Innovative Engineering Company Licenses NASA Technology to be used in Billion Dollar Environmental PCB Clean-up Industry
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (Feb 27, 2017) — CAVEAT Engineering, LLC, a firm that provides innovative solutions for product development and manufacturing based in Winter Springs near Orlando, has licensed the technology, Sorbent Polymer Extraction and Remediation System (SPEARS), an environmental clean-up system.
NASA invented SPEARS to treat PCB contaminated sediments right within the ground, eliminating the need for the current costly remediation methods of “dredging” requiring lots of equipment, transport, often stirring up contamination back into the environment, or “capping” a method which involves capping contaminated sites and leaving PCBs intact in a marine environment.
PCBs, man-made chemicals commonly used in paints, caulks, plastics, insulating materials, lubricants, coatings and flame retardants, work great for those applications but once in the ground last a long time and by storm water run-off PCBs end up in our riverbeds and the food chain, said Sergie Albino, CEO of CAVEAT and an engineer who formerly worked for the aerospace industry.
“In fact, if we eat crab and certain fish feeding on the bottom, directly exposed to PCBs, we can get a high level of this carcinogen in our systems,” Albino said.
SPEARS is a method that attracts and absorbs PCBs. A unique polymer blanket with spikes is filled with environmentally green solvent and placed into the contaminated riverbeds. The blanket’s spikes attract PCBs, locks them in place, acting as a storage unit for PCBs keeping them away from marine life, he explained.
SPEARS is also a re-deployable system. Once equilibrium is achieved, the blanket is removed from the sediment, decontaminated by removing PCB-laden solvent, refilled with fresh solvent and deployed again.
PCB and the EPA driven task of cleaning up the environment is a huge issue worldwide. Several global remediation companies tested SPEARS and found it worked great, but they’re not manufacturers, they just want to buy it.
Now ecoSPEARS, a spinoff company from CAVEAT Engineering, is working with two major global environmental clean-up companies who tested SPEARS, and who work for large companies with sites around the world that need to be cleaned up. Caveat’s ecoSPEARS team has also been receiving inquiries from cities and states who need to remediate their rivers with PCB run-off from old transformers and building paints.
Albino, who mentors at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business and is part of the Rollins / NASA Entrepreneurial Scholar of Distinction Program, is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program in Winter Springs.
“SPEARS can eliminate PCBs from the environment and there is a great deal of work for ecoSPEARS to do,” Albino said.
Just to validate how vast the industry of environmental clean up is today, “A multinational organization spent about $1.6 Billion to clean up the Hudson River from PCBs they had dumped there between 1947 and 1977,” Albino said, adding, “But now we have a completely innovative and environmentally friendly way to do it.”
“Rarely do you find an entrepreneur growing a manufacturing business to create a multitude of jobs that feed the economy while simultaneously helping clean up the environment,” said Rafael Caamano, associate director of the UCF Business Incubation Program in Winter Springs.
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For more information contact –
Sergie Albino, MDA, President/CEO, Cave CAVEAT Engineering and ecoSPEARS, 321-385-7374 sergie.albino@caveatengineering.com or serg@ecospears.com
Rafael Caamano, Associate Director, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-408-4297 rafael.caamano@ucf.edu
Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 or LvershelCo@aol.com
About ecoSPEARS
ecoSPEARS is a spinoff company from Caveat Engineering that uses NASA licensed Sorbent Polymer Extraction and Remediation System (SPEARS) technology as a means to replace conventional methods of eco-mine remediation such as dredging or capping.
About Caveat Engineering
Caveat Engineering is a contract, full-service product development and manufacturing firm providing quality, cost-effective solutions to the electro-mechanical-optical (EMO) packaging industry.
About the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program
The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth / impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped hundreds of local startup companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia Counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. Participating companies sustain more than 3,600 local jobs and have had a total impact of $1.51 Billion on regional sales and $2.48 Billion on regional economic output. During the last fiscal year, the program has returned $7.95 for every $1.00 invested in the program. Visit www.incubator.ucf.edu.
