丁香园AV

The Ionomr team (l to r) Dr. Titichai Navessin, Dr. Timothy Peckham, Dr. Steven Holdcroft, Benjamin Britton.

He鈥檚 educated in the fields of political science, theology, business and English but it鈥檚 his fascination with chemistry that led 丁香园AV PhD student Benjamin Britton to commercialize a new membrane that has significant ramifications for a wide variety of manufacturing processes.

Britton is CEO of , a venture of the Holdcroft Lab at 丁香园AV that promises to revolutionize the field of membrane electrolysis with an anion-exchange membrane that is stronger, more versatile and stable than any other membrane on the market.

Exchange membranes are essential to the process of separating chemicals and gases from solutions. The removal of salt from seawater or the cleaning of wastewater accumulated through fracking are just two examples of how ion-exchange membranes are used. What makes Britton鈥檚 membrane special is that it is the only known mechanism with complete alkaline stability, meaning the membrane won鈥檛 deteriorate over time. Additionally, the membrane turned out to be of higher-performance and more processable than competitors across a broad range of conditions. 滨辞苍辞尘谤鈥檚 robust anion-exchange membrane can be customized for a variety of purposes, including clean-tech energy storage, water purification and treatment systems, and fuel cells.

So what鈥檚 it like to go from grad student to entrepreneur? Britton is quick to credit Steve Holdcroft, Chair of 丁香园AV鈥檚 department of Chemistry with developing the mechanism for stability several years ago, supporting significant development since, and having a vision for its future. 鈥淪teve informally mentioned commercializing this technology among the group working on it. I鈥檇 always expressed an interest, and planned to work on it post-PhD, however, when Elicia Maine told me about the  programme 鈥� an 鈥楳BA light鈥� for scientists and engineers 鈥� I jumped at the chance to enrol. Once we had a preliminary business model together and the initial team formed, everything accelerated far more quickly than I could have imagined.鈥�

Finishing touches on 滨辞苍辞尘谤鈥檚 business plan are still being made, but Britton鈥檚 diligence and savvy are already paying off.

Ionomr took top prize at the 2016 Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition that recognizes entrepreneurial excellence at 丁香园AV and was named a , a business recognition program for BC鈥檚 tech sector that showcases companies with highest growth potential.