Holyoke company gets $1.2M, plans 50 new jobs; many other grant awardees statewide

HOLYOKE — Clean Crop Technologies received $1.2 million in state money Thursday to accelerate work on its technology using electricity to remove contaminants from crops.

The grant was part of more than $10 million announced through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, a program through MassTech Collaborative’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

Clean Crop expects to add 50 new jobs because of this grant investment, according to a statement from MassTech.

The company said it will work with Springfield Technical Community College and Holyoke Community College to get more students excited about careers in electrochemical manufacturing.

Clean Crop’s technology works with two electrodes, creating a high-voltage field that appears to the eye as a purplish light.

The company’s technology pushes air through the electrical field, creating ionized air, a reactive gas.

When the gas is passed through the food, it breaks down molds and other pathogens.

More grant winners

Other state awardees include:

• AM Batteries, of Billerica, $2,272,500, to build a pilot-scale production line of its novel solvent-free, dry electrode manufacturing technology that replaces the use of toxic solvents.

• Biometry, of Boston, $626,000, to build a manufacturing line for the production of its single-use, disposable gas sensor that measures airway inflammation in asthma patients to detect asthma attacks days in advance.

• CapyBara Energy, of Groveland, to build an advanced manufacturing facility for the automated production of its aqueous supercapacitors, which use waste carbon materials to create efficient, safer, affordable and sustainable energy storage systems.

• Circe Bioscience, of Waltham, $1,500,000, to build out its pilot-scale bioindustrial manufacturing facility for its carbon-negative fermentation process for producing triglycerides and other compounds.

• Irradiant, of Cambridge, $750,000, to build its first nanofabrication manufacturing facility to scale production of next-generation photonic devices using its novel nanofabrication method to precisely fabricate patterns of many types of materials in any geometry.

• Mantel Capture, of Cambridge, $450,000, to prototype an electric-powered molten borate carbon capture system that can sustain high temperatures while remaining a liquid.

• Multiscale Systems, of Worcester, $1,111,690, to build out a new manufacturing facility to accelerate production of its novel Alloy Composite Materials, known for its lightweight and strong properties, using Multiscale’s wire-fed hybrid manufacturing technology.

• SolaBlock, of Pittsfield, $204,835, to construct automated and modularized systems to build its Solar Masonry Units, which embed solar photovoltaics directly into a standard cement block.

• UMass Amherst, of Amherst, $265,000, to advance a cold-spray manufacturing technology that can support cost-effective repairs corroded steel bridges.

• UMass Lowell, of Lowell, $171,751, to advance manufacturing techniques for sustainable production and recycling of multilayer plastic films.

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute, of Worcester, $331,592, to develop a versatile and scalable process for converting mixed plastic waste streams and films into valuable aromatic chemicals.

• Z-Polymers, of Lowell, $226,039, to scale-up production of products using its proprietary liquid crystal polymer Tullomer, which is stronger than steel yet lighter, recyclable, highly inert, nonflammable and nonpermeable.