microbial fuel cell that would take wastewater from industrial processes, treat it, and in the meantime develop a small amount of electricity from the breakdown process. As a winner of the fifth annual competition sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum, the venture receives $35,000 in cash, legal services, incubation space in the Advanced Materials Technology Center at UMass Dartmouth and real estate consulting.

IntAct CEO Matthew Silver said in an interview prior to the announcement that the company just received a grant from the National Science Foundation to continue pilot testing of its fuel cells. It previously received grants from NASA and the U.S. Deparment of Agriculture.

Taking second place was Bridgewater, N.J.-based carbon capture storage firm InnoSepra LLC and third place was awarded to Cambridge portable energy subscription service EGG-energy.

People’s choice winners included:

1st Place: Velkiss, a California-based flywheel energy storage developer
2nd Place: IntAct Labs LLC
3rd Place: HydroCoal, a Georgia-based developer of coal gassification and liquification technologies.