Category: News

Researcher Kazu Nakazawa joins expanding Neuroscience Department

Posted on June 13, 2018

Southern Research announced today that Kazutoshi (Kazu) Nakazawa, M.D., Ph.D., whose work has explored how abnormalities in brain circuitry can trigger complex mental disorders, has joined the Birmingham-based organization’s Neuroscience Department as a Fellow.

Nakazawa arrives at a time when Southern Research is substantially expanding the resources and capabilities of its Neuroscience Department, which focuses on improving the understanding of the mechanisms underlying complex neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

“Kazu has a unique understanding of animal models and how brain circuits are organized and affected in schizophrenia and related disorders, so he is a great addition to our staff,” said Rita Cowell, Ph.D., Fellow and Chair of the Neuroscience Department.

INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES

Southern Research neuroscience
Southern Research Fellow Dr. Kazu Nakazawa, center, stands with Vivek Jeevakumar, left, and Dr. Kazuhito Nakao, right, both researchers in the Nakazawa lab.

Nakazawa’s laboratory is investigating neuronal dysfunction in key portions of the brain and how malfunctions in these systems lead to mental disorders. Neurons are the core of the brain’s signaling system, and abnormality in their connectivity is linked to serious mental disorders.

A portion of his research has focused on a particular type of neuron in the cerebral cortex called inhibitory interneurons. Interneurons regulate and synchronize the activity of other neurons, and are affected by many brain disorders, including serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and severe depression.

In addition, the Nakazawa lab is utilizing new techniques that allow scientists to make in vivo recordings of brain activity in animal models, which can provide insight into difficult-to-monitor episodes such as hallucinations tied to schizophrenia.

“This will allow us to look at how neurons work together in groups to produce complex behaviors. To link any kind of cellular or molecular event to a behavior, you have to see how all the cells are working together,” Cowell said.

“What he is doing is conceptually and technically innovative, and it will help all of the projects that we are working on.”

EXPANDING CAPABILITIES

Southern Research neuroscience
Rita Cowell is chair of Southern Research’s Neuroscience Department.

Nakazawa received medical and doctoral degrees from the Department of Microbiology at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. His post-doctoral training took place at the Riken Institute in Wako, Japan, where he focused on the mechanisms of long-term depression.

After seven years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying the mechanism of hippocampal memory, he joined the National Institute of Mental Health in 2003 as a faculty member. His lab began studying the pathophysiology of schizophrenia in mice models.

In 2013, Nakazawa joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also served as an investigator at the McKnight Brain Institute.

“I am excited to join Southern Research because this move will give me the opportunity to expand my technical capabilities and to collaborate with talented experts to pursue the development of novel therapeutics for these debilitating mental conditions,” Nakazawa said.

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


When the Water Supply Is Radioactive: Measuring Radium in Water Samples

Posted on June 5, 2018

As well-known as radium is for its harmful effects — the Radium Girls might come to mind — the idea of widespread water contamination can be a scary one. But it’s a reality, albeit generally at levels below those likely to cause cancer and birth defects. A recent analysis by the Environmental Working Group found that 170 million people in all 50 states are getting their water from a source contaminated with detectable levels of radium. Some exceeded public health guidelines, and in 27 states, water supplies were found to exceed legal limits.

Radium 226 and 228 are naturally occurring elements, but they naturally occur harmlessly deep underground. It’s usually the extraction of energy resources, particularly uranium mining, oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), that brings them to the surface. Fracking, which now accounts of half of U.S. oil production and two-thirds of natural gas production, generates both valuable resources like oil or gas and less-welcome output like contaminated wastewater. Producing one gallon of raw crude oil, for example, generates eight gallons of wastewater on average. Fracking produces wastewater that brings up that naturally occurring radium and can lead to contamination of our water systems with harmful substances.

Young Chul Choi, Ph.D., associate director of SR’s Industrial Water Practice

While technology is being explored that could treat contaminated wastewater at the mining site, development and implementation of that technology remains in the future. Until then, detecting and monitoring radium in the water system is the only way to protect the public from the dangers of contamination. Water samples have to be tested for radium in its numerous forms and oxidation states to determine the most effective remediation technique. And once the affected water has been treated and discharged back into the greater water source, that source has to be tested again to make sure nothing is accumulating.

The traditional approach to measuring radium contamination relies on alpha spectrometry, which is time consuming, labor intensive and slow to produce results. And the detection limits of traditional methods are greater than health-based limits, meaning that water analysis can show zero radioactivity even when radioactive elements are present at unsafe levels.

Southern Research (SR) uses a proprietary method coupling HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) with an Agilent 8800 Triple Quad ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) for faster, more accurate measurement. Large water samples are passed through a column to isolate the contaminant for testing, and a combination of highly sensitive, leading-edge instrumentation and expertise honed over the course of a decade allow us to quantify and speciate even trace levels of radium. With the benefit of precise, accurate data, our clients are able to determine the best treatment solution for their water source, and then return for further analysis after treatment to ensure that efforts were successful.

