Energy Experts

Alex Fassbender is an innovator and inventor in the fields of energy and water with four R&D 100 awards and 14 patents. His seminal contributions to the field of carbon capture and zero-emission clean-coal technology have earned him appointments to the National Coal Council by Energy Secretaries Bodman and Chu.

In addition to pressurized oxy-fuel and CARMON processes, he led the technical development and commercialization of a cost-effective method to recover ammonia from wastewater treatment plants. He serves as Chief Technology Officer of the Earth Council Alliance where is applies his experience in product stewardship, sustainability and the energy-water nexus to pressing issues of our time. Mr. Fassbender advanced Product Stewardship at Lockheed-Martin Corporation where he evaluated the use of hazardous, scarce, rare earth and nano materials across product lines and developed strategic plans to reduce/eliminate business, technical and environmental risks. He led projects to evaluate the technical feasibility of advanced material and chemical processing methodologies to achieve corporate sustainability goals and improve design, performance, life cycle costs, manufacturability, and reduce or eliminate environmental waste/hazards. His team implemented a successful program to use reusable fixtures in place of disposable packaging for aircraft components resulting in a 50% savings, reduced handling time, and a 100% reduction in packaging waste.

He joined ThermoEnergy Corporation as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President in 1999 and provided strategic planning and project management for technology programs. He was the lead evaluator for all corporate R&D projects and made funding down-select decisions. He created innovations and led R&D program portfolio providing technical management oversight and performance tracking. As a corporate officer his duties also included risk identification/mitigation, milestone criteria achievement, and return on investment assessments. He assembled a team of international R&D team partners comprised of the ThermoEnergy, University of Nevada, Reno, CANMET, Reaction Systems Engineering and Babcock Power. In 2006, he participated in a trade mission to China led by Commerce Secretary Gutierrez. In 2008, he participated in a professional mission to China organized in concert with the past president of the Water Environment Federation.

At the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory he served as an early change agent implementing the technology transfer mandate of the Bayh Dole Act. His assigned portfolio included advanced research programs focused on both government and industry funded clean energy and environmental research projects. His team solicited research proposals across all PNNL technical portfolios, developed evaluation criteria, participated in proposal evaluation; established research funding priorities based on commercialization potential of selected projects, and managed an Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio from basic research through prototype stages.

He received awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer from the United States Federal Laboratory Consortium in 1988 and 1995. He is a Registered Professional Engineer and earned his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1988 and his MBA in 1980. His MBA thesis was based on the experience of Battelle Development Corporation and titled ‘Valuation of Technological Innovation.