We met up with Adam Podgorski, Founder and CEO of GREEN14, a pioneering producer of high-purity silicon utilizing hydrogen plasma technology, and who will be pitching at Sweden Sustaintech Venture Day.
Adam is a Chemical Engineer from Australia specialized in silicon, and the idea came out from a general frustration over the value chain where an extreme dependance on China results in large emissions from coal and fossil fuel electricity. He had an exchange at KTH from UNSW in Sydney before moving to London, he met his wife in Sweden, and a couple of years later, over a discussion with a mutual friend, he was teamed up with Jan Dinkelspiel.
GREEN14 is reinventing the extraction process by using green hydrogen to separate silicon and oxygen from quartz – instead of using coal.
Avoiding coal results in replacing carbon dioxide with water as a byproduct. To be able to shape this process in the best way, the team set out to interview industry experts and conduct technology feasibility studies, and they have also created, as a result of these interviews, a Scientific Advisory Board.
”Many of the best silicon expertise used to be found in Norway, before its move to China and now there are still high level experts in the field to be found in the Nordic region as well as in Germany. It seems fair that the industry moves back here with sustainable and transparent production.” says Adam.
They now have their first pilot line in place, and the development has been fast. He and the team were also very thrilled to make victory in the Nordic Cleantech Open 2024.
”I have been working on green silicon for as long as I have had a career in the Silicon industry. The main goal is to decarbonize silicon while making a technology platform that is investable for factories than make financial sense and can compete in the global market,
His role today is more of a supervising role as CEO and this may at times be somewhat challenging for a true engineer, but he feels it is also very rewarding to work on the big picture.
”I am still working with the engineering parts of the business, although less and less, and this comes natural with the development of our startup” says Adam and describes it as ”bittersweet” to handle financing and leadership as well as engineering development.
When I ask him about his thoughts on leadership, he emphasizes how engineering focused they are, and always seek to find the best engineers in the field. They strive to make every process as efficient as possible, especially now when moving into the scale-up phase of factories.
Challenges ahead? ”We have fundraising, and work with our clients to focus on. The applications of green silicon in the solar, battery and semiconductor markets are significant for supply of critical raw materials for Europe. GREEN14 has developed and owns a unique method, so there is a lot to much to learn in terms of sustainable production of strategic raw materials like silicon, both for the earth and for GREEN14 business”.
Adam Podgorski, CEO of GREEN14
Age: 29
Education: First from Imperial MRes Chemistry (Nanomaterials), First from UNSW Australia Beng Hons (Photovoltaic Engineering)
Future Vision: Sustainable European production of strategic raw materials.
Best book to read: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Sustainable leisure tip: Be out in nature, ideally with a dog.
One sentence on Green Leadership: Transparency
