Renmatix CTO Fred Moesler visited campus Aug. 30 to share insights and identify opportunities for collaboration with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute and its affiliated faculty and students.  About 30 students attended a seminar and luncheon. During the course of a content-rich day, a series of faculty presentations discussed a wide range of topics related to the conversion of biomass into sugars and specialty fibers.

Renmatix is focused on finding an economically effective way to unlock the chemical building blocks of plant life using only heat and water.

Moesler was accompanied by product development director Mike Smith, as well as process engineers Sean Calahan and Derek Carlson—both Georgia Tech alumni.

During the seminar, “Renmatix and the Whole BioBarrel,” Moesler showed that cracking cellulose economically to meet national goals is not just “green” but critical to meeting the nation’s energy and materials needs, and that corn-based ethanol alone as an endpoint will never achieve those goals.  He described the company’s Plantrose™ technology as a “bridge between biomass and the fuels and chemicals industry.”  It uses supercritical hydrolysis to deconstruct the biomass, using only heat and water. By using this process, Renmatix has developed a clean lignin stream for processing into feedstock chemicals, and a crystalline material with many of the properties of the nanoscale without the costly production process.  Learn more here: Renmatix

Over lunch, students had the opportunity to discuss the scientific challenges being tackled by the company and to gain insights into how to make themselves attractive to potential employers.  “Do internships and co-ops, any chance you can get,” advised Carlson.  “Learn how to run large equipment—practical experience is very important.  And think about your 10-year plan as much as your two-year plan.”

Moesler urged students to research an organization before an interview in order to understand how they might fit in, and where they might contribute.  Once hired, Moesler counseled, “Don’t get pigeon-holed. If you’re in a pigeon-hole, get out of it.  Stay curious.  Keep the learning curve steep.”