Not Blowing Smoke

Todd Hansen (left) and Scott Reynvaan, co-founders of InTheWorks Inc., are marketing a catalytic converter for boats.

InTheWorks Inc., a Bainbridge Island-based clean tech
startup, has developed a catalytic converter for boat motors that promises to
reduce emissions, increase power and provide better fuel efficiency.

InTheWorks was started by Todd Hansen while he was studying
chemistry at the University of Washington. An avid water-skier, Hansen was
surprised to hear that boat manufacturers were having a hard time meeting new
clean air restrictions for powerboats. He saw the complaint as a challenge.

Hansens solution is the AquaCat, a catalytic converter that
provides a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in fuel efficiency over stock
components while reducing emissions and noise. Larger engine makers have
produced their own converters, but the market is open for a third-party
supplier, especially to smaller manufacturers, says Scott Reynvaan, a friend of
Hansens family who is now InTheWorks chief executive.

The AquaCats design allows it be mounted in the tight
compartment of an inboard boat motor while still maintaining an optimum
temperature and converting exhaust gases more completely, yielding a reduction
in pollution and fuel consumption as well as stronger engine performance.

The marine version of AquaCat is a finished product, but the
company needs to find a manufacturing partner to mass-produce it. The cost of
adding the AquaCat to an engine is about the same as upgrading a muffler
system, between $1,700 and $2,800, depending on the boat model. InTheWorks has
raised about $720,000 in investment capital so far and hopes to bring the
AquaCat to market by the end of 2010.

Sean Flynn, InTheWorks chief legal officer, says that
because of similarities in engine design, the business may soon have a version
of AquaCat for land vehicles, especially those with supercharged or diesel
engines. We could see a version of the AquaCat on cars in less than two
years, Flynn says.

The emphasis on expanding the technology to
other vehicles is part of an effort to tap in to a potential $2 billion-a-year
market for the AquaCat, based on the number of combustion engines sold in the
United States to various vehicle manufacturers. Eventually the system will be
standard; its a matter of us making inroads now, Flynn says.