MATRIC’s Goal: A Better Future for West Virginia
I may not be an archaeologist, amateur or professional, but I can detect innovation when I see it at an archaeological site.
It seems that in 1788, Daniel Boone decided that the Kanawha valley would be a terrific place for his latest entrepreneurial venture — a trading post. So about 15 miles upriver from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, he constructed a hewn-log set of buildings on the north side of the river in some bottom land. The puzzle I discovered in 2003, when my brother showed me the site, was the large number of oyster shells on the site.
Of course, oysters are not native to the Kanawha River and their nearest environs are nearly 500 miles away on the coasts of Virginia or North Carolina. So, how could the noted pioneer and businessman, Mr. Boone, procure and deliver hundreds of pounds of sweet oysters to his trading post without using modern refrigerated trucking? What technical innovation did he use to keep them alive through the hundreds of miles of mountain trails and rivers? Did he keep them in saltwater? Did he use ice cut from the frozen rivers and lakes by the coast to store them cold? Since canoes were the primary mode of transportation, how many did it take to haul them? I was, and still am, amazed at the ingenuity of the noted frontiersman.
The History Continues
Forty miles upstream from the Boone trading post site, the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC) continues the same traditions at the Dow Technology Park in South Charleston, W. Va. MATRIC has many similarities to Daniel Boone – leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Daniel Boone was not the first human being to live on the banks of the Kanawha River, of course. Native America villages had been there for hundreds of years at least. However, he opened the way for a wave of immigration to West Virginia that has not stopped to this day.
Similarly, MATRIC is utilizing the chemical development facilities that once held the world-wide research headquarters of the Union Carbide Company in South Charleston, W. Va. While not the first to use the laboratories, engineering facilities and pilot plants at the Union Carbide Tech Center, MATRIC’s nearly 150 scientists, engineers and professional are opening up a frontier of new products and processes in energy, environmental, chemical, biological and software technologies.
The Charleston Area Alliance provided initial leadership in 2003, when the board of directors of what was then the Business and Industrial Development Corporation (BIDCO) recognized that the people and facilities being lost from the Union Carbide Tech Center were strategically important to the local, state and regional economies.
Their plan was to form a modest research organization, named MATRIC, with a five-year goal to produce a handful of jobs and do about $1 million of annual sales. That seed has grown to over ten times those goals and continues to rebuild from the economic impacts of Dow Chemical’s steady layoffs.
Fundamentally, MATRIC is a research and engineering enterprise that focuses on solving some of the most complex and globally important technical issues of our day, such as carbon capture, renewable energy, sustainable chemicals, clean water, homeland security, medical treatments and diagnostics, human-space flight and electronic medical records. These types of innovations will change the lives of not just West Virginians, but families and individuals all over the world.
These innovations do not get lost in the laboratories of MATRIC or arcane scientific journals, but are rapidly channeled into new commercial products. MATRIC’s entrepreneurial business culture has produced over a dozen new companies and several license agreements over the last five years and has supplied new technologies to corporations all over the world through our contract research programs. Some of these technologies have resulted in new factories in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
The MATRIC enterprise has been constructed to advance technology rapidly through the three phases of discovery, design and deployment. MATRIC conducts laboratory and pilot-scale development to produce new critical intellectual property. MATRIC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Mid-Atlantic Technical Engineering, LLC (MATE), performs professional engineering to scale-up the processes for full implementation. Finally, Mid-Atlantic Holdings (MAH), Inc. commercializes the innovation through either licenses or incubating start-up companies.
Innovation Life-Cycle
MATRIC full innovation life-cycle model has proven to be as unique as it is a powerful tool for rapid advancement of technology. Having completed more than 100 research and engineering projects, the seamless integration of laboratory science and traditional engineering, can quickly move new technology from the beaker to an operating facility.
Between MATRIC and MATE, each step in this process can be handled efficiently, including laboratory research, conceptual process design, detailed process design, procurement, construction management, operations training and start-up and continuous improvement.
Intellectual Property Products
While the innovation process that MATRIC has developed is a key differentiator for our customers, the real reason MATRIC has grown in the marketplace is our ability to create unique inventions or intellectual properties.
With a focus on the economics of the final product, MATRIC’s innovators use state-of-the-art science to develop solutions that actually have a chance to make it to the marketplace. These inventions are not mere academic curiosities, but fill market voids with cost-effective products and processes.
Using our skills in chemistry, biology and engineering, MATRIC has created a series of flagship technologies in the sustainable products and renewable energy systems, including biodegradable plastics, bio-based railcar and runway de-icers, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion.
