A startup company is hoping to tap into a multimillion-dollar market with its environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Terrenew LLC was created in 2005 to develop low-cost, environmentally friendly products and methods for cleaning up environmental contaminants. The company's five founders came together because of their links to Cornell University, interest in entrepreneurship and concern for the health of the environment. The company is located at the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park in Geneva, also called the Technology Farm.

Terrenew is led by Thomas Bourne, who has more than 20 years of experience in environmental and solid waste recycling operations, business and economic development, and executive management.

Working with Cornell scientists, the firm has introduced two product lines-OilMaster and MetalMaster. Both products were created using the chemical and physical structure of various agricultural waste products, including composts, plant and animal wastes.

Bourne, Terrenew president and CEO, said the company is taking an environmental approach to clean-up methods that have been used for years. OilMaster 7x absorbent-the company touts it as being seven times more effective than clay-based products-is the first of a line of products for removal of oil, gasoline, etc. spills from solid surfaces and from water.

Both OilMaster and MetalMaster, which uses tree bark as a filtration medium and used for removal of heavy metals from groundwater and other solutions, are patented and exclusively licensed to Terrenew. Co-founders within the company, who are Cornell researchers, own the patents.

Terrenew's Bourne said there is growth potential for both product lines. The market for OilMaster, for example, is estimated at $250 million with three primary suppliers controlling 90 percent of the market, he said.

Art Brent, vice president of business development, said the firm is moving in the right direction, noting OilMaster users prefer it to the clay-based product they had been using. The Terrenew product works faster than its clay competitor is biodegradable, non-abrasive and lightweight, he added. In addition, it takes a smaller amount of OilMaster to clean up a spill than the amount of clay that would be needed, Brent said.

Our distributors are finding that their customers are showing a preference for green products, Brent said. "We're hitting our targets and are beginning to achieve some significant traction in the market." The firm is working on additional environmental applications.

In April, Terrenew announced it had signed a $192,000 agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for a project that involves converting landfill gas to energy. The firm is also receiving a cash match from Casella Waste Systems Inc., and help from El-Vi Farms in Phelps, Ontario County. Terrenew will work on removing hydrogen sulfide from the landfill gases, which creates more efficient energy production, company officials said.

Regarding MetalMaster, the firm just began work on its first commercial venture, partnering with Rochester-based Day Environmental Inc. for removal of chromium from groundwater at a local site being remediated under the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Brownfield Cleanup Program. Barton Kline, a project manager at Day, said his firm is always looking for new and better ways of doing things.

Laboratory scale data indicated that Terrenew's innovative process was both technically (sound) and cost effective, and the NYSDEC approved our design plan incorporating Terrenew's groundwater treatment process, Kline said. The work will be the first full-scale use of the Terrenew product in a remedial application, he added. The treatment system is in construction and will be started up and tested in the coming weeks.

The Terrenew process appealed to Day because it utilizes a natural resource in lieu of industrial chemicals, requires less energy to operate and does not generate hazardous waste, Kline said.

"Our client also likes the fact that it will be less costly and easier to operate than conventional equipment," Kline said.

MetalMaster's use of readily available and inexpensive waste tree bark and the lack of hazardous byproducts are thought to contribute to the cost efficiencies.

Future development plans include product expansion, converting the raw materials, such as manure for OilMaster and tree bark for MetalMaster, to Terrenew products on the farm, regional production and national distribution, Bourne said.