SR has been offering state-of-the-art environmental analytical services to commercial and government clients since 2008. But we also are at the forefront of water-efficient, energy-efficient, cost-efficient technology for energy production. “We have experts on the energy side and the water side,” said Young Chul Choi, Ph.D., associate director of SR’s Industrial Water Practice. “We’re one of the few entities that maintains expertise in both energy consumption and water quality — the smallest amount of water you can contaminate when producing energy, and the smallest amount of energy you can expend on producing clean water. It goes back and forth, and we’re interested in both aspects.”

Southern Research to vet technologies in Carbon XPRIZE Finals

Posted on May 25, 2018

The teams in the final round of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition are advancing clean technologies that turn harmful carbon dioxide emissions into useful products such as enhanced concrete, liquid fuels, plastics and carbon fiber.

But how can we be sure these breakthrough processes really deliver environmental benefits while creating valuable products for everyday use?

The answer: A technology verification team from Southern Research.

During the Carbon XPRIZE Finals, specialists from Southern Research’s Energy & Environment (E&E) division will validate the work of the teams  and provide a judging panel with the crucial data needed to select two winners that will collect $7.5 million prizes.

Southern Research Carbon XPRIZE
C4X, based in China, is one of the 10 finalists in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition. Their banner welcomes the Southern Research team. (IMAGE: XPRIZE)

The specialists have been involved in the previous rounds of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition, which has been under way for more than two years. (Read about the Round 2 work.)

“These teams are offering amazing examples of carbon conversion that could accelerate the creation a new carbon economy,” said Dr. Marcius Extavour, Senior Director, Energy and Resources at the non-profit XPRIZE.

“To win the competition, XPRIZE wants to see robust verifiable processes. That’s why we have partnered with Southern Research, which has the deep expertise to validate each team’s performance and help the judges evaluate each technology on its merits.”

KICKING OFF THE FINALS

Southern Research’s work in the Carbon XPRIZE Finals began Tuesday, May 22, at an initial Team Finalist Summit in Banff, Canada. It won’t end until February 2020, when the formal technology verification process comes to an end and data on the results from the 10 teams are supplied to the judges.

“Our team will independently evaluate data produced by the teams in the competition to document the performance of each process and its ability to capture and utilize CO2,” said Tim Hansen, P.E., director of E&E and measurement and verification lead for the project.

“We’ll also be looking at the operating costs, energy consumption and water use of their technologies, and compiling competition scores for each team,” he added.

Southern Research Tim Hansen
Tim Hansen is director of Cleantech Services at Southern Research.

Hansen said Southern Research specialists will work closely with XPRIZE and the finalists to make sure they are prepared for the verification process and able to provide reliable data for the judges’ inspection.

The specialists will participate in design reviews for each of the teams, and will provide suggested instrumentation, measurement, and engineering approaches for critical measurements and processes such as CO2 flows and product outputs. The specialists will also help establish common analytical procedures and approaches that support a determination of the amount of CO2 embodied in each product.

The technology verification period begins in June 2019 and runs through February 2020.

“We think the teams have some significant work to do in terms of designing, building, and operating their systems at this much larger scale – a metric tonne of CO2 input per day,” Hansen said. “That said, several have good starts, and we expect them, with our help and the help of the XPRIZE team, to have a good chance of meeting the Finals’ requirements.

“There are still many challenges, though, beyond just the engineering requirements of scaling a process – funding, working at new, remote host sites, permitting, off-take agreements for products, and did I mention funding?” he added.

SCALING TECHNOLOGY

For the teams, the challenges have grown considerably more complicated in the Finals.

Southern Research Carbon XPRIZE
The 10 finalists in the Carbon XPRIZE competition each have a chance to win a $7.5 million grand prize. Southern Research will validate their technologies. (IMAGE: XPRIZE)

For Round 2, they had to show off their technologies at pilot scale. In the Finals, the teams will have access one of two test centers adjacent to power plants and must prove their technologies at near industrial scale using actual power plant flue gas. The sites are the Integrated Test Center in Gillette, Wyoming, and the Alberta Carbon Conversion Centre in Calgary, Alberta.

Teams must meet the competition’s minimum requirements and will be scored on how much CO2 they convert and on the net value of their products.

The competition has been divided into two tracks, with the winner of each track evenly splitting a $15 million prize purse in March 2020.

The 10 teams, hailing from five countries, range from carbon capture and utilization entrepreneurs and startups to academic institutions and companies that have been working on CO2 challenges for more than a decade.

Southern Research’s role in the Carbon XPRIZE competition aligns with its longstanding capabilities. The Birmingham-based non-profit organization has performed independent, non-biased and high-quality environmental technology verification (ETV) services to a wide range of sponsors for more than two decades.

“We can conduct tests and evaluations beginning with proof of concept at laboratory scale all the way through commercial scale technology deployed in the field, in a working environment,” Hansen said. “We have everything required — the scientists, engineers, facilities and capabilities — to address the whole range of energy and environmental technology development and testing programs.”

