New Zealand Science Forging Global Cleantech Solutions

John Worth

CEO and Managing Director Geo 40

John has worked extensively in energy across geothermal, wind, wave and solar disciplines and holds bachelors and masters degrees in engineering and management and has undertaken post-graduate and executive studies at Oxford, Harvard and Auckland.

He is a Chartered Engineer, contributes to a number of boards, and in his spare time coaches junior rugby, swims and surfs and is an occasional surf lifeguard.

Marny Reakes

Advisor | Company Director | Investment Manager | Fractional Executive

Marny is a chemical engineer with an MBA, and 25 plus years of international experience in heavy industries. The last 6 years include roles in a deep tech Startup and CVC investing. Through international roles in NZ, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, The Netherlands, Canada and the USA, Marny brings a wealth of experience in the skills needed to transform an idea into a sustainable business. 

Aaron Marshall

Professor Chemical and Process Engineering, co-founder of Zincovery and serial entrepreneur

Aaron Marshall is a Professor at the University of Canterbury where he teaches thermodynamics and researches a range of electrochemical engineering processes including large scale batteries, hydrogen generation, electrochemical conversion of CO2 into fuels and sustainable metal production. Since starting at UC in 2009, Aaron has received more than $15M in research funding and has graduated more than 20 postgraduate students. He is also a PI and project leader in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Aaron is the co-founder of two cleantech deep-tech companies, Zincovery and Ternary Kinetics.

Veronica Harwood-Stevenson

Founder and CEO of Humble Bee Bio

Veronica is the CEO and Founder of NZ’s leading biomaterials start up. Humble Bee Bio is on a mission to build novel biomaterials that solve market and environmental problems. Veronica’s vision for a sustainable humanity in harmony with the environment weaves together the best of science, communication, and business.

Michelle Dickinson

Co-Founder Nanogirl Labs

Michelle brings over two decades of engineering expertise, specialising in nanotechnology development for the high-tech and medical sector. 
As a passionate advocate for diversity in science and technology, Michelle co-founded Nanogirl Labs a for-purpose business dedicated to making science and technology accessible and engaging for all. While writing No.8 re-charged, a book about New Zealand innovators and their inventions, Michelle discovered simple traits that encourage an innovative mindset which she now incorporates into school and corporate education programs.Michelle believes that by boosting confidence in science, and helping upskill in emerging technologies, we can spark more sustainably driven, world-changing ideas initiated by people who may never have set foot in a science lab.

XFrame

Exhibitor

More than 30% of global waste comes from construction. XFrame is a New Zealand born circular economy construction technology that aims to eliminate building waste by unlocking the circular economy in the building industry. To achieve this vision XFrame provides modular demountable spatial systems for commercial, retail, residential, and institutional clients. XFrame systems make it possible to easily change and adapt buildings without creating waste. With more than 50 large scale completed building projects XFrame has successfully gained commercial traction via global leaders in responsible property development.

Liquium

Exhibitor

Green ammonia is the next clean fuel to support the decarbonization of heavy industries. Liquium is an emerging ammonia technology company with a new industrially relevant drop in catalyst for the Haber-Bosch process/ammonia production. This catalyst can produce ammonia under milder conditions, provide significant capital and carbon savings for existing ammonia plants, and help facilitate new agile green ammonia plants to load follow the electricity market. Liquium is preparing to scale its catalyst and ammonia production to demonstrate the technology's viability here in NZ.  

Hot Lime Labs

Exhibitor

Hot Lime Labs puts the green into greenhouses, converting green waste and forestry residues into renewable CO2 and heat, boosting commercial greenhouse returns and shifting the industry away from fossil fuels. Hot Lime have scaled up their technology from the original labs at Callaghan Innovation to a commercial system at an 11 hectare customer site near Taupo, with ambitions to grow to other NZ and then European greenhouses and satisfy a $2.8b global market.

Carbonscape

Exhibitor

CarbonScape is the first-to-market producer of sustainable biographite. The New Zealand-based deep tech biomaterials company began development of biographite in 2016, with a vision to replace fossil carbons with renewable carbon products. Its patented biographite technology offers the global lithium-ion battery industry a drop-in alternative to synthetic and mined graphite, enabling local production, high performance, and a negative carbon footprint. Graphite accounts for 42% of the weight of critical materials used in a li-ion battery cell, 8 times more than lithium and is key to the global shift to clean energy. With renewable resources and innovative technology, CarbonScape is embracing the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable future without compromising our planet's well-being.

Bspkl

Exhibitor

Bspkl will unlock affordable clean hydrogen with our catalyst coated membrane (CCM) is every hydrogen electrolyser.

The CCM is the heart of an electrolyser and is responsible for splitting the water into hydrogen and oxygen. But because we have been able to produce Hydrogen through methane cracking, resulting in 2% of the worlds carbon emissions, the need to manufacture CCM affordably or at scale has never been a focus of innovation, until now.

Bspkl will be essential in achieving the US$1/kg clean hydrogen price target. Leveraging semiconductor technology to produce CCM with 25x less precious metal and at volumes relevant to gigafactories.

EnPot

Exhibitor

EnPot power modulation technology transforms aluminium smelters from massive continuous users of power into flexible assets able to release energy-on-demand back to the grid. EnPot enables smelters to use up to 30% more or less energy without disturbing the delicate heat balance required to make aluminium.

This flexibility makes smelters more compatible with the variable electricity supply provided by renewable generation. EnPot climate tech has potential to reduce emissions from aluminium production by a third, or ~1% of global CO2. The technology is in operation at commercial scale at TRIMET’s smelter in Essen, Germany and is being rolled out to Chinese smelters in 2024.

Tūhura Otago Museum

Exhibitor

Tūhura Otago Museum hosts Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest science centre and team of professional science communicators. It has become a leader in science engagement; working with partners such as the MacDiarmid Institute to demystify complex scientific concepts using innovative hands-on approaches and demonstrations.

It has also developed a suite of science showcases - mobile, interactive exhibitions -designed engage our next generation with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) regardless of where they live, about key issues such as climate change, and emerging opportunities such as in high tech manufacturing and the space sector. 

The Tūhura Science Engagement team shares all these experiences with schools and communities throughout Aotearoa, the Chathams, and to our Pacific neighbours.