Inventor helps rescue wool industry
Logan Williams calls himself a serial inventor and entrepreneur, and he has earned that description at the tender age of 25.
Hailing from Timaru originally, Williams has already sold four of his inventions, three to overseas companies, and is embarking on a much bigger mission, to save the strong wool industry in New Zealand with his new invention.
It is a biodegradable material made of a combination of strong wool and corn starch to make all sorts of products as a replacement for plastic. It is called Keravos.
He was named this year in Forbes’ 30 under 30 2020. The wellknown American magazine lists who it considers the most promising businesspeople under 30 in the world. Williams was selected in the industry, manufacturing, and energy section of the award.
He joined leading wool marketer New Zealand Merino Company a year ago to create a product from coarse wool. He invented the method to combine polylactic acid (PLA) from corn starch with coarse wool which New Zealand produces in abundance.
They secured a global provisional patent a couple of months ago and have formed a company called Keravos Limited to make and market the Keravos pellets made of PLA and wool.
Keravos is already producing 4000 kilograms (4 tonnes) of the pellets a day. The company is working with local firms Action Plastics and Maisey Group to make the pellets and turn them into products through a common process called injection moulding. Furniture, pots and crockery have been made. PLA is used around the world as a plastic substitute but combining it with wool is novel.
Williams said the wool made the product lighter in weight, resulting in the manufacture of a greater volume of pellets per kilogram.
The combination of PLA and wool was also cheaper because PLA was between $6 to $10 a kilo, while Keravos was paying $3 a kilo for strong wool, double the market price in order to support farmers.
‘‘So the more wool you put in the cheaper it is.’’
The goal was eventually to pay $5 a kilo of wool which would transform the wool industry. New Zealand produced about 220,000 tonnes of wool a year and 90 per cent was strong wool.
Farmers were making no money from strong wool and in some cases were burying it. ‘‘It’s a pretty terrible state of the industry really.’’
He was motivated by doing good in the farming industry where people ‘‘were working their hands to the bone’’ and getting little for their hard work.
‘‘I thought to myself if I can make a dollar profit per kilogram of wool that’s $220 million profit a year. Potentially it would be one of the most profitable companies in New Zealand.’’
Keravos had serious support.
The company was being funded by New Zealand Merino dollar for dollar with the Ministry for Primary Industries.
At present Keravos had three main customers. One was Aspect Furniture, a leading workplace furniture supplier, manufacturer Maisey Group, and Model Number in San Francisco which made furniture like chairs and tables.
‘‘The aspiration is to be a billion company. But really it has to be market driven. People have to want it.’’
While there had been international interest in the product, Keravos was keeping its focus on New Zealand manufactures and customers at present. But it would have to find offshore customers to sell the pellets in large quantities.
His other four inventions were polarised contact lenses for
people with epilepsy, a method to turn Didymo algae, known here as ‘‘rock snot’’ into material, a medical nebuliser to vaporise liquid medication, and a system to destroy methane using hydroxyl radicals which Fonterra has the patent for.
His inventions have certainly paid off financially. ‘‘I’m not a billionaire though.’’ But he is a millionaire, at 25.
‘‘I don’t really do it for the money. When I sold my first invention I kind of felt a bit empty. I do it because I’m passionate about science and technology and inventing. That’s why I do it. Not necessarily for the money.’’
How has this success affected him and his life?
‘‘I think it’s made me a more humble well-rounded person to be honest. I grew up quite poor and money-hungry, so I think I would say that I follow my passion now, not necessarily the money.’’
‘‘When I sold my first invention I kind of felt a bit empty.’’ Logan Williams