ChloroFill to build first factory in Missouri
“The financing from GPI and MTC is an important endorsement of ChloroFill’s sorghum-based, U.S.-made, health-friendly building materials,” said ChloroFill’s founder, CEO and President Michael Hurst. “We look forward to soon producing a low carbon footprint, cost-competitive building panel in the Midwest that helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, deforestation, and health-risks associated with traditional building materials.”
The investment capital will finance the launch of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant in Nodaway County, Missouri to produce ChloroFill’s fiberboard products for the interior design, furniture and construction markets. Nodaway County is rich in agricultural expertise making it an ideal region to grow sorghum, a hyper-renewable, abundant agricultural crop used as the material for ChloroFill’s renewable building panels. Additionally, GPI is rallying northwest Missouri’s local academic, business, agricultural and financial communities in support of ChloroFill to create jobs and business development in the region.
“The Nodaway County, Missouri community is thrilled to have ChloroFill as our newest corporate citizen,” states Brock Pfost, Acting-Chairman of GPI. “ChloroFill offers a green, formaldehyde-free decorative board that is strong, durable and enduring. Nodaway County provides an excellent place to manufacture, especially a product with an agricultural base. ChloroFill will be able to utilize a great labor force and be close to their raw-product feedstock. This is a good investment for northwest Missouri and the right step for our environment.
”ChloroFill’s designer-friendly, cost-competitive panels made with a formaldehyde-free binder contribute to sustainable building and to healthy indoor environments free of pollutants. ChloroFill’s fiberboard panels can be used in many of the same applications as bamboo plywood, exotic hardwoods and other engineered wood panels. Designer applications include counter tops, architectural elements, wall and ceiling coverings, furniture, cabinetry, wainscoting, doors and flooring. Production is slated for the First Quarter of 2013.
Hurst is again among the 13th annual 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology, gathering Jan. 15 in Washington, D.C. for Innovation & Equity 2013: Keeping America First in Technology: Public Innovation & Supplier Diversity. He is one of a wave of African-American industrial innovators leveraging intellectual property to usher in a new wave of sustainable domestic manufacturing and economic development through the year-round Catapulting Innovation Showcase.
The ChloroFill founder is on the cover of Job Creation and Innovation: State of Black Business, 9th edition, which notes the development of public financing mechanisms in most states to provide development and growth capital, particularly in overlooked areas, as a positive trend.
ABOUT CHLOROFILL. ChloroFill LLC was founded in 2007 to meet the need for sustainable, safe, attractive, durable, and cost-competitive building materials for interior design, construction and furniture applications. The Company harnesses the sorghum stalk as a building material for its high-lignocellulose content that results in stronger, more durable fiberboard panels with better insulation and with more attractive aesthetic qualities than traditional panels. ChloroFill is the one sorghum-based, U.S.-made, health-friendly fiberboard panel company. The Company’s vision is to revolutionize the building materials industry by making the reduction of deforestation, cancer-causing carcinogens, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollution an industry standard. For more information, visit: www.chlorofill.com.
ABOUT MISSOURI TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) is a public-private partnership created by the Missouri General Assembly to lead efforts to promote entrepreneurship and foster the growth of 21st century bioscience industries related to Missouri’s rich history in agriculture. The High-Tech Industrial Expansion program is part of MTC IDEA Funds. Through IDEA Funds, MTC has made strategic capital deployments into life sciences and information technology companies which are growing Missouri’s economy through innovation and job creation.
ABOUT GLOBAL PROSPECTIVE INVESTMENTS
Global Prospective Investment LLC (GPI) is an investment group interested in developing value added products and technologies. GPI’s mission is to promote northwest Missouri’s people, products and services to create jobs and develop value-added technologies. Currently, focused on Nodaway County, the group has sincere interest in helping to support and promote business development in cooperation with Northwest Missouri State University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and Nodaway County Economic Development.
