About Us

History of MOR Supercritical

MOR's technology is based on the various design breakthroughs developed by our President, Rodger Marentis - one of the world's leading experts in supercritical equipment and process plants. Over the span of his 30-plus year career, Mr. Marentis has been at the forefront of the supercritical field, developing processes and plants for a number of companies and working with many of the commercial CO₂ extraction facilities around the world. In 1993, Mr. Marentis formed Supercritical Solutions, LLC and for the past 15 years, he and his team of researchers and engineers have provided development and consulting services for over 40 domestic and international customers.

Mr. Marentis has developed many practical improvements to SF processes and has recognized, as others have, that the natural evolution of the technology would eventually lead to discoveries to make low-cost commodity extractions a reality. Through a thorough understanding of SF fundamentals, and years of real world experience and applications, Mr. Marentis developed novel designs, and some true breakthroughs aimed specifically at large scale SF applications.

In 2005, the founding members MOR Technology approached Mr. Marentis and Supercritical Solutions about working together on the development of a sustainable, "2nd Generation" production model for the corn-based ethanol industry that would reduce energy use while also producing human food grade products from the same corn used to make ethanol. Read more here about MOR Technology and their corn milling systems for the ethanol industry.

Both MOR and Marentis realized that the key lay in developing an efficient and environmentally-friendly way to extract corn oil. Their initial work demonstrating a new process for corn oil extraction proved a great success, and a partnership was born. MOR Technology continued to work with Supercritical Solutions developing patents, technology, and equipment designs based on Mr. Marentis' concepts - which have now been vetted and proven through rigorous process development and engineering design to create a state-of-the-art, commodity-scale SFE system. In March 2008, MOR Supercritical, LLC was formed to bring to market corn oil extraction and other large capacity applications using supercritical CO₂.

Meet the Team

Rodger Marentis - President
Mr. Marentis has worked in the field of supercritical fluid technology for over 25 years, developing supercritical fluid (SF) technology processes for over 40 multi-national companies in a wide variety of industries including food, flavor and fragrance, microelectronics, metal fabrication, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical, neutraceutical, biotechnology, and environmental. He is recognized as one of the world's leading experts in SFE technology and holds over a dozen patents and patent applications in the field. He has performed product development and commercialization of supercritical equipment for a number of supercritical equipment providers in the industry. Before founding Supercritical Solutions, Mr. Marentis held technical and commercial development positions in supercritical fluid technology with Union Carbide, Air Products & Chemicals, Pitt-Des Moines, and National Forge Company. Mr. Marentis gives regular seminars on SFE technologies, has written chapters for ACS symposium series books on designing commercial-scale SFE equipment, and has given over 50 technical papers at SF symposiums. Mr. Marentis is a founding member of both the International Society for the Advancement of Supercritical Fluids and the Joint Association for the Advancement of Supercritical Technology.

r.marentis@morsupercritical.com

Dr. James Ryan - Director of Business and Technology Development
Over his 40 year career, Dr. Ryan has gained extensive experience in research, technology innovation, product development and business management in the field of supercritical fluids. Previously, he served in various management and research positions in agricultural chemicals, biotechnology, biopesticides and organic crop production. He has held senior management positions with Rohm and Haas Company and FMC Corporation, where he was responsible for discovery research, new product development, global marketing, business development, licensing and acquisitions. Dr. Ryan has established and managed joint ventures and strategic alliances with multinational companies in Europe, Japan, Korea, India, China, Brazil, and the USA.

j.ryan@morsupercritical.com

Dr. James T. Hsu - Advisory Board Chairman and Researcher
Dr. Hsu is a professor of Chemical Engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, and Department Head of the Biopharmaceutical Technology Center at Lehigh University. Dr. Hsu is an expert in separation technologies and its application to biotechnology. He has published over 75 articles and has been awarded two U.S. patents in this area. Before coming to Lehigh University, Dr. Hsu was Program Director of Biochemical and Biomass Engineering at the National Science Foundation. His previous industrial experience includes research and development positions at Gulf Research and Development Company; UOP, Inc. where he lead the development of SORBEX separation technology and food and biochemical purification processes; and G.D. Searle & Company contributing to the process development and biochemical production of aspartame ("Nutrasweet"). Dr. Hsu currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for MOR Supercritical, and is under contract with MOR for development of supercritical transesterification and other bioreactor technologies.

Mr. Brett Baillie - Mechanical Engineer
Mr. Baillie has over 25 years of experience in Process Development and Operations Management. He holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Management Science, both from Lehigh University. Prior to joining MOR Supercritical, Mr. Baillie was employed with AT&T Microelectronics and Lucent Technologies. As part of their Engineering Team, he managed worldwide integrated circuit manufacturing operations, including plants in Europe and Asia. He also holds a number of patents in the field of Integrated Circuit manufacturing.

b.baillie@morsupercritical.com