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


CORNET Award in Drug Discovery and Development goes to project targeting novel treatments in anti-tumor immunity

Posted on May 24, 2018

Sue Chin Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) has been awarded the UTHSC/Southern Research (SR) Collaborative Research Network (CORNET) Award in Drug Discovery and Development. Nearly two years since its inception, the CORNET Awards have been the seed of more than $1.4 million in funding to support new collaborative research teams and their groundbreaking drug discovery and development initiatives. For her project, titled “Drug Discovery Targeting Lysophosphatidic Acid (LPA) GPCR Subtype 5 (LPA5),” Lee will receive combined funding from SR and UTHSC for up to two years to further develop her novel research project investigating the role of LPA5 in cancer metastasis and cancer autoimmunity.

Sue Chin Lee, Ph.D.

“I would like to thank the Office of Research at UTHSC for their invaluable support and continual effort in promoting new lines of research and collaboration through programs such as the UTHSC/SR CORNET Award in Drug Discovery and Development grant,” Lee said. “We believe that together, with the team of experts at SR and their cutting-edge robotic drug screening platform, we will be able to achieve this goal.”

Over recent years, Lee and her team have discovered that LPA5 plays a key role in cancer metastasis. Specifically, they found that LPA5 receptor knock-out mice were protected from developing melanoma-derived lung metastasis. Moreover, activation of the LPA5 receptor on CD8 T-lymphocytes suppresses the immunosurveillance activities of CD8 T-lymphocytes against tumor cells. These findings led Lee and her team to believe that developing compounds that target the LPA5 receptor have potential therapeutic utility in cancer, especially in the area of cancer metastasis and anti-tumor immunity.

“Dr. Lee, with SR, is embarking on a high-throughput drug screen to find compounds that can potentially overcome the inhibitory signals cancer cells release to block anti-tumor immunity,” said Gabor Tigyi, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for UTHSC Industry Relations and Global Partnerships. “By partnering with companies, such as Southern Research, Dr. Lee’s evolving technology can become a game-changer in the immunotherapy of cancers, which is revolutionizing treatments by utilizing the patient’s own immune cells to rid the body of cancer.”

“We are very excited about continuing our collaboration with Dr. Lee and UTHSC, as this program fits nicely with our continued interest in oncology research,” said Mark J. Suto, Ph.D., vice president of Drug Discovery at Southern Research. “Dr. Lee’s program has made significant progress in a short period of time.”

The UTHSC/SR CORNET Award in Drug Discovery and Development represents an extension of a program launched in 2016 by Steven R. Goodman, Ph.D., vice chancellor for Research at UTHSC. UTHSC and SR formed their partnership in fall of 2017, linking the drug discovery and development expertise of SR with UTHSC’s four-campus research network. Glen E. Palmer, Ph.D., associate professor in the College of Pharmacy at UTHSC was the first recipient of the jointly-funded award for his work on the development of first-in-class broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents for the treatment of what are often fatal invasive fungal infections.

The primary objective of the CORNET Award in Drug Discovery and Development is to launch drug discovery programs that are based on new and unique insight into the biology of disease that will fill significant unmet medical needs. Additionally, this initiative is designed to present a unique opportunity for developing a broad collaborative program in drug discovery that will yield the generation of new intellectual property and patents, and the establishment of new academic-industry partnerships that could lead to the founding of new companies.

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


Prosperity Fund works to boost Fayette small businesses

Posted on May 16, 2018

FAYETTE, Alabama — As the point man for the Fayette Area Chamber of Commerce, Danny White sees the hopes and struggles of small business owners in this northwest Alabama town, and he knows they sometimes can use a helping hand.

“Small businesses don’t have a lot of resources, so it’s really helpful to have outside eyes to come in and look at a problem,” White said. “When you’re in a small town, you need some fresh eyes, some fresh ideas. That alone is a big deal.”

Enter Steven Puckett and Southern Research’s Prosperity Fund, an initiative backed by the Appalachian Regional Commission that aims to foster job creation and facilitate entrepreneurial activity in a four-county area in Alabama impacted by the coal industry’s downturn.

Puckett, managing director of The Prosperity Fund, has been working with small businesses and entrepreneurs in Fayette — population 4,500 — since late last year. He’s become a familiar face in town, providing advice on funding sources and suggestions on ways to trim business expenses, as well as helping out with market research and logo design, and much more.

Southern Research Prosperity Fund
Julie Madison stands in the Alabama Sunshine storefront location in Fayette before she moved the family business to a larger space downtown.

“Our main goal is to lend our capabilities as an organization to small business owners in across Alabama’s coal region to overcome the challenges that are preventing them from growing and creating jobs,” Puckett said.

“For a community like Fayette, it’s especially important because positioning small businesses for success will inject vitality into the local economy and fire up the engine of job creation,” he added.

POWER OF ‘POSITIVE RESULTS’

White knows Fayette’s economy faces some headwinds. Following a growth spurt in the 1970s, the city’s population has dropped, and its per capita income remains at a level that’s around half the U.S. average. Like much of Alabama, entrepreneurial activity in the city has lagged.

