Chemfinity Technologies, Inc.

Chemfinity Technologies, Inc., a HUBZone-certified minority-owned small disadvantaged business based in Brooklyn, New York, is a chemistry and materials research company that operates as a prime recipient on federal research grants and small business innovation contracts, developing proprietary polymer membrane and porous polymer network (PPN) technologies for selective metal recovery, critical mineral extraction, and environmental remediation. The vendor's federal footprint consists entirely of research grants and Phase I SBIR contracts rather than service or supply contracts; Chemfinity competes in full-and-open competitions rather than set-asides.

Chemfinity's capability portfolio centers on molecularly tunable separation materials for metal harvesting from industrial and environmental waste streams. The company has received a $3.0 million Cooperative Agreement from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E, CFDA 81.135) awarded August 1, 2026, with completion targeted for July 31, 2029, to develop and demonstrate a polyporous polymer column separation process designed to recover critical minerals and metals—specifically platinum, iridium, and two additional critical materials—from mining and metal refinery wastewaters at approximately one-third the cost of traditional mining methods while reducing energy use and emissions by greater than 99 percent. Chemfinity also holds a $500 thousand ARPA-E project grant (CFDA 81.135) awarded July 17, 2024, for tunable porous polymer networks with selectivity in recovering critical metals including platinum, rare earth elements, and copper from catalytic converter waste and similar metal-containing waste streams. The company is developing an ion-capture electrodialysis (IC-ED) membrane-based separation process for acid mine drainage remediation under a project grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) awarded December 24, 2024, targeting completion by November 30, 2025. Additional work includes a biogas-upgrading membrane technology for renewable energy production from dairy farm waste under a project grant from the Department of Agriculture's Institute of Food Production and Sustainability awarded July 1, 2024, and a $100 thousand firm fixed price SBIR Phase I contract from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development awarded December 1, 2023, for precious metal recycling technologies from complex solid waste using highly selective porous polymers, completed in May 2024.

Customer concentration is distributed across federal research and energy agencies. The top five funding agencies—ARPA-E, the EPA Office of Research and Development, NIEHS, the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy—account for 86% of awards. The vendor's combined potential value across all recent awards is $100 thousand, but combined dollars obligated total $4.5 million, indicating that reported potential values significantly understate the actual award magnitude of the grant portfolio. The company completed one prior-year award in 2023, placed five awards in 2024, and received one award in 2026. Chemfinity also serves as a sub-recipient on a UC Regents-led grant focused on fabrication and optimization of polymer-embedded membranes for photovoltaic waste stream treatment via ion-capture electrodialysis, with Chemfinity performing subtasks in membrane development and pilot-scale system construction and testing.