Tata Fellow Maher Damak and Infinite Cooling team pitch their clean energy technology that could reduce power plant water consumption and water costs.

Energy Department’s 2017 National Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP) Competition
Tata Fellow Maher Damak and Karim Khalil, both PhD candidates from mechanical engineering, pitched their clean energy business plan, Infinite Cooling, and took first place at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Cleantech UP national collegiate business plan competition in Austin, Texas.

The event brought together top performing teams from eight regional collegiate business plan competitions hosted by different universities and organizations earlier in the year. Since the annual competition launched in 2015, participants have formed more than 200 ventures, created more than 115 jobs, and raised more than $120 million in follow-on funding.

The DOE’s Cleantech UP business plan competitions provide aspiring student entrepreneurs with the mentorship, business development skills and training, and investor feedback they need to turn their clean energy ideas into businesses offering real-world solutions. Cleantech UP is part of the Tech-to-Market Program within the Office of Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Infinite Cooling Technology
Maher’s team is working on an innovative, patent-pending technology that can reduce power plant water consumption by using electric fields to capture steam escaping from cooling towers and reintroduce it into the cooling system. This novel technology could also potentially save power companies millions per year in water costs.

Portions of this article are taken from the US Department of Energy’s Cleantech University Prize Blog.