E³Tec was founded by Dr. C. B. Panchal in 2007 as a spin-off from Argonne National Laboratory. E³Tec provides consulting services to the process industry for mitigation of petroleum fouling, energy efficiency technologies and commercialization of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) with the focus on abatement of global CO₂ emissions. E³Tec has developed patented processes for utilization of CO₂ and synthesis of ester-based plasticizers. The concept of Heat Integrated Reactive Distillation (HIRD) developed at Argonne is applied to conversion of CO₂ to alkyl carbonates, esterification of organic acids and thermally coupled columns for separation of close-boiling mixtures.
E³Tec has been awarded DOE programmatic and SBIR grants for the development of Heat Integrated Reactive Distillation (HIRD) equipped with side reactors and PerVap membrane for synthesis of esterification of organic acids and conversion of CO₂ to alkyl carbonates. Multi-year R&D and demonstration projects provided a strong foundation for deployment of OTEC commercial plants in the Island states for coproduction of power, green ammonia, and seawater desalination.