Even in high school, Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez was interested in arts, crafts – and chemistry. Now co-founder and Chief Implementation Officer at Osmoses, she is revolutionizing clean energy production through a breakthrough membrane technology. In this installment of “The FutureWork Playbook” series spotlighting founders on Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” Katherine discusses her past and looks to the future with host Natalie Pierce. Osmoses has developed molecular filters 100,000 times smaller than human hair to replace century-old, energy-intensive gas separation processes. With pilot programs launching in Canada and partnerships with global petrochemical companies, Osmoses could reduce the 15% of global energy consumption currently devoted to industrial gas separations. “We’ve always seen that value and potential for the market, which is something that drives us,” Katherine says.

Episode Highlights

A native of Venezuela who immigrated to the United States at age 12, Katherine participated in – and founded – initiatives that support underrepresented minorities in science.
At MIT, Katherine studied Material Science and Engineering, which allowed her to merge her interest in arts and crafts with her love of science and chemistry.
Osmoses was born through the National Science Foundation’s iCorps program, where Katherine and her co-founders conducted over 100 customer interviews to validate market need for their membrane technology.
Industrial gas separations consume 15% of the world's energy, creating an opportunity for Osmoses' molecular filters to reduce energy consumption in applications from medical oxygen generation to renewable natural gas production.
The company has secured non-recurring engineering revenue from a global petrochemical company and has two pilot programs launching in Canada at landfill and anaerobic digester sites.
Katherine emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration and mentorship in cleantech, explaining that diverse expertise is needed “so that a common problem can be solved because the complexity of these challenges is just so large.”

💡 Meet Your Host 💡

Name: Natalie Pierce

Organization: Gunderson Dettmer

Connect: LinkedIn

💡 Featured Guest 💡

Name: Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez

Organization: Osmoses

Connect: LinkedIn

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