VeruTEK Technologies, Inc. of Bloomfield is using oranges, green tea, soybeans, castor oil, and other natural plant-derived biodegradable extracts to effectively mitigate and remove pollutants from brownfields and groundwater.
It’s a cutting-edge business that holds the promise of opening once-toxic sites to reuse, both in the U.S. and throughout the world.
“When others say ‘no we can’t,’ we say ‘yes we can,’” explains Dr. John B. Collins, co-founder, president, and CEO of VeruTEK Technologies Inc. “We are a solution provider.” The vision, he said, is “to accelerate cleanup of these toxic sites by developing green, effective, and sustainable technologies.”
Collins, along with Dr. George E. Hoag, the firm’s senior vice president and research and development director, believed so much in their vision that they mortgaged their homes four years ago to back a $250,000 loan from Webster Bank. What looked four years ago like a risky investment in a start-up company, now appears a shrewd investment.
With 31 patents pending, the firm is growing despite this tough economy. There are 27 chemists, scientists, engineers, and other staff at VeruTEK’s Bloomfield site. Many of them are University of Connecticut graduates and the firm continues to hire skilled labor.
Chief Financial Officer Douglas Anderson said that as far as he knows VeruTEK is the only commercial company using this green eco-friendly technology to remove pollutants from contaminated land.
Customers who have used its products and services to clean up toxic waste include ExxonMobil, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, and Dow Chemical. VeruTEK also has teamed up with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, UConn, Yale, and Carnegie-Mellon University.
In Hartford, the firm was hired to remove toxins from a portion of Adriaen’s Landing.
Even though it seems difficult to believe that simple everyday ingredients like red wine grapes and vitamin C could destroy toxins, they really do, explains Dr. Raj Varma, a senior scientist working for the federal EPA, which is working with VeruTEK on a joint patent.
“Using simple material, we have a series of remediations.” Dr. Varma said. “Nature does it all the time.”
Through a cooperative research and development agreement between EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory and VeruTEK, EPA green-synthesis technology is being used to further improve VeruTEK’s green remediation and treatment technologies used in environmental cleanup, according to Steve Doub, acting chief of EPA’s technical communications outreach public affairs.
Doub said the benefits from the collaboration are that “only natural materials are used; no hazardous waste is produced; reduced processing is required; materials are more stable, easily stored, and transported; and, materials can be more easily produced around the world.”
Dr. Steven Suib, chemistry professor at UConn, said the university is collaborating on evaluation and development with VeruTEK, including working on a joint patent.
Suib said that the natural products they are using, in conjunction with catalysts such as oxidants, speed up the decontamination process.
“Yes, it works very clearly,” Suib said, observing that while other companies use industrial-based solutions, VeruTEK’s products are natural, “non-toxic and environmentally friendly.”
Suib acknowledged that it is not obvious that these natural, everyday items, such as oranges and green tea, would work to kill toxins in the ground.
“I think they have some clever chemistry and engineering,” Suib said, adding VeruTEK is “doing extremely well in a difficult economy.”
Weston Solutions Inc., an international engineering firm with an office in Glastonbury, has been working with VeruTEK for about a year to clean up sites that it owns.
“We’re very encouraged with their technology that we are currently using and are excited to work with them in developing other sustainable technology,” said Todd Walles, Weston’s Northeast region vice president. “Through our experiences, we believe their technology can be cost-effective and provide for a sustainable solution.”
None of this technology comes cheap, however. It takes a lot of funding to make this type of venture a success.
VeruTEK was publicly traded until 2007, Anderson said, when the firm decided it was not worth the cost. Now the company is funded with private investments and is looking for investors who are in for the long haul, said Anderson, who was the president of The Savings Bank of Manchester until it was sold to NewAlliance Bank.
As far as competition, Collins said, “We appear to be it.”
“It’s construction companies or nothing,’’ Anderson said. “They’ve been doing the same thing the Romans used to do — put it in the backyard and bury it.”
When construction firms dig the toxic materials out using the old methods, the smells, in the case of coal tar, can be horrible, Anderson said, and it can take years of trucking to remove the toxins, that then just get dumped somewhere else.
In contrast, VeruTEK says its green non-toxic applications can take from two days for a home heating oil spill to four months for a large industrial project, and are much more effective.
Industry has been slow to embrace the approach, however. Inertia has a strong hold on the institutional mindset, Anderson said, and it is taking a while to convince others that VeruTEK’s solution, which is significantly less expensive and more effective, is the way to go.
“We are up against a really tough ride,” Anderson said. “It’s been a long time doing it the old way.” Collins agreed, saying, “The barrier to entry is still high.”
Still, all the regulatory agencies have vetted the firm and its approach, Collins said, and VeruTEK has received support from all the scientists who have analyzed the innovative micro-emulsion technology.
“One of the biggest problems is that people just can’t believe it,” Anderson said.
Denmark, Sweden, Australia, and China have embraced VeruTEK’s green technology solutions more readily than the United States has to date, Anderson said.
Investors have expressed interest in having VeruTEK relocate elsewhere, but the firm’s roots run deep. Collins, who lives in Hebron; Anderson, who resides in South Windsor; and Hoag, who is from Mansfield, all like Connecticut and want to stay here.
“We offer a great value,” Anderson said. “There is a huge potential here.”
