ChloroFill turns waste into wealth, trash to cash
With ChloroFill, Hurst's three-year-old firm is tackling the problem of formaldehyde releases from existing particle board and other wood products.
His ChloroFill(tm) board is "stronger and more socially responsible than traditional building products," said Hurst in a phone interview. The company, along with a recognized Asian university specializing in materials science, has co-developed a panel made of agricultural waste and a binder with no added urea-formaldehyde.
Prior to launching ChloroFill LLC, which is developing and intends to market environmentally responsible (green) building materials, Hurst spent his career as an engineer at Fortune 500 and leading technology companies, including Beckman Instruments and Illumina, Inc. His experience also includes integration of early PDA's with GPS devices for military, government and commercial purposes.
After spending most of his career supporting the fight against cancer and other disease, Hurst was driven by the idea of green, cost effective means of preventing cancer such as renewable building materials which not only save trees, but do not emit carcinogenic formaldehyde. Since founding ChloroFill LLC, Hurst has successfully fostered collaborative relationships with a leading American and Chinese universities and plans to market the companies' green building materials globally.
Like many African-American innovators, Hurst is finding access to capital a bigger hurdle than technological discoveries.
"We thought this would be a big venture play in 2008, but the market dried up and VCs are only investing in companies that they already have money in," said Hurst. He has readjusted his capital model to be more suited for angel investors.
The Catapult Innovation Competition, a National Black Business Month project, is linking innovators like Hurst among the 1,000 African-Americans per year who gain patents with experienced executives and investors who can help them reach global markets.
During Innovation & Equity: Spurring Manufacturing Through Innovation in Black Communities in January at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. set the tone for the search for African-American manufacturing companies which can follow in the footsteps of Roy Clay Sr.'s Rod-L Electronics, the Silicon Valley firm which has made electronic test equipment for 35 years.
Like Roy Johnson's EnCap, a maker of asbestos remediation materials, and Dr. Lonnie Johnson's Excellatron Solid State LLC, Hurst's products have particular application in low-income communities, which are often flooded with inexpensive building and remodeling products without regard to environmental safety.
As much of the country's stock of affordable housing is renovated and upgraded for more efficient energy use, products like those of Hurst can provide a more healthy environment.
Analysts project the green building sector will reach $7 billion by 2013 despite the overall contraction in housing starts. His products meet new California and federal standards for formaldehyde reduction in 2012.Chlorofill products are made from agricultural residues, many of which are normally burnt, thus reducing the amount of black carbon emitted into the atmosphere.
