112: Commercializing Ocean-Inspired Sustainable Fibers (ft. Dr. Chris Mekeel)

As a new sustainable biopolymer fiber, seaweed boasts a wide development and application space. If this material could be engineered to make personalized products, its combination of light weight and high air permeability could entail promising high-end products while being infinitely reproducible and environmentally friendly.

In today's episode, we welcome Dr. Chris Mekeel, the current VP of R&D at Keel Labs, a company that takes inspiration from the ocean to create biobased fiber products. With him, we discuss:

🔹The differences between lab-scale, pilot-scale, demonstration-scale, and commercial-scale operations.

🔹Advice for how to make the change from school to industry back to graduate school.

🔹How a VP balances the need for innovation with timelines and budgeting.

🔹The challenges in using biobased materials in different environments.

🔹And much more!

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We hope you enjoy the episode! And as always, let us know what topics you’d like us to cover next!

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Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed by either guests or hosts in this show are their own, and do not represent the opinions of the companies or organizations for which they are affiliated.

#Sustainable Fibers #Seaweeds #Ocean-Inspired

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Timestamps:

- Teaser (0:00 – 0:43)

- Intro, Holidays, Episode Highlights (0:43 – 4:48)

- Introducing Dr. Chris Mekeel (4:48 – 5:40)

- From technical to VP-level (5:40 – 7:38)

- Lab, pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale (7:38 – 13:51)

- Balancing innovation & timelines (13:51 – 20:50)

- Manufacturing setting considerations (20:50 – 23:44)

- Deciding to pursue fundamental knowledge or applied (23:44 – 26:38)

- Using biomaterials in new environments (26:38 – 29:21)

- Taking inspiration from past work (29:21 – 32:08)

- Deciding who to partner with (32:08 – 35:23)

- How a technology can spread to other fields (35:23 – 40:31)

- How you can make going back to school work (40:31 – 45:45)

- Conclusion (45:45 – 46:04)

- MSE Academy (46:04 – 47:09)