We’re Back! Rooftop Sunscreen, Plant-Based Snowboards, and Cell-Free Biomanufacturing

The National Laboratory of the Rockies’ podcast is back with a new name and brand! In our first episode as Peaks to Power, you’ll hear about: 

• A rooftop “sunscreen” that’s keeping buildings cool in summer while protecting roofs from ultraviolet sunrays  
• A bioplastic made from hemp seed oil that might one day be found in aerospace, automotive, battery, and construction materials  
• A new approach, called cell-free biomanufacturing, that NLR is pioneering to turn biomass and waste into useful chemicals. 

This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy, Hannah Halusker, and Kaitlyn Stottler, and edited by Taylor Mankle, Joe DelNero, and Brittany Falch. Graphics are by Brittnee Gayet. Our title music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Peaks to Power is created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies in Golden, Colorado. Email us at podcast@nlr.gov. Follow NLR on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, and Facebook.  

Transcript

Kerrin Jeromin 0:03

Welcome to Peaks to Power, a podcast brought to you by the National Laboratory of the Rockies. I'm Kerrin Jeromin.

Taylor Mankle 0:10

And I'm Taylor Mankle, and we're your hosts.

Kerrin Jeromin 0:13

Yes, we are. But you know what? It's been a few months, and as you probably know, there have been a few changes around here, so allow us to reintroduce ourselves.

Taylor Mankle 0:21

In 2025, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy, the laboratory was renamed to the National Laboratory of the Rockies, or NLR, because you know we gotta add an acronym in there.

Kerrin Jeromin 0:33

We we do love those. This new lab name and our recently unveiled new lab logo nod to our beautiful surroundings in the Rockies and our expanding research. So the podcast took the opportunity to pause and also come back with a brand new name and brand itself.

Taylor Mankle 0:49

We are also leaning into our home in the Rocky Mountains as we are Peaks to Power, and we're excited to be back sharing biweekly news updates from the lab with you.

Kerrin Jeromin 0:59

And with stories on rooftop sunscreen, snowboards made from plant-based plastic, and cell-free biomanufacturing, we have a lot of ground to cover.

Taylor Mankle 1:07

Or should we say rooftops to cover?

Kerrin Jeromin 1:10

Yes, yes, I suppose we could say that as well. Well, we've made folks wait long enough. Let's get into it.

Taylor Mankle 1:14

I wasn’t joking about covering rooftops, as a startup called EnKoat has created what is essentially sunscreen for building rooftops.

Kerrin Jeromin 1:15

  Well, I know SPF is an essential part of my daily routine. And Enkoat's sunscreen, called IntelliKoat, is designed for much of the same reasons, like keeping buildings cool in the summer and protecting it from ultraviolet sunrays.

Taylor Mankle 1:43

The coating, which is actually two coats, one for thermal control and one for weather protection, is also designed to keep interiors warm in the winter and protect the building from not just sun damage, but hail, wind, and even higher utility bills.

Kerrin Jeromin 1:58

Oh man, I wish my sunscreen could do that.

Taylor Mankle 2:01

Don't we all? Now, last year, the real estate investment firm Galvanize was awarded $200,000 through the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, also known as IN2, to in part help fund a field study on EnKoat's roof sunscreen.

Kerrin Jeromin 2:18

In other words, get the IntelliKoat roof coating out of the virtual labs and onto actual buildings so that we can understand how well the sunscreen does what it's expected to do.

Taylor Mankle 2:28

And that's the whole point of IN2, for laboratory experts to work with a company like EnKoat to help validate the company's inventions and find partners like Galvanize who can get the tech into the marketplace.

Kerrin Jeromin 2:40

In this case, they've already demonstrated that it works on buildings. Now the goal is to find out how well it works. And that's where a 60,000 square foot warehouse in New Jersey comes in.

Taylor Mankle 2:51

EnKoat's technicians applied IntelliKoat to the New Jersey warehouse roof to help strengthen it, and NLR researchers installed sensors to collect data on temperatures inside and outside the building both before and after the coating went on.

