Startups and students win $500,000 in clean energy challenge

A student-led team that designed a turbine for making geothermal energy systems more efficient and a water purification company that eliminates the need for detergent and hot water in commercial laundries took home $100,000 each, part of a total of $500,000 in prizes today in an annual clean energy competition. 

Black Pine Engineering Corp. from Michigan State University in East Lansing was awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy as the big winner in the student category. The team developed a carbon-based turbine pump that removes the harmful gases from geothermal steam and lets the system use all its steam for generating energy.

EP Purification Inc., based in Champaign, won $100,000 from Wells Fargo & Co. as the best early-stage company that presented its business model to a panel of judges and others in the challenge, sponsored by the Clean Energy Trust. The company employed licensed technology from the University of Illinois to isolate the ozone molecule and use it as a cleaning agent for laundry, doing away with hot water and chemicals, saving energy and money.