May-Ruben Technologies
Presenter:
Connie Ruben, VP Business Development
Email:
cruben@may-rubentechnologies.com
Phone:
403-9710519
Website:
http://www.may-rubentechnologies.com
Address:
1827 14th St. SW
Calgary, AB
T2T 3T1
Year Founded:
2005
Industry Sector:
Cleantech Category:
Company Overview:
May-Ruben Technologies, Inc. (MRT), headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, was created in 2005 by Wayne May and Peter Ruben. Over the past six years, May-Ruben Technologies, has been actively engaged in the development of innovative technologies focused on clean energy and water. The mission of MRT is to develop, patent, and commercialize new technologies that will have a major positive impact on society and the environment. The motto of MRT is “Technology with a Conscience”. The overarching goal of the company is to achieve commercial success in the developed countries for technologies that can then be provided at minimum cost to the developing world.
Markets & Applications:
Liquid Foods:
Thermal pasteurization of liquid foods, unchanged for 150 years, requires excess energy, reduces nutrition, produces a “cooked” flavour, and is capital and maintenance intensive. Milk, beer, wine, sports drinks, soups are examples of the type of liquid foods that would benefit from HIE pasteurization.
Water:
Chemical treatment (municipal water, waste water, pools, hot tubs) has negative side effects on environment and consumers. HIE can be used to kill bacteria in water with greater reliability than the current methodologies. For municipal systems where central treatment is not effective due to compromised pipes in the distribution system, point of use treatment with HIE can be a viable option.
Pharmaceutical:
High volume transvection. For microbiologists, the intent of traditional electroporation was to open pores on a controlled, non-lethal basis in order to remove or inject material into the cell, termed transvection. With HIE it is possible to conduct transvection on a high volume production basis.
Lab on a Chip. Traditional electroporation methodology does not work well for integrated micro channel diagnostic systems built onto chips. The electrolysis that occurs from the conducting current causes gas bubbles to form which can block the micro channel. Pitting of the electrodes also causes premature malfunction of the chip. The HIE process would integrate well as a component of a “Lab on a Chip” where front end electroporation is required.
In Vivo Electroporation. There are existing technologies for inserting twin needle electrodes into a subject so that electroporation can open the subject’s tissue cells for drug delivery. HIE would be a superior technology for this.
Technology & Products:
Electroporation is a well-established technology used by microbiologists for decades on a small scale basis to open pores in cell membranes. By inserting bare electrodes into a solution containing the target cells and passing an electric current through the fluid, the associated electric field will cause holes to form in the cell membranes within milliseconds. Sufficient exposure will result in the death of the cell.
Attracted to the prospect of a non-thermal, non-chemical method for killing bacteria in liquid foods, industry tried for a decade to scale up this technology for commercial applications. Though some devices obtained FDA approval and were marketed commercially, serious operating problems could not be overcome. These problems result from the fact that industry still used bare electrodes and a conducting current. However, the greater processing volumes required greater currents and voltages, which produced serious side effects such as electrolysis, electrode pitting, and taste issues.By 2005, the efforts to commercialize electroporation had, for the most part, been abandoned.
At that point, however, MRT recognized that all of the operating problems were directly attributable to the conducting current, while the desired effect, electroporation, is directly attributable to the electric field. The solution was to decouple the conducting current and the field in such a manner that the conducting current is essentially blocked while the field is still generated with sufficient strength and duration to effect electroporation. To accomplish this, MRT has developed High Impedance Electroporation, or HIE, which employs a thin film dielectric coating on the electrodes. This is the subject of patent applications through the US and PCT (this patent has been granted in some of the early PCT countries).
An HIE device will consist of a thin grid with thousands of micro channels perforating it, each one with a pair of electrodes coated with a nanoscale thin film dielectric coating. The fluid to be treated will flow through these micro channels where the electric field will kill bacteria in milliseconds.
A proof of concept HIE device has been built and a bench top prototype is currently under development.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage:
Versus Thermal Pasteurization, HIE will:
- Reduce energy costs by up to 95%
- Reduce capital costs by an estimated 90%
- Deliver a better product in terms of flavor and nutrients
- Provide solid state reliability with low maintenance costs
- Require a very small footprint (an entire room of pasteurization equipment for a dairy processing 10,000 liters / hour would be replaced by a one square foot grid)
Versus Traditional Low Impedance Electroporation, HIE will:
- Reduce energy costs by 50%
- Eliminate Electrolysis
- Prevent cathode pitting
Business Model & Financials:
For companies using or considering thermal pasteurization, the expected energy savings of HIE is so dramatic, it is possible to offer an HIE device on a lease basis that will provide the client a 20% reduction in operating costs even after the lease payments, no repair costs, and also yield a better product in terms of flavor and nutrition.
For MRT, this lease rate should pay off the manufacturing cost of the device in 6 months and thereafter continue to provide an excellent annuity for the company.
By way of example, an HIE device leased to dairy that processed 70 million liters per year, should generate $140,000 per year in energy savings, or $40,000 per year in net savings to the client after lease payments of $100,000 per year. The expected manufacturing cost for that size of HIE device is less than $50,000.
An annuity of $100,000 per device would grow to a significant annuity within a short order of time as the company ramped up the number of installations.
Team:
Senior Management
Peter Ruben, Chairman, Calgary, Alberta. For the past 14 years, Peter has been Chairman of Alberta Mining Corp, a 62 year old family company.
Wayne May, Chief Technology Officer, Las Vegas. Wayne May has successfully managed complex research projects and has several patents. Connie, President and Business Development Officer previously built one of Canada’s largest market research data collection companies.
Connie Ruben, Vice President, Business Development, Calgary, Alberta. Prior to joining MRT, Connie had successfully started and ran one of Canada's largest market field research companies, which was sold to a U.S. company.
Research and Development
Prime Contractor - Alberta Center for Advanced MNT Products, Edmonton
Collaborating Industry Research Partners
- Dairy Crest, largest dairy processor in the UK, milk
- Coors/Molson, beer
- St. Michelle Wineries, wine
Development Plans:
Please contact us with inquiries.
Additional Information:
Conover + Company Communications is presenting this information to you on behalf of the Government of Canada. Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.