Refining raw material into metals is both the core of many industries, and also a very tricky process to balance in an age where carbon neutrality is increasingly the goal. What are new ways that can affect this process to better both the environmental impacts and also align with the profit and growth goals of the companies doing the work themselves? 

Haotian Wang is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice.

Bryan Guido Hassin is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Dexmat, a Rice spinout. 

David, Haotian, and Bryan discuss how Rice research is propelling commercial and business innovation, particularly in mitigating carbon emissions. Exploring their educational backgrounds and career trajectories, David asks Brian and Haotian about their groundbreaking work in sustainable energy solutions and carbon-negative materials. They elaborate on their entrepreneurial journeys, the challenges they face in commercializing research, and the unique advantages Rice University and Houston offer for energy and sustainability research. The conversation concludes with a discussion on aligning profit and impact in climate tech ventures.

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Episode Guide:

• 00:00 Introduction and Guest Overview
• 02:24 Bryan Guido Hassin's Background
• 04:46 Dr. Haotian Wang's Background
• 07:08 Innovations in Carbon Negative Materials
• 10:05 Decarbonizing Chemical Manufacturing
• 13:17 Commercializing Research and Building Startups
• 15:16 Applying Research in Real Life
• 20:54 Strategic Advantages of Rice and Houston
• 26:38 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

Beyond The Hedges is a production of Rice University and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On Rice's strategic advantage in energy and sustainability

21:22: [Haotian Wang] Rice has a very strategic advantage in incubating energy and sustainability ideas and making them into a very sizable footprint. That's not only because of the energy capital of the world, Houston. We have direct dialogues with a lot of these gas and oil industries that are also pushing forward for their sustainable goals. [22:09] So, I think that's a very unique part of Rice University, sitting in the center of Houston, that can benefit from the collaboration dialogue with the industry.

Rice and Houston’s edge in energy and innovation

22:23: [Bryan Guido Hassin] Something that Houston has that other innovation ecosystems don't is getting all of the world's largest energy companies within a stone's throw away. So, Rice has this incredible privilege and opportunity of being the premier research institution sitting right there at the epicenter, and these are the types of technologies that are going to solve energy, industry, aerospace, and medicine.

Aligning profit and impact in clean technology

24:00: [Bryan Guido Hassin] In a capitalistic world, the only pathway to scale is when your impact metric aligns with the profit metric, not when it's in opposition to it or takes away from it. And we really should be focusing on business models that align profit, revenue growth, with the kind of impact that we're looking for. And we're seeing more and more of them all the time, which is pretty helpful.

Show Links:

• Rice Engineering and Computing | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Rice Alumni
• Association of Rice Alumni | Facebook
• Rice Alumni (@ricealumni) | X (Twitter)
• Association of Rice Alumni (@ricealumni) | Instagram 

Host Profiles:

• David Mansouri | LinkedIn
• David Mansouri ’07 | Alumni | Rice University
• David Mansouri (@davemansouri) | X
• David Mansouri | TNScore

Guest Profiles:

• Haotian Wang | Rice Profile
• Haotian Wang | Google Scholar Page
• Haotian Wang | LinkedIn Profile
• Haotian Wang | X Profile
• Bryan Guido Hassin | Rice Profile
• Bryan Guido Hassin | LinkedIn Profile
• Bryan Guido Hassin | X Profile
• Dexmat.com