Page 10 - ME Newsletter Spring

innovative faculty innovative faculty WILL NORTHROP | Aza Power Systems
Will Northrop and ME PhD (‘21) Seamus Kane developed a way to take conventional combustion equipment (engines, power plants, boilers, and furnaces) and replace their fossil fuel with clean-burning carbon- free ammonia. Ammonia is comprised of nitrogen and hydrogen atoms and emits
water as a byproduct instead of CO2; it’s very difficult to burn in modern combustion equipment, so Northrop and Kane’s conversions and technologies are essential for advancing clean-burning and efficient combustion machinery.
The team has two foundational patents based on catalyst technologies, and four additional patents on non-catalytic ways to improve ammonia’s combustion characteristics. Northrop and Kane co-founded the company, with Kane serving as CEO and Northrop serving as senior technical advisor. The company has grown in the last year to include a CFO, senior business advisor, and CTO/COO, and they are expanding the team further this year to include both business and engineering talent.
“The potential impact of Aza’s technologies is both broad and deep,” said Kane. “Combustion of fossil energy powers most economic activity worldwide, from marine logistics to keeping the lights on in residential homes. We’re focused on applications that are difficult to battery-electrify, such as power plants, locomotives and agricultural machinery. We posit that perhaps someday, these will all be electrified applications, but for now Aza offers a path to zero carbon emissions today by repowering with green ammonia.”
The company name comes from the prefix
Aza, used in organic chemistry, in which carbon is replaced with nitrogen.
10 ME News Spring 2024
Seamus Kane