The world needs energy storage — a lot of it
By importing rare earth metals from dangerous supply chains that generate more pollution and rebellion than energy — the dirty compromise of batteries.
Tensilastic offers clean, domestically sourced pumped hydro that's portable, affordable and scalable — the clean, unlimited solution of renewable fibers.
Tensilastic replaces the gravitational potential energy of 2-way dam pumped hydro with the elastic potential energy of using fluid to stretch fiber rope cables and squeeze fiber rope spheres in convenient, interchangeable modules.
Our Technology
Tensilastic applies breakthrough materials to proven hydraulic engineering and modified off-the-shelf equipment. Highly tensile and highly elastic super fibers, like spider silk and bagworm silk, can be stretched again and again yet regain their original shape — natural fibers and seed oil fluids can be reliably produced, safely used and responsibly disposed anywhere in the world. Why settle for battery fires, strip mining, toxic chemicals and limited faraway suppliers?
Tensilastic can efficiently store energy at almost any scale by varying the number of the fibers in the ropes and tightness of the ropes — the more pressure the fiber can handle (tensile strength) and the more the ropes can be stretched (elasticity) the more energy you can store in the same volume of fluid. Of course, you also can vary the volume of fluid. Gravitational pumped hydro of a 2-way dam needs a lot of height and fluid to be efficient and even more height and fluid for more scale — it’s clean but it’s also stationary, expensive and vulnerable in floods and droughts.
Both gravitational pumped hydro and elastic pumped hydro apply the proven principles of hydraulics for clean, renewable energy storage. Suspension bridges and bungee cords have used fiber rope tension for thousands of years. Baseballs and golf balls used spun fiber compression for spring action for years. So, whether wrapping fiber rope around expanding bladders, hoses or pipes; stretching ropes with a piston; or squeezing rope spheres in a fluid — Tensilastic Energy Storage just makes sense.
Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news and updates.
Tensilastic — as well as NASA, DuPont, Lockheed Martin, GE and others — sponsors a Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design project in which teams of students research, design, build and test prototypes that will demonstrate proof of concept and market viability to prospective investors, licensees and customers — moving forward with minimal capital expenditures while benefiting from the innovative spirit of young engineers, the expertise of faculty, and the facilities, subscriptions and industry exposure of university administration — while protecting our intellectual property through a unique waiver policy.
Tensilastic has been a member of the SU Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems Partners Program since 2024. One of thirteen NYSTAR Centers of Excellence funded by New York State's Empire State Development Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Syracuse University CoE offers opportunities for accessing faculty, research facilities, industry information, funding and events to member companies.
Meet the experienced team driving innovation in sustainable energy storage.
Managing Partner, Tensilastic Energy
Ideas come quickly but invention took a lifetime: Motivation to solve big problems faced as a teen in the 60s and 70s — especially the OPEC oil embargoes and the Vietnam War draft — combined with the confidence and skills from a 30+ year career in marketing strategy and 10 years of teaching high school and then it all came together while watching a documentary on sustainable energy and playing with a stress ball.
Partner, Tensilastic Energy
Drawn to a life closer to nature, outside of the big metropolitan areas where he'd grown up, and always enjoying hands-on activity led to a career in veterinary medicine and building a practice that he and his partner later sold to a private equity group. Now he's partnering with his brother on a more personal shared mission.
Advisory Board, Tensilastic Energy and Professor, Syracuse University College of Engineering & Computer Science
Brings 30+ years of industry experience as a Ford Motor engineer; founder and CEO of Advanced Design Consulting USA Inc., with clients including NASA, Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Special Forces; Associate Director of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University; and now Professor and Director of Invent@SU and senior faculty member for the Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Program at Syracuse University.
Advisory Board, Tensilastic Energy and Managing Partner, Execullence
With 30+ years of healthcare informatics leadership in major companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and IMS Health, and now advising venture capital and private equity companies to identify and execute on new business opportunities, Bob Merold brings both startup process and investor perspective to our team.
Tensilastic has secured broad worldwide patent protection for modular, portable and directly scalable pumped storage hydro (PSH) that replaces gravitational potential energy with elastic potential energy by using fluid to stretch fiber rope cables and/or squeeze fiber rope spheres — a process that directly scales with changes in pressure exerted, number of fibers, number of ropes, size of vessels and other principles of physics and proven hydraulic engineering.
To date, a patent has been granted in the United States (11,852,170) as well as Australia, European Union (plus non-participating countries), India, Israel, Japan and, recently, Canada. Patents are pending in other jurisdictions. Additional IP is in development or the application process.
Get in touch
Have questions about our technology? Want to learn more about partnership opportunities? We'd love to hear from you.
