When Swaminathan Ramesh sees people throwing away plastic he sees waste of a different kind. Wasted energy and resources. It's a big reason he started EcoFuel Technologies last year.
"I wanted to do something with waste plastics because I see them everywhere," Ramesh says. "And I have a background in the polymer chemistry."
The Troy-based start-up is working on technology that turns garbage plastic into diesel fuel. It currently has a prototype that can handle 100 pounds of plastic, turning every 10 pounds of plastic into one gallon of diesel fuel. Ramesh claims that his company's technology produces three times more energy than its competitors.
"We are unique because we can actually make money," Ramesh says.
EcoFuel Technologies and its team of five people recently landed five figures' worth of financing from the
Michigan Microloan Fund Program to help push forward the development of its prototype. The company hopes to land $500,000 in seed capital this year to build a machine that can handle 2,000 pounds of plastic a day and then $1.5 million in a second round of seed capital to build a machine that handles 10,000 pounds of plastic each day.
"They (investors) want to see us perform the same way at a larger scale," Ramesh says.
Source: Swaminathan Ramesh, founder & president of EcoFuel Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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