Kerrin Jeromin 3:06

With that data, they can compare internal building temperatures on similar weather days, pre- and post-coating, to get a sense of how well the product regulates heat transfer in and out.

Taylor Mankle 3:17

They plan to replicate this test on other rooftops around the country too, because more rooftops means more data, more evidence, more case studies, and more concrete numbers to show potential customers.

Kerrin Jeromin 3:53

Alright Taylor, what starts in a field and ends on a snowboard?

Taylor Mankle 3:53

This kind of sounds like a bad riddle about my midwest roots transitioning into mountain culture out here in Colorado.

Kerrin Jeromin 3:53

That's not quite right but is probably very accurate, right? No. I'm talking about a plant-based plastic. Zila BioWorks is a company that created a new material using hemp seed oil, which is actually a byproduct of the not so common but soil-friendly crop, hemp.

Taylor Mankle 4:07

Finding a use out of something that's typically tossed, nice. But we're not quite at snow sports yet.

Kerrin Jeromin 4:13

Not yet. The material is a new type of bioplastic for products like concrete floor coating, energy infrastructure, and you guessed it, snowboards. Now, Taylor, I'm a snowboarder myself. All jokes aside, uh, do you ride?

Taylor Mankle 4:25

You know, I'm I'm more comfortable on skis these days. Still pretty new to the slopes out there, but we digress. Let's get back to the story.

Kerrin Jeromin 4:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, fine, that's fine. We can still be friends, though, it's okay. The epoxy resin from Zila combines two coveted features, durability and recyclability. So plant-based epoxy resins like Zilas come with properties that traditional epoxies may lack, like the recyclability. These resins can also be manufactured using repurposed waste and less energy. That also means they can cost less to manufacture.

Taylor Mankle 4:58

All these features, the durability, recyclability, affordability, helped this startup earn $250,000 from the Shell Game Changer Accelerator, powered by the National Laboratory of the Rockies. This money was used to fund two years of technical assistance with laboratory experts.

Kerrin Jeromin 5:17

Right. The Game Changer program partners early stage companies with NLR's resources, expertise, and facilities to reduce the technology risk and get the tech to market faster.

Taylor Mankle 5:28

National Laboratory of the Rockies mechanical engineer and one of the experts analyzing Zila's product, Robin Murray, described this as taking startups from the quote, beaker to the tangible, unquote, which I think is a good way of looking at the Game Changer program and NLR's technical assistance.

Kerrin Jeromin 5:46

Our laboratory experts are analyzing the material's properties, strengths, and weaknesses, which will help Zila understand how it could use the material in industries like transportation, computing, and energy. So many uses. Yes, and the new epoxy resins are manufactured in the U.S. Most of the epoxy resin used globally are produced in other countries, which can be impacted by volatile prices, supply chain issues, and expensive shipping. Manufacturing at home alleviates those concerns.

Taylor Mankle 6:15

Zila's material could someday help U.S. aerospace, automotive, battery, construction materials, and other industries reduce dependence on foreign goods, cut costs and waste, and build durable technologies.

Kerrin Jeromin 6:35

Okay, let's stick with the bio theme here, but shift gears to biochemicals and how we make them.

Taylor Mankle 6:42

We're talking about a new approach NLR is pioneering to turn biomass and waste into useful chemicals. It's called cell-free biomanufacturing, and it's a toolkit our researchers have been developing for the past five years.

Kerrin Jeromin 6:57

Today, bio-based chemicals, products, and fuels are typically made one of two ways. One, using microbes to break down plant sugars, or two, using chemical catalysts and often heat to convert biomass into usable products.

Taylor Mankle 7:12

Cell-free biomanufacturing takes a different approach. It involves no cells, no organelles, and no DNA. Instead, a highly curated selection of enzymes drives controlled and extremely precise cascades of reactions. Where current methods may struggle, cell-free biