Arduro Sustainable Rubber Inc. is a clean technology advanced manufacturing company that converts waste tire back into their primary components (rubber, carbon black or “CB” and steel). The company has developed a patented process that provides high quality raw materials (rubber and carbon black) at competitive prices to go back into Original Equipment Manufacturing products, while providing an environmentally sustainable disposal method of ELTs.

Eight years in the making

The initial research for the project goes back eight years when Dr. Gerold Willing, professor and chair of the Chemical Engineering Department at Speed School, was working with Civil Engineering professor Thomas Rockaway and the Center for Infrastructure Research as well as the Rapid Prototyping Center. With an American Water Works Association grant, they were studying the aging of elastomeric materials and the water utility industry.

Due to new EPA rules, utilities had begun switching from using chlorine to clean water to using chloramines. But with the introduction of the new chemicals, they began to notice rubber components were degrading much faster than they should be.

“They were supposed to be lasting 20 years, but were only lasting two years,” said Willing.

The rapid degradation mechanisms inspired Willing to wonder if there was any way to purposefully use this to degrade rubber, and the idea for the research germinated in 2012. That term, graduate student Patrick Kroeger wrote his Master’s thesis on the project. “Could this be a feasible method of recycling tires? and the answer was yes,” said Kroeger, who decided to continue to pursue this project through his PhD at Speed School.

“We replicated our results from my original Master’s thesis and we filed for our provisional patent in fall of 2014, and then filed for the full patent and received it in 2016,” he said.

The sometimes difficult next step in taking the research to commercialization was finding funding. “At that point, we managed to cobble together some funding with a little bit from the state and a little bit from the university to continue developing it,” said Willing.

Patented new technology attracts investor

Willing explained that when you’re seeking funding, it comes to develop a proof of concept and to prepare for commercialization.

“But there is a space between where it’s a funding gap,” he said. As luck would have it, UofL’s technology transfer office put the project work on the website and immediately attracted the attention of business executive and investor Ian Lowe, who is now the CEO of Arduro.

“With his connections and influence, he took us the next step to the commercialization route,” said Willing.

Kroeger designed the system and after two years at the company, is currently the vice president of Technology for Arduro. “There was no technology that was really effective at creating a vulcanized rubber product where you can basically take the tire from a rigid, non-malleable state and chemically modify it so that it can go back and be remolded and then re-vulcanized and put back into, for example, another tire,” said Kroeger. “There’s no other technology out there that does that right now, so Ian Lowe and I began discussing my background, and he needed someone to lead the technical side of it.”

From the lab to the workplace

Kroeger was not the only chemical engineering major from Speed School to find the idea of building something from the ground up appealing. Cora Grief, Heather Evans and Michael LaRoche, among others, worked as co-ops and undergraduate assistants.

“They’ve been a critical part of the development as we progressed through ideas and concepts and manufacturing techniques that didn’t work, and then eventually adjusted those into actually working,” said Kroeger. “They’ve been there every step of the way.”

Grief was the first co-op at Arduro. “When I entered the chemical engineering major, I became really interested in more green-type of endeavors, helping to fix some of the damage we have done to harm the Earth,” said Grief. “When I saw Arduro, it’s a very hands-on workspace. You can just try things out, and your ideas can be implemented really quickly,” she said.

Kroeger said Evans began as an intern and while she finished classes at Speed, in between she was working to bring the pilot plant up and operating, building the beginning of the infrastructure that would turn into what it is today.

“I was attracted to the sustainability aspect of Arduro,” said Evans. “A lot of companies in the chemical industry really just aren’t doing the best thing for the environment. I really liked the environment of the start-up. We’re all here because we have the motivation and ambition to do something meaningful.”

LaRoche completed all three co-op rotations at Arduro, and upon graduation in Spring 2022, will be working for the company as well.

“Freshmen year, not too long after I started working at Arduro, I just kind of immediately fell in love with the pilot plant setting,” said LaRoche. “I felt like my ideas were respected, and I feel like I learned a lot of information very quickly about chemical engineering in general, and the transition from a lab state to an actual plan.”

Two graduates tapped to lead development in Canada

The success of Arduro as a company over the last two years has led to the company expanding its footprint into Canada. “roeger said Grief and Evans were hired with the primary goal and focus on the development of the Nova Scotia plan.����

The two engineers are excited for the challenge.

“We’re still in the very early stages,” said Evans. “We are looking at different sites for where the plant is going to go up, figuring out what contractors we need to get those sites ready. The scope of the project is how do we take what we’ve done that’s out here in the pilot plan and scale that up and put that in Canada?”

The project is a two-phased approach, with a tire shredding plant built before the reaction system. Kroeger expects the plant to produce around 2.5 tons of rubber and 1.5 tons of carbon black every day. The Nova Scotia plant is expected to be operational by mid-2023.

Willing said the environmental impact is huge. “When people talk about a fundamental shift in how we do things, this is that shift,” he said. “Up until this point, there’s been no way to close that rubber loop effectively, and you end up either burning it or it goes in a landfill. But now that’s not the end of the road.”

“It will begin to address at a massive environmental problem,” added Kroeger. “A lot of people are excited about the fact that we can reuse material. We’ve talked to some pretty big tire companies and rubber manufacturers, and they want to be part of the solution.”