Then the coal industry collapsed.

Fayette County lost all of its coal jobs in 2013, when the North River Mine near the Berry community shut down after 40 years of operation. Some of the 320 or so miners who worked there were able to transfer to other mines owned by Walter Energy, but many of them saw jobs paying as much as $70,000 a year vanish, triggering a massive economic blow.

White believes facilitating small business growth will provide a sustainable economic boost to the area.

“Fayette is not going to attract any big new industries, so our focus is on small businesses and their potential for growth,” he said. “And when people start seeing positive results from small business growth, things can just build on that. It’s like a snowball effect.”

ALABAMA SUNSHINE

Julie Madison, a former pre-school special education teacher turned entrepreneur, and her brother, David Smith, are the driving forces behind Alabama Sunshine, a Fayette business that specializes in hand-crafted hot sauces and other artisanal products.

Southern Research Prosperity Fund
Fayette’s Alabama Sunshine produces a range of products from homegrown peppers. (Image: Alabama Sunshine)

Alabama Sunshine’s products, based mostly on homegrown peppers and unique recipes, are sold by 200 retailers and shipped across the U.S. to fill online orders.

Madison recently moved the business into a new downtown location several times larger than its old storefront home.

Still, the jump into the business world has been an adjustment for the newcomer.

“It’s 10 times harder than I thought it would be,” she said. “It was a huge challenge and a big learning curve.”

Puckett, who has been working with Madison since last October, has investigated cheaper sources for the bottles used by Alabama Sunshine, which could mean big savings for the company. He’s also teamed with college interns working with the initiative to develop marketing strategies to expand Alabama Sunshine’s business and to design merchandise for the shop to sell.

“Steven’s help has been really great because sometimes, as a small business owner, you’ve got blinders on. You’re just trying to make, to get through the week and figure out what to do next,” Madison said.

“When someone comes in and says, ‘Hey, how are you getting your name out there? What about marketing?’ These are the things that, when you’re in the grind, you don’t think about much. You’ve got your head down.”

WORKING TOGETHER

Southern Research Prosperity Fund
Southern Research’s Prosperity Fund is working with small businesses in Fayette, located in an area affected by the downturn in the coal industry. (Image: City of Fayette)

Puckett has joined with White to assist a number of other Fayette small businesses and organizations.

Puckett has been working with leaders of the Fayette Area Community Development Corp., a non-profit established to renovate a historic downtown hotel property, to identify possible funding sources to help advance a $3 million project that could have a major impact on revitalization efforts.

“We have everything else to get started on it. The last piece of the puzzle is financing,” White said.

Puckett has also provided a helping hand in the reopening of a downtown restaurant and has worked to get a financially struggling thrift store operation on track. He’s making plans to assemble an angel investor network to benefit capital-strapped small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs in the area.

White thinks The Prosperity Fund’s presence in Fayette is transmitting a positive signal about what’s possible in the community.

“There are a lot of things we can do together,” he said. “Once people start to see that things are happening, it just has a stimulating effect on them. People will start to say, ‘Hey, I can do this. I can start a business or expand my business.’”

Madison at Alabama Sunshine said many small enterprises in Fayette can profit from the initiative’s assistance.

“I think the No. 1 thing is showing small businesses how they can cut costs. That’s a huge help. In a small business, a family-run business, the bottom line is everything. Every little bit counts,” she said.

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


Advanced Topics in Water Quality Monitoring: Speciated Selenium Measurement

Posted on May 14, 2018
Chaoyang Huang, Ph.D.

It can be hard to worry about contamination by a substance that regularly shows up in children’s vitamins. But selenium pollution via industrial waste can impair our waterways. The margin between “essential” and “toxic” levels of selenium is very slim, and even in small concentrations, selenium pollution is shown to have serious effects on fish and wildlife. In 2016, EPA recommendations under the Clean Air Act extended criteria to include selenium contamination in the food web, not just the water column, and future regulations could be even more stringent. Industrial and manufacturing facilities will need to treat wastewater streams for selenium prior to discharge, which means operators will be required to monitor selenium concentration to comply with regulations.

This is neither a simple nor an easy enterprise. It’s made particularly challenging by the fact that selenium comes in numerous different organic and inorganic species, and selection of remediation techniques and technology will vary depending on the species present. There is no simple “selenium pollution” — a water source could be contaminated with hydrogen selenide or selenium(IV), and that distinction is an important one when it comes to treating the contamination.

Speciated selenium measurement is a complex process requiring a combination of specialty instrumentation and human expertise. One issue of concern during the speciation process is the presence of interferences within the sample — threatening accuracy in measuring total selenium, even before any attempts at speciation take place.

“Selenium has different isotopes, which we monitor using ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry),” said Chaoyang Huang, an engineer and senior chemist at Southern Research. “Each species is subject to different polyatomic interferences from the water matrix. These are hard to isolate without a collision/reaction cell.”

