Details

Last Funding Type

Grant

Last Funding Money Raised

$868.83K

Industries

Advanced Materials,Energy Efficiency,Manufacturing,Renewable Energy,Solar

Founded date

Jan 1, 2014

Number Of Employee

11 - 50

Operating Status

Active

DropWise Technologies is commercializing a breakthrough coating technology, including advanced durable materials and unique vapor-based deposition processes developed in collaboration between two leading MIT labs, to solve problems of fouling and corrosion in heat exchange equipment. By applying its innovative ultra-thin and durable coating solutions, DropWise serves enormous markets that were previously inaccessible by conventional coating technologies.

Heat exchangers are a crucial part of every thermal fluid system, from the intercoolers and radiators used to cool cars and trucks, to the condensers and evaporators that drive HVAC/R equipment, to the massive boilers and condensers that drive manufacturing processes and power plants. They rely on very thin heat transfer surfaces that are extremely sensitive to fouling and corrosion, which creates a process bottleneck and forces operators to either reduce output capacity, consume more energy to compensate, or shut down completely to clean the affected heat exchanger.

For all of these problems, conventional liquid-based anti-fouling and anti-corrosion coatings are too thick, and often make the problem worse by insulating the heat transfer surfaces. Faced with this unacceptable performance tradeoff, the status quo is to leave the equipment uncoated and to bear the significant costs of the fouling and corrosion that inevitably occur.

Using an innovative vapor-based deposition process, DropWise coatings are chemically grafted to virtually any surface and built up to precise thicknesses. The chemical grafting provides an extremely durable bond that has surpassed testing under severe industrial conditions, and the coating thicknesses can be tuned to nanometer precision to be hundreds of times thinner than conventional coatings. DropWise has secured a license to the MIT patent applications, and is developing a coating platform built from a wide library of precursor materials to address different applications. Low surface energy coatings are used to break up insulating films of condensate into droplets, enabling a 7x increase in heat transfer that allows the coating to boost the efficiency of a wide range of processes, from steam power generation and desalination to HVAC/R and chemical processing; while another chemically inert formulation is used to protect against corrosive environments.