In 2006 Javier Garcia Martinez founded Rive Technology, a start-up company, to commercialize a new zeolite catalyst he had developed in postdoctoral research at MIT.  I agreed to join him as cofounder and serve as CEO of the new company. Zeolite catalysts are a mainstay of petroleum refining, used to crack the large molecules of petroleum into the smaller molecules required for fuels and petrochemicals. Javier had found a way to introduce larger, mesopores into traditional zeolite.  The mesopores made the zeolite more accessible, so the large molecules could get in and get cracked and the desired products could get out before getting over-cracked to coke.  By enabling refiners to make more of the products they wanted (liquid fuels) and less of the products they didn’t want (coke and gas), the new catalyst had the potential to deliver hundreds of billions of dollars of value to the global refining industry and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.  This talk will describe the early history of Rive, the challenges faced, how they were overcome, and lessons that can benefit other entrepreneurs.<br/>

Early history of Rive Technology: Lessons learned in commercializing new technology

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.