Southern Research (SR) was the first lab in the Southeast to break into speciated selenium measurement and has been offering it as a service to commercial clients since 2008. The past decade has given us numerous opportunities to invest in the people and technology necessary to perform it well. Our proprietary method couples HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) with an industry-leading Agilent 8800 Triple Quad ICP-MS to speciate and quantify even trace levels of selenium in contaminated water.

That past decade has also given us an opportunity to develop an expertise around the wastewater itself.

“Because we understand the wastewater matrix, SR can proactively minimize the impact of interferences on the final analysis results,” Huang said.

State-of-the-art quality control measures allow us to ensure accuracy in both the total selenium and the speciated selenium measurement so SR’s clients can understand the nature of the selenium contamination and select effective treatment solutions.

Treating selenium contamination is important both for the health of the environment and for the health of facilities facing government regulation and potential penalties. Selenium speciation is the first step in knowing what to treat and how to treat it. Partnered with an experienced, market-proven lab, heavy industry and wastewater treatment facilities can keep waterways fresh and regulators satisfied.

Southern Research makes key hire for Industrial Water Practice

Posted on May 7, 2018

Southern Research announced today that Young Chul Choi, an experienced environmental engineer, has joined the Birmingham-based organization to lead its Industrial Water Practice, which focuses on clean water technologies benefiting companies in a range of industries.

In his role as associate director, Young Chul, Ph.D., P.E., is responsible for the multifaceted business operations of the Industrial Water Practice, including engineering services, technology development and analytical testing.

Young Chul Choi leads Southern Research’s Industrial Water Practice.

“The markets that Southern Research serves continue to evolve, and our organization is evolving with it. Firms that combine strong technical expertise with practical engineering know-how will be favored as the market shifts to focus less on R&D and more on implementation,” said Bill Grieco, vice president of Southern Research’s Energy & Environment division.

“Young Chul brings world-class R&D experience and practical engineering know-how from his time as a professional engineer. He’s a great fit to lead our Industrial Water Practice as we look to increase our focus on engineering services,” Grieco added.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

Southern Research’s E&E division has been active in this field since 2008, when it began operating an analytical laboratory with world-class specialty instrumentation and unique testing methods. The lab offers services related to the measurement of trace metals in industrial wastewater streams that few labs can match.

Southern Research later expanded its capabilities with the launch of the Water Research Center in Cartersville, Georgia. At this state-of-the-art facility, the organization performs bench-scale and pilot-scale wastewater treatment technology evaluations intended to help coal-fired power plants comply with new environmental regulations on wastewater discharge.

clean water technologies
Southern Research has been developing clean water technologies for more than a decade.

In addition, Southern Research has also developed proprietary clean water technology. This includes process technology to cost-effectively separate lithium from brine water, continuously monitor trace metals, and recover rare earth elements from waste streams.

“Southern Research has long been a leader in the development of innovative technologies to ensure adequate supplies of clean, safe water for future generations,” Young Chul said.

“I’m excited about joining the Industrial Water Practice team as we work to continue this tradition and make new discoveries that benefit our sponsors and partners.”

EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE

Before joining Southern Research, Young Chul accumulated more than 15 years of experience in industrial wastewater treatment, reuse, process engineering, and project management. His expertise includes water and wastewater treatment using membranes and biological treatment, particularly desalination, nutrient removal, and industrial treatment.

Young Chul comes to Southern Research from RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where he launched a water program focused on solving technical issues in the water-energy nexus. Before that, he worked at CH2M Hill, where he was a regional technology leader, and Doosan Hydro Technology, where he established a research and development group.

“Young Chul is innovative and practical. He’s developed new concepts while working in research environments and served as a professional engineer on mega-scale water treatment projects,” said Corey Tyree, Ph.D., director of strategic growth initiatives for Southern Research’s E&E division.

“That’s a great combination of experience, which makes him an expert resource for clients and a quality mentor to our staff. I look forward to working with him to grow our Industrial Water Practice.”

A registered professional engineer with two U.S. patents, Young Chul serves as editor-in-chief for the technical journal Membrane Water Treatment.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Seoul National University, as well as a doctorate in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Visit the lab pages for the Industrial Water Practice.

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


With Prosperity Fund help, startup CHONEX aims to turn waste into profit

Posted on April 17, 2018

Southern Research’s Prosperity Fund is assisting an Alabama startup that sees one of nature’s great recyclers – the black soldier fly – as an instrument to convert chicken poop into high-value products such as protein-rich animal feed and organic fertilizer.

CHONEX, the brainchild of entrepreneur Michael Lynch and fifth-generation farmer Harley Martin, got its start about 18 months ago, and Southern Research has been involved in the firm’s development almost from the beginning.

“They’ve been a huge part of helping us solve some initial problems,” Lynch said. “We’re just getting started, but I imagine this is going to turn into a long-term relationship with Southern Research.”

CHONEX calls itself an agribusiness nutrient recycling company, but that hardly tells the whole story.

