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Why Don Kiely Launched Rivertop Renewables in Missoula, Montana

When I started the business in February 2008, I found angel investors, most of them either locals or from outside Missoula, but still in Montana. Missoula is a very livable city, and there is a growing group of networking entrepreneurs here. Most of them have come for the quality of life, but also because in a place like Missoula, where wages have historically been low, folks tend to be entrepreneurial. It definitely attracts people who enjoy the challenge of starting a business.

Rivertop Renewables http://www.rivertop.com/ grew out of research done in my lab in the department of chemistry at the University of Montana in Missoula. I retired last year, but was a professor of chemistry and director of the Shafizadeh Rocky Mountain Center for Wood and Carbohydrate Chemistry.

We developed a method to take the most abundant sugars on earth, plant sugars, and convert them into biodegradable chemicals like glucarate, which are components in a wide variety of products. Glucarate is a chemical building block, but it’s renewable so it doesn’t leave a toxic residue.

Most chemicals used in products today are petroleum-based or made from minerals like phosphates, which don’t biodegrade, contaminating the environment. Glucarate can be used to replace them.

Don Kiely

Full Story: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0910/gallery.best_places_why_i_launched_here.smb/35.html

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Rivertop Renewables http://www.rivertop.com/

Applying proven science to renewable resources, Rivertop Renewables is creating an abundant and economical supply of green chemicals and bioproducts. Rivertop products are biodegradable and built from renewable plant sugars.

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Billings, Montana (#1 among small metro areas) and Missoula, Montana Included in CNNMoney.com Best Places to Launch Small Business Startups http://matr.net/article-36310.html

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