sustainable materials made from plants & Trees
Backed by NSF ('23), OEDIT ('23), Techstars ('22), Plug and Play ('21)
sustainable materials made from plants & Trees
Backed by NSF ('23), OEDIT ('23), Techstars ('22), Plug and Play ('21)
Sustainability in a highly regulated industry
Reducing Dependence on Petroleum
Silvis is creating bio-based binders that replace petroleum materials in coatings, adhesives, and paints, for the $32B polymer emulsion industry. These binders will create sustainability in many industries, including packaging and building products. Just about every piece of plastic begins as a fossil fuel, with greenhouse gases emitted at every step of the way. Silvis is creating a plug and play, low cost, sustainable and biodegradable emulsion platform which can be used in multiple industrial applications.
Petroleum, the primary component in plastics, emits GHGs, and often employ toxic chemicals for their production, also emitting VOCs. The extensive use of plastics in almost everything we touch ends up in our landfills and oceans. Silvis plans to change our ecosystem, by offering F500 companies a way to create sustainable, biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable alternatives.
About Us
Silvis Traction
Silvis is currently patenting its proprietary technology and expects the availability of material for test by the end of the year. Silvis is currently in the Suzano Ventures Accelerator, powered by Cycle Momentum. Suzano is the world's largest supplier of eucalyptus pulp. Silvis was recently awarded an NSF Phase I SBIR as well as an Advanced Industries Grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). Silvis also won a partial award from LaunchTN to assist in product development and commercialization. In 2022, Silvis completed Techstars, Industries of the Future, in Knoxville, TN. Relationships with both ORNL and UTK have been formed. Prior to Techstars, Silvis completed Plug-and-Play (2021), an accelerator that kickstarted customer relationships, with over 30 Fortune 500 companies now established. Silvis also won the CU Boulder Lab Venture Challenge ($125,000), working with Professor Goodwin's Lab to advance the technology. Today, Silvis is also an MIT Pact for Impact Company. Silvis is working diligently to meet today's needs to formulate emulsions that ensure a cleaner, greener planet.
Meet the silvis team
Patty Ferreira, CEO, Founder
Patty is a patented plastics engineer, patenting a breakthrough, recyclable plastic for automotive packaging. She is also a long-time entrepreneur with experience that spans several industries. Silvis is her passion, developing solutions for reducing GHGs and slowing climate change. Patty holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from MIT's Sloan School of Business, an MS Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, a BS Chemical Engineering, Florida State University, and her BS Chemistry, SUNY Fredonia.
Scott Pearce, COO, Co-Founder
Scott is an experienced operational executive in the areas of renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. Scott transformed a renewable energy advisory firm into one of the leading, large-scale producers of biofuel as co-founder and CEO BioFuel Energy Corp (Nasdaq: BIOF). This firm started with no revenue and grew to over $700 million. Scott’s expertise extends beyond leadership in both corporate and startups, to include raising capital, M&A, a public company IPO, and multiple exits. Scott holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from MIT's Sloan School of Business, and a BS Mechanical Engineering, Auburn University.
Dr. Dhrubo Laskar, CTO
Dr. Laskar, CTO, recently joined Silvis to lead technology strategy and development. Dr. Laskar is an acknowledged leader in the research of cellulose, lignin, biochemistry and biopolymer development. Dr. Laskar has published over 40 research papers on topics ranging from chemical synthesis to biomass processing/conversion. Prior to Silvis, Dr. Laskar was a CTO at Pure Vision Technologies. He did his post-doctoral work at Washington State University in Biological Chemistry, and holds a PhD Chemistry from Dibrugarh University in India.
Dr. Chi-Linh Do-Thanh, Director of R&D
Dr. Chi-Linh Do-Thanh, Director of R&D, joins Silvis as an expert synthetic organic chemist, bringing in skills in the design, synthesis, purification, and characterization of organic compounds and ionic liquids. Dr. Do-Thanh has been a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), in the group of Dr. Sheng Dai who is a world-renowned expert in materials chemistry and ionic liquids research. Dr. Do-Thanh holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from UTK, and a BS in Chemistry, University of Virginia.
founder story
Founder Story
- Patty Ferreira–Plastics Engineer and MIT MBA, Patty started her career as a new product development engineer for the plastics industry. She created multiple products, from plastic packaging to marine buoys, and even computer housings. As both an entrepreneur and plastic engineer, Patty decided to combine both passions by creating environmentally friendly materials that can upend the plastic industry, a much more challenging endeavor that will be a game changer today.
- Scott Pearce-Biofuels Engineer and MIT MBA, Scott was always interested in economic policy and the key elements that comprise a civil society. His studies and intuition led to an early appreciation that dependence on foreign oil was not wise. This said, it was not until he led an attack helicopter unit during the 91’ Gulf War that he experienced a first hand appreciation for the cost, complication and environmental risks foreign oil represented. This gave Scott conviction to work on alternative sources of non-fossil based energy. Scott has extensive experience in sustainability and environmentally sound solutions.
Silvis Materials is a Techstars Industries of the Future company
Techstars Industries of the Future in Knoxville, Tennessee, selected Silvis to join their program from over 3,000 applicants. Oak Ridge National Labs and the University of Tennessee is part of this program. Both institutions have deep experience in cellulose, scaling and more.