The Orlando Local Section of the ACS awarded for the first time it’s Outstanding Entrepreneur Award* to Sergie Albino and Ian Doromal, the co-founders of ecoSPEARS. During our visit to their facility, ecoSPEARS discussed its plans and introduced us to their chemist.
In 2017, Sergie and Ian founded ecoSPEARS after licensing the Sorbent Polymer Extraction And Remediation System (SPEARS) from NASA. The technology was first invented at the Kennedy Space Center by Dr. Jackie Quinn to remove toxins like PCBs from the environment.
ecoSPEARS has since focused on becoming a cleantech provider of green remediation technologies by improving on the original design and developing its own proprietary reagent for containing the toxins and leveraging other technologies to destroy them.
2021 has been a good year for ecoSPREARS:
- Sergie was named Orlando Business Journal’s 2021 CEO of the Year
- ecoSPEARS is one of the top 50 honorees for the 11th Annual GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch
- the company was selected by Excelon for Climate Change Investment, And selected by the PortXL- Port & Maritime Accelerator, in The Netherlands
- first runner up winner at the June 2021 Space Florida’s Aerospace and Innovation Forum
- top three finalist in the “better Environment” category at the World Food Forum Startup Innovation Awards in partnership with Extreme Tech Challenge
- the company was featured in a World Economic Forum article on how NASA technology has been used to help life on earth
- it was cited in the April 2021 International Pollutants Elimination Network report on non-combustible technology for persistent organic pollutants.
ecoSPEARS shows us how Central Florida chemical enterprises help make this world better. All this is made possible because individuals such as Sergie Albino and Ian Doromal decided to bring chemical discoveries to market.
* The Section determined during its 2020 Strategic Review there was room to increase its engagement with the private sector. The creation of an Outstanding Entrepreneur/Employer Award helps us 1) recognize the full spectrum of the chemical enterprise, and 2) celebrate the success of those who bring to market the discoveries that otherwise would remain in the laboratory AND OF THOSE who create jobs for chemists and chemical engineers.