MATRIC’s innovators have focused much of their effort on the extraction industries of West Virginia, including carbon dioxide capture, clean coal technology, advanced coal combustion, algae systems, water treatment and polymer development.
These technologies are examples of the portfolio of over 50 projects that are under way in MATRIC’s laboratories at any given time. Some will have incremental market success, while others may have a more significant impact on our local economy.
Making Local News
While nearly 40 percent of MATRIC’s work is for international clients, MATRIC scientists and engineers have spent a great deal of effort solving local issues. Some diverse local stories include:
Natural gas water treatment – Marcellus shale natural gas tends to produce large quantities of salt brine, which creates a disposal problem. NG Innovations, LLC, one of MATRIC’s start-up companies, manufactures, installs and maintains salt water treatment systems tailored to the needs of natural gas producers.
Selenium removal – Some surface mines in Appalachia have water sources above the regulatory limit on selenium. Liberty Hydrologic Systems, LLC, another MATRIC start-up, produces low-cost systems that efficiently remove selenium from surface mine waters.
Land restoration – MATRIC’s pyrolysis technology produces a soil amendment called “bio-char,” which uniquely provides carbon for depleted soils, traps nutrients for long-term release and stabilizes heavy metals in the soil.
WVHIN – MATRIC is providing technical programmatic leadership to the West Virginia Health Care Authority’s electronic health records program called the WV Health Information Network.
NETL – MATRIC is on a team lead by URS to support research and development on fossil fuels with the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown and Pittsburgh. MATRIC’s work focuses on carbon dioxide capture and storage.
NASA IV&V – Since its inception, MATRIC has provided software engineering to NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation facility in Fairmont, which assures that all of NASA’s spacecraft software meets safety and reliability requirements of the mission.
Homeland security – Working with the Department of Defense, MATRIC is developing tools and processes to support homeland security emergencies in the eastern metropolis and throughout the nation, with a focus on West Virginia’s role and responsibilities. From supporting the extraction industries to protecting Americans from acts of terror, MATRIC is committed to using science and technology to make our state an even better place to live and work.
220 Years from Today
Daniel Boone’s trading post on the Kanawha River closed its doors some 220 years ago with great confidence that this area would soon be a greater center of economic activity.
Today, MATRIC has that same sense of optimism – acknowledging the tremendous heritage of past accomplishments in the chemical and energy industries, we believe that our best days are still ahead. New innovations can resolve local issues, create new industries and provide exciting opportunities for our children and grandchildren.
Some day, historians will look back on the technology of the early 21st century with the same sense of amazement that we have concerning saltwater oysters on the banks of our freshwater river. How could they have achieved so much with so little? Those innovators in West Virginia must be some of the most creative scientists and technologies of their time.
It is our mandate to assure that the history books of the future are written in this manner.
With a focus on the economics of the final product, MATRIC’s innovators use state-of-the-art science to develop solutions that actually have a chance to make it to the marketplace.
MATRIC has observed a “perfect storm” opportunity brewing in Europe. Recently, MATRIC Europa, srl, was formed to capitalize upon this opportunity.
This “perfect storm” is from the convergence of multiple factors.
First, MATRIC is already known in Europe. MATRIC generates 25 percent of its revenues from European customers.
Secondly, the European chemical industry must now comply with new regulatory standards. These new standards place complex responsibilities on chemical companies to manage their materials and processes.
Thirdly, Europe has a healthy and growing pharmaceutical research and manufacturing infrastructure, and, finally, the European Union has been progressive in managing carbon emissions. This has created a growing European alternative energy technology market.
Lastly, the weakness of the dollar on the international currency exchanges has allowed European companies to get 30-40 percent more service from US-based entities like MATRIC over our competitors in Europe.
Together, these factors create great opportunity for an innovation organization like MATRIC. Therefore, MATRIC formed MATRIC Europa as a wholly owned subsidiary to serve international customers. MATRIC Europa is located at a pharmaceutical research complex near Milan, Italy. MATRIC Europa will build upon MATRIC’s capabilities using chemistry and engineering skills for customers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, environmental and energy sectors. Like MATRIC, MATRIC Europa will commercialize new technologies which it creates.
MATRIC Europa has a core management team in Milan and will conduct its early research, development and engineering work in South Charleston.
Keith Pauley was appointed president and CEO of MATRIC in April 2004. He brought more than 16 years of technical experience in the development of high-technology systems for various governmental and commercial customers. Pauley has played key roles in management and technical leadership for NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense.
