If nothing else, it would make an easier commute for Copper Mountain's John Finley. As the chairman and CEO of MemPro — a growing nanotechnology company — Finley said they're moving toward the production phase and looking at four different sites to build a small plant.

One of those is in Silverthorne.

Finley has currently been traveling regularly to Ohio, where MemPro has been working the past several years to develop its product with scientists at the University of Akron. (The company also has a testing facility in Broomfield.) Were MemPro to choose Silverthorne, it would result in 50 or so local jobs focused around the production of a ceramic material used in various pollution-control devices. Finley said the end product looks almost like felt, a mat of ceramic fibers that can be used in things such as catalytic convertors and industrial smokestacks.

MemPro recently was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for $147,000 — bringing the total the company has received from NSF to $847,000.

“We're proud of the NSF award,” Finley said. “It's a tough organization to convince you've got something really leading edge.”

Finley said the NSF believes MemPro is doing good things from a technical perspective, but that the company also has a good shot at commercializing what they do.

“And NSF likes that because they get money from Congress, and they like to point to successes,” Finley said.

What it is

While it's got some robust science behind how it actually works, the MemPro ceramic material works similarly to the catalytic material in any modern automobile. It filters pollutants through catalysis — essentially accelerating the chemical processes that break down pollutants such as nitrogen oxide (NOx). The thing about catalysis, though, is it relies on expensive metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, so industry has long looked for a way to get the same level of catalysis using less of those spendy metals.

MemPro, Finley says, has the answer. By working on the atomic and molecular level (hence the term “Nano” from nanometer — 1 billionth of a meter), the University of Akron scientists created flexible ceramic fibers that contain the catalytic material (known as “noble metals”). Because fibers by their nature contain more surface area, there's more efficiency in embedding the metals there than in, say, a traditional catalytic converter's honeycomb structure.

For a company that makes catalytic converters to sell to, say, Ford, the benefits are pretty clear: You can make the same catalytic converter with less catalyst — Finley says about 75 percent less. While that particular market is pretty well established, Finley says MemPro is looking at developing opportunities. For example, in 2012, the U.S. will begin mandating pollution control devices on small engines previously unregulated. That means every lawnmower, snowblower, weed whacker and generator — to name a few — will need something akin to a catalytic converter.

Finley said it's about a $300 million market, and MemPro's focus would be selling their material to small engine manufacturers — the Hondas and Briggs & Strattons of the world.

Timeline

Finley said MemPro hopes to make a decision on where to locate before the end of the year. Like most companies, MemPro is looking for the best deal it can get from the town or city in which they may land. Wherever it ends up, Finley said the manufacturing plant is relatively small and doesn't require a lot of people to operate. In the meantime, Finley says he continues his main occupation of raising funds to make it all happen, and said he's still looking for investors. In between all that, he continues to live at Copper Mountain and skiing as much as possible.

“I'm doing what I've always wanted to do: taking neat technology and commercializing it,” he said. “Nanotech is really going to change things.”

For more information on MemPro online, go to. www.mempro.com.