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Eighteen-year-old incoming freshmen Ryan Shackleford and Katherine Grace Whitaker live close to the Daniel Boone National Forest, some 150 miles away from the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus. Both will begin studies at UofL this fall, academic journeys inspired by a new type of high school summer camp at the .

Ryan, a graduate of Corbin High School, and Katherine, who graduated from Whitley County High School, live in a high poverty area the federal government has declared a “Promise Zone.” The program is aimed at improving the overall quality of life and, in Kentucky, the targeted area covers 3,071 square miles in Bell, Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Leslie, Clay and Knox counties and part of Whitley County. There are a total of 22 Promise Zone communities nationwide in a mix that includes urban, rural and tribal areas.

This summer marked the third year of the camp, which is designed to broaden interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

focused on renewable energy with lessons and labs from researchers at the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at Speed. This year, from July 9-13, a group of 23 Promise Zone students learned about 3D printing by designing and manufacturing small products at Speed’s Rapid Prototyping Center. They presented their products in a “Shark Tank”-like competition held on the final day of camp.

“It blew my mind what a 3D printer can do,” said Taylor Hall, 16, a Letcher County Central High School junior, whose team worked on a laser surgical cutting device that would replace the scalpel. “We had the best time ever. … I would love to come here.”��

Taylor and his teammate, 15-year-old Logan Thornton of Somerset High School, said they also enjoyed the extracurricular visits to Shakespeare in the Park and Louisville Mega Cavern, along with living in a college dormitory for a week.��

Ryan and Katherine were among the first group of Kentucky Promise Zone students who attended, also making visits to Louisville attractions while learning what UofL could offer them.

“Before attending the camp, I had not really put too much thought into where I would attend college, but the University of Louisville certainly wasn’t at the top of my list,” said Katherine, who was awarded a Grawemeyer Scholarship and a Vogt Scholarship and is considering majoring in psychology, biology or neuroscience. “I didn’t realize all the resources that were available at UofL, as there are very few people from my hometown who choose to attend there. After the camp, I became aware how much really was happening in Louisville, both at the university and in the surrounding city.”

Ryan, who secured a spot in the Guaranteed Entrance to Medical School (GEMS) program, plans to major in chemical engineering. He is also in the Honors Program and won a Grawemeyer Scholarship. He said the camp gave him his first real experience “working with physics,” and his favorite subjects were solar power and ion lithium batteries, as well as learning how an electron microscope works.

“For the most part, the camp gave me a more in-depth look and hands-on experience with subjects I only knew a little about,” Ryan said. “I had never been on the campus before until this camp. This camp opened up UofL as an option for me. I was surprised by how much I liked both the campus and the city of Louisville. UofL was not intimidating, but friendly and welcoming.”

Both Ryan and Katherine expressed their gratitude to the camp organizers.

“There are many students in this part of the state that are very intelligent and have a lot of potential, but do not get the opportunities that students from larger areas may receive,” Ryan said. “This camp gave students the opportunity to visit a large university outside of our local area.”

Katherine agreed.

“I think this camp is helping to provide unique and meaningful experiences for students in southeastern Kentucky that they otherwise may not be able to have,” she said.��

Through collaboration with colleagues around campus, that research resulted in a modeling software for manufacturers to help them optimize and improve efficiency.

It also resulted in 3DSIM, a startup he and his UofL co-inventors founded to commercialize the technology. That company was just acquired by engineering simulation company, ANSYS Inc.

“For me, it’s great to have had the opportunity to continue what I’ve been doing in academia and help industry leverage additive manufacturing technology,” said Stucker, now with ANSYS as director of additive manufacturing. “It wouldn’t have been possible without the University of Louisville.”

While building the software and getting it to market, Stucker and his co-inventors, Drs. Deepankar Pal and Nachiket Patil, worked with many service centers and offices at UofL, including within the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation (EVPRI). The Office of Technology Transfer, for example, helped protect the intellectual property.

“It was some leading-edge technology in an upcoming field,” said Matthew Hawthorne, the technology’s licensing officer and UofL’s Director of Industry Engagement. “These were ideal inventors with an ideal product.”

Working together, they set up an agreement to license the invention to 3DSIM, with Dr. Stucker at the helm as CEO. The company continued to work with their UofL colleagues to develop the software products and test them at the UofL Rapid Prototyping Center, which works with researchers and industry on additive manufacturing projects.

“We use their (3DSIM’s) software, and they leverage our years of experience in additive manufacturing,” said Tim Gornet, the center’s manager of operations. “We always prefer partnerships and collaborations. Our familiarity with them made it easy.”

After years of development, Pittsburg-based ANSYS Inc. discovered 3DSIM and bought it in late 2017. Since the acquisition, the former 3DSIM team has been integrated with ANSYS development, which has recently released the tools as part of its simulation software suite. And today, ANSYS is continuing its partnership with UofL and is discussing new collaborations.

Dr. Robert Keynton, interim EVPRI, said 3DSIM’s development — drawing on many resources and experts around campus — is an example of the collaborative, entrepreneurial spirit at UofL.

“In research and innovation, we accomplish a lot more when we work together,” he said. “And in this case, it’s especially rewarding to see that these inventors have had so much success, and that their collaboration with UofL continues.”