Pajarito Powder LLC, an Albuquerque start-up and Verge Fund portfolio company commercializing technology developed at the University of New Mexico and LANL, is the lead awardee of a $1 million contract to advance development of its platinum-free catalysts for fuel cells. The company manufactures platinum-free and reduced-platinum catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells, and is the industry-leading PGM-free catalyst on the market today. The UNM catalyst technology was developed by Distinguished Professor and NAI Fellow Plamen Atanassov and former UNM Research Associate Professor Alexey Serov who is now the company’s chief scientist and PI on the funded project. The technology won a top 10 innovation award at the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum in Tokyo, Japan in 2014 and the company received funding from UNM’s Co-Investment Fund in 2014. To read more see Collin Krabbe’s August 17 article, “NM energy company lands lead role on $1M DOE project,” from Albuquerque Business First, at https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2018/08/16/nm-energy-company-lands-lead-role-on-1m-doe.html.
