Dresden-based Namos GmbH, a portfolio company of Nanostart AG, the world's leading nanotechnology investment company, as reached the final round of the IQ Innovation Awards for Central Germany with its project "Saving of precious metals in catalytic converters using a biological template." Namos now remains as one of two finalists within the Automotive category, one of six different award categories in this year's IQ Innovation Awards. A winner will be announced for each award category along with an overall winner. 132 companies from throughout central Germany were nominated for this year's competition, which is sponsored by the Industrial Initiative for Central Germany, a private initiative set up to promote and strengthen regional competitiveness within the German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Out of these 132 nominees, a total of 12 finalists were selected.
The proprietary process from Namos is based on a bionanotechnological coating which is applied to the ceramic substrate used in catalytic converters, enabling very substantial savings in the amount of precious metal required to produce them. Approx. 230 metric tons of "new" (i.e. non-recycled) precious metal are currently consumed each year to produce automotive catalytic converters, corresponding to an annual value of USD 6-8 billion. Roughly half of this amount could be saved through the new technology from Namos.
A judging panel of 20 leading figures from business, academia and government throughout the three German states will select the category winners and overall winner at the end of May. The five other categories are Biology/Life Sciences, Chemistry/Polymers, Food Technology, Information Technology and Energy/Environment. The winners of the IQ Innovation Awards for Central Germany 2009 will be announced at the IQ awards ceremony, which will be held in the city of Halle/Saale on June 10.