The Pilot Hut on the UC Davis campus is a demonstration unit, modeling examples of innovative systems, materials and building methods and how they could be incorporated into future housing.

Schell’s team conducts experiments like these to help DTE Materials, which has access to NREL expertise and equipment through the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL (GCxN) program. DTE’s patented process, called Clearwash, is designed to make anatomical changes to biomass to make it integrate with ceramic binders more effectively.

DENVER & HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Shell GameChanger Accelerator™ Powered by NREL (GCxN), a multi-million dollar, multi-year program developed in collaboration between Shell GameChanger and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has selected four startups to participate in the program’s sixth cohort. GCxN provides promising early-stage cleantech startups with access to technical experts and state-of-the-art facilities to reduce technology development risk and accelerate commercialization of new cleaner technologies.

I am happy to share that Poly Canyon Ventures has recently funded another promising clean-tech company — DTE Materials. DTE is the second company that we have invested in out of our Climate Changer’s Fund, a part of our initiative to support clean and sustainable innovation at Cal Poly.