Prosperity Fund CHONEX
Southern Research’s Corey Tyree, a co-founder of The Prosperity Fund, left, poses with CHONEX’s Michael Lynch at an Alabama Launchpad competition where the company won $85,000 in funding.

Using a proprietary process, CHONEX applies black soldier fly larvae to poultry manure. The voracious larvae convert the waste into three products: a certified organic protein feed, a fatty acid used in cosmetics, and a high-value organic fertilizer and soil enhancer.

“I think there is a lot of potential in what we’re doing,” Lynch said.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Corey Tyree, Ph.D., Southern Research’s director of strategic growth initiatives and a co-founder of The Prosperity Fund, said CHONEX’s technology not only has commercial potential but also addresses several problems facing the agriculture industry today.

For one thing, the industry needs sustainable and more efficient methods to produce protein since most soybeans, one-third of all grains, and a large portion of caught wild seafood go to make animal feed. At the same time, egg producers need new sources of organic protein.

Meanwhile, poultry companies are searching for smart alternatives for the more than 6 billion tons of chicken manure produced each year. With the industry exploring methods to handle waste that are more environmentally friendly, the timing is right for CHONEX’s model, Tyree said.

“CHONEX is increasing the process intensity of egg and protein production and creating beneficial uses for nutrients found in the manure,” he said.“Though there are many uses for chicken manure, processing it using a highly controlled, closed, industrial system offers several advantages.

These include near-complete utilization of available nutrients, intense production of proteins, and less environmental impact compared to other beneficial uses for manure.

CHONEX also aims to tap into the growing demand for organic fertilizer and soil amendments that improve the capacity to support plant life. It says one of the largest by-products of its process is organic fertilizer with high values of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

GOD’S RECYCLER

Lynch became acquainted with the potential of black solider flies after conducting consulting work that centered on their potential. He thinks the black solider fly, whose larvae are champion eaters, represents the ideal vehicle to advance CHONEX’s goals.

“It’s been around for about 66 million years, and its larvae was eating dinosaur manure. It was what God designed to help recycle waste. This recycling process has been happening naturally for millions of years,” he said. “What’s happened recently is that concentrated poultry operations don’t allow for this process to happen naturally.

“So, we’re going to scale up the insects to eat the manure and continue the natural process.”

Prosperity Fund CHONEX
The larvae of the black solider fly are voracious eaters. CHONEX plans to use them to turn chicken manure into protein-rich animal feed and organic fertilizers. (Image: CHONEX)

Lynch and Southern Research joined forces in early 2017, after the CHONEX CEO delivered his first-ever business pitch at a meeting of the Birmingham Venture Club. Lynch had carefully rehearsed his pitch, but lost track at one point and had to wing the rest in a panic. He thought he had blown a big chance.

After the event, Art Tipton, Ph.D., president and CEO of Southern Research, approached Lynch and handed over a business card. A telephone call followed. Tipton steered him to Bill Grieco, Ph.D., vice president of Southern Research’s Energy & Environment division and a co-founder of The Prosperity Fund.

Soon, CHONEX was part of The Prosperity Fund, a $2.4 million initiative launched by Southern Research in 2017 to foster small business growth and spark job creation and economic vitality in four Alabama counties affected by the coal industry’s downturn.

Through the Prosperity Fund, Tyree has worked with Lynch on a variety of challenges facing a startup with few resources. He helped research patents to ensure that CHONEX’s intellectual property in nutrient recycling was safe from challenges.

Lynch said Tyree’s team at Southern Research has helped him develop important relationships with potential partners for equipment production and as suppliers of black soldier fly eggs. Tyree also supported CHONEX in a meeting with the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), a non-profit in Muscle Shoals that can help study ways to improve the company’s processes.

Lynch said Tyree’s team has brainstormed on equipment design and ways to overcome significant engineering challenges posed by scaling up those processes. Ultimately, Southern Research may help design testing protocols to aid in material handing and product quality control.

“CHONEX has benefitted from its relationship with Southern Research from the early days of the company,” Lynch said.

GROWTH PLANS

Lynch is encouraged by CHONEX’s progress with its protein extraction technology. (The company’s name is an acronym stemming from the four components of protein – Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen, as well as “ex” for extraction.)

The fledgling company has already formed a partnership with a large poultry company and received interest from fertilizer industry leaders. It has retrofitted an 8,000-square-foot, climate-controlled hog barn at Martin’s farm in Pickens County as a black solider fly nursery and will soon launch a testing project with renowned entomologists.

Lynch added the company’s headquarters – now at his Birmingham home – will move to space at the IFDC, which will serve an incubator for the startup. A larger nursery is eventually planned for Baldwin County.

The company is getting noticed. Judges at an Alabama Launchpad startup competition in February 2018 awarded CHONEX $85,000 in seed funding to support the company’s development. That was on top of $10,000 awarded earlier by the Birmingham Venture Club.

“That day at the Venture Club was probably the lowest point in my career with CHONEX, but Art Tipton kind of turned everything around for me by giving me his card,” Lynch said. “I’m grateful that he helped me get on this path.”

