Ligar Polymers builds tiny Death Stars

Ligar Polymers, a spin-out of the Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), has perfected technology that can identify environmentally harmful microscopic particles.

The company’s molecularly imprinted polymers are able to extract advantageous molecules from a substance and to filter out harmful ones. The process can be used for scenarios as diverse as filtering out smoke from wine after Australian bushfires to extracting rare earth minerals. Extracting rare earth minerals especially is currently a highly expensive and environmentally harmful endeavour but necessary as the materials are needed to build smartphones.

The technology itself is not new, but Ligar has figured out how to produce the custom-designed polymers in industrial quantities – from milligrams in test tubes to several kilograms – and with faster turn-around times – from several years to a few weeks. 

Uniquely, the company also used a third party commercialisation company. As Wintec is yet to set up its own technology transfer office, it worked with Waikato University’s WaikatoLink to spin out the company.

Ligar is now looking towards a funding round of $1.5m from Kiwi investors to begin industrial trials and enter the market in 2015. Once the round closes, Nigel Slaughter, currently chief executive at Ligar and general manager at WaikatoLink, will leave his position at the university’s commercialisation arm.

Nigel Slaughter described the polymers as looking “a little like the Death Star in Star Wars.” He added: “The US has a strategic metals programme around this because it is fundamental to industry around smart tech. We know they are very keen on our technology and we had a discussion with them about what they would like to see to prove we can scale this up, and they have suggested they could invest indirectly in this. But we would rather this be a New Zealand-driven thing rather than having complications with the IP being developed in the US.”