Background
Production of electric power from biomass is a major challenge for developed countries faced with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In many cases waste biomass creates severe ecological problems.
Genova is involved in the development of innovative and cost-effective technologies to generate heat and electric power from waste biomass.
The company plans to develop small compact power-generation units with capacity ranging from 0.5 to 5 megawatts. These units can be placed and used in the vicinity where waste biomass is created, such as olive oil processing mills and wine manufacturing plants. Genova is supported by the Israel Electric Company.
Genova was included on the Red Herring 100 Europe listing. Why was Genova's selection so unique?
- Only environmental technology company – all the rest are "traditional high tech" (software, communications)
- Only company currently in a technology incubator
- Youngest company (all the other companies have raised millions of dollars)
- Only company with a female CEO – Yonat Granot
Technology
Genova’s technology is based on a proprietary process combining highly efficient pyrolysis and gasification, which converts biomass into high-calorie heat gases and deploys joint mechanical and chemical treatment of raw material.
Genova's technology enables cost-effective generation of power, with cost per installed kilowatt and cost of produced kilowatt per hour significantly below state-of-the-art methods.
The company’s innovative approach can be used to treat processing waste from olives to enable generation of electric power in small, cost-efficient units.
Team
Yonat Granot, business development manager, brings wide-ranging managerial experience from a number of industries.
Dr. Yuri Vladislavsky, founder, is a physicist with extensive experience in research and development.
Dr. Gabriel Jinjikhashvili, coordinator on behalf of the Israeli Electric Company, has extensive experience in innovative power-generation technologies
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| Development Status
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Genova was founded in September 2004 (early-stage). The company has developed a full theoretical background for the invention and designed an engineering scheme of the system, as well as detailed design of the pyrolyser.
Engineering feasibility of kg/hr prototype product for processing olive waste biomass was validated during 2005.
A pilot plant with 30 kilowatt capacity was tested mid-2007.
A pilot plant with 0.2 megawatt capacity will be designed, constructed, and operational by the end of 2007.
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Cleantech