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


Prosperity Fund works to launch angel investor network for coal counties

Posted on April 12, 2018

The co-founder of Southern Research’s Prosperity Fund said the program to spark job creation and stimulate entrepreneurial activity in Alabama’s coal country is preparing to launch an important new initiative after surpassing initial goals.

Corey Tyree, Ph.D., director of strategic growth initiatives at Southern Research, said The Prosperity Fund is working to create an angel investor network that would pump much-needed capital into small businesses and startups in the four-county region.

Southern Research
Corey Tyree is co-founder of The Prosperity Fund.

“Bringing investor dollars into underserved communities – and I mean communities that are in the bottom 10 percent in terms of these kinds of investments – could make a huge difference,” Tyree said. “It could help create hundreds of jobs.”

Angel investors are deep-pocketed individuals who make early investments in promising small businesses to accelerate growth, and they often operate in networks to pool financial resources and share the risks and rewards of investing in entrepreneurs.

“If you look at the statistics on the amount of investor dollars flowing into Alabama, you’ll see they’re not flowing into rural communities,” Tyree said. “But there are opportunities in these communities.”

In a question-and-answer session, Tyree explains how The Prosperity Fund is measuring up against its goals of fostering small businesses growth and spurring job creation in Walker, Fayette, Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties. Between 2012 and 2016, more than 2,500 coal miners lost their jobs in the region, wiping out more than $200 million in wages.

He also talks about future developments for the $2.4 million program, which was created by Southern Research in 2017 with backing from the Appalachian Regional Commission and other partners.

Q: What’s next for The Prosperity Fund?

Tyree: A coming focus for the program is going to be helping to get new sources of investment into the communities in these four Alabama counties. The bridge we haven’t crossed is whether we are creating this angel investor network, or whether we are participating in a network that’s created by someone else.

Regardless, we want to facilitate the creation of an angel investor network.

When you’re in rural America, you just don’t think about this kind of investor network. But we can work to make it happen.

Q: How would you assess the early performance of The Prosperity Fund?

Tyree: One of our biggest successes was the hiring of Steven Puckett to run the program. Steven has exceeded expectations. He’s credible; he’s got experience as an entrepreneur. People wanted to see an entrepreneur in this role – somebody who has been there. When he talks to small businesses, those people say, ‘This guy can help me.’

He’s really hit the ground running.

Another big achievement is that we did what we said we were going to do. We’re in the communities, and the people there see us. We’re visible. We’re going to be someone they can count on and trust to get things done. Steven has proven that at the local level. He’s a doer, and we need doers in these communities.

Q: What accomplishments impress you the most?

Tyree: We’re here to create jobs, and we’ve done that. Job creation is ahead of schedule. There’s no doubt about it. Plus, we thought we’d be able to help at least 20 companies. We’re helping over 50 now.

Southern Research Prosperity Fund
As managing director of the Prosperity Fund, Steven Puckett, left, works to assist small businesses in four hard-hit Alabama coal counties.

Another thing has been the approach that we’ve been able to take. We’ve been able to provide direct help to startups and small businesses, but we’ve also looked at how to build up entrepreneurial ecosystems. It’s not what people classically think of when they think of helping entrepreneurs.

I think we’re really pioneering a way to help people in rural America. It’s about getting in there and finding ways to help.

Q: In a sense, economic development has always been a central mission of Southern Research. Is The Prosperity Fund serving to expand this legacy?

Tyree: When Southern Research got its start, it was designed to help local businesses in Alabama by providing them with technical resources they wouldn’t have had otherwise. We’re getting back to that with The Prosperity Fund.

But the focus of The Prosperity Fund has not been entirely on technical assistance but more on what these businesses actually need, regardless of what that is. Steven has brought resources to small businesses in these areas that really did not have access to them before. His formula is simple: He listens to the businesses and understands their problems, he helps them develop solutions to those problems, and he works side-by-side with them to define and implement a plan for deploying the solutions. It’s a winning formula that can be used over and over again.

Q: Are other economic development initiatives like The Prosperity Fund possible in the future?

Tyree: I think there are a number of initiatives related to The Prosperity Fund that we need to think about. Within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, there are multiple components. There are education and workforce development issues.

We aren’t in the business of education; that’s the role of school systems and colleges and universities, but what we can do is help make curriculum more relevant to local employers. By talking to employers and learning what they need, we can help facilitate a curriculum that is very focused on local needs. That’s just one component of the ecosystem that we can help strengthen.

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


Southern Research evaluates innovative NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE technologies

Posted on April 10, 2018

For more than a year, a Southern Research team has gotten a first-hand look at more than 20 technologies that aim to turn carbon dioxide emissions into valuable products as part of a $20 million competition challenging innovators around the world to develop breakthrough technologies that make valuable uses for carbon dioxide emissions, a leading contributor to climate change.

The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition is now entering its final round, with this week’s announcement of 10 finalists now tasked with demonstrating their breakthrough technologies at an industrial scale under real-world conditions. A grand prize purse of $15 million is on the line.

With evaluations of these innovative technologies, Southern Research’s Energy & Environment (E&E) division played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the Carbon XPRIZE competition, beginning in late 2016.

“We were the guys in the field doing the technology evaluation and verification, collecting data on the systems, and making sure the technology is doing what the teams are saying it does,” said Tim Hansen, P.E., director of E&E and measurement and verification lead for the project.

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE
Southern Research’s Tim Hansen, center, stands with members of the Carbon XPrize team and the Carbon Upcycling UCLA team with samples of UCLA’s innovative concrete product, which captures and sequesters carbon dioxide.

It’s been a demanding job. Between October and December 2017, members of the Southern Research team traveled over 95,000 miles to 28 different locations in six countries to monitor the technologies, which were required to use a simulated power plant flue gas stream.

The Southern Research team spent five days at each of these sites, observing the stability and consistency of the systems and how much CO2 was utilized as products were made. It also examined the quality of the products resulting from the technologies and amount of CO2 sequestered in products.

VAST POTENTIAL

The teams in the Carbon XPRIZE competition, who come from universities, startups, and companies all over the world, utilized a broad variety of approaches to convert CO2 into products ranging from carbon nanotubes, building materials and alternative fuels to fish food.

The commercial potential of these technologies is vast, with the Global CO2 Initiative estimating a $400 billion market opportunity for CO2 utilization products in the concrete sector alone, along with significant environmental benefits.

“It was really impressive to see what some of these approaches could do,” Hansen said. “It will be interesting to see how some of them can impact climate change via CO2 utilization. Some of these teams have a pretty significant capacity to utilize CO2 and to make products that are going to have some legs in the market.”

SCALING UP THE TECHNOLOGIES

The Carbon XPRIZE partnership played to a long-standing strength at Southern Research. For more than two decades, the Birmingham-based research organization’s scientists have developed protocols for testing new products to provide reliable, verifiable data about new technologies.

“Independent measurement and verification of team technology development is a vital part of the independent judging process,” said Dr. Marcius Extavour, Senior Director, Energy and Resources at the non-profit XPRIZE. “The Carbon XPRIZE was looking for a partner who was capable of working with a wide range of competitors, with varied and complex technologies.

“Southern Research’s breadth and depth of expertise gave us confidence in their ability to work closely with all the teams to showcase their innovative technologies and deliver high-quality verification data,” he said.

The Southern Research team submitted its technical reports to the Carbon XPRIZE organizers in December and January. An independent panel of judges selected the finalists moving to Round 3 of the competition during a February summit, relying on the data provided by Southern Research. The finalists are splitting a $5 million milestone purse.

NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE
Southern Research’s Tim Hansen, Nikki Batchelor (Carbon XPRIZE), Iman Mehdipour and Bu Wang (Carbon Upcycling UCLA) pose at UCLA’s analytical lab during verification of UCLAs carbon utilization technology for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE.

“We developed an XPRIZE scorecard based on the data we observed from each team,” he said. “We were trying to provide data on the technologies and let the judges pick the winners. That was really our driver – giving the judges reliable information to base a decision on. There is a lot to consider when you’re trying to judge these technologies.”

During Round 3 of the competition, the teams will scale up their technologies to fully demonstrate their potential, using actual power plant flue gas. While Southern Research’s precise role in the nine-month demonstration phase is still being determined, Hansen said he will aim to set up instrumentation that will permit his team to collect and monitor data consistently and, potentially, remotely.

“For this round, since they’re at large pilot, near-industrial scale, we want to make sure the data stream is coming in consistently for everybody and that we’re getting everything the judges need to make decisions. We want to avoid those last-minute scrambles for information that occurred in Round 2 as teams worked hard to pull off their demonstrations. Round 3 is a much longer evaluation than Round 2, and requires significant planning and coordination with teams, host sites, and XPRIZE.”

The Round 3 operational round ends in February 2020, with winners and the grand prize announced the next month, according to the competition’s organizers.

GROWING MARKET

Hansen said Southern Research’s involvement in the high-profile NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition could provide a boost for the Birmingham-based non-profit organization’s technology evaluation efforts.

“I think there is a growing market for clean-tech investments and deployment,” he said. “As more technologies are developed and deployed, the people looking at investments in these technologies are going to want to know how they perform and what their impact can be, to reduce their risks and increase their benefits. We’re seeing that increased interest now, and we hope that this will spur more of it.”

He also thinks the technologies showcased in the competition are on track to turn CO2 into valuable commercial products and impact our climate.

“Even if you look at the teams that didn’t make the finals, there are some very valid, viable technologies there,” Hansen said. “The competition overall is actually helping to generate more awareness of the kind of breakthrough technologies that are out there, and it’s helping the teams get more interest that could drive the CO2 utilization market to develop faster.”

Stay up-to-date with SR’s research, discoveries, upcoming events and more: sign up for our monthly newsletter.


© 2025 Southern Research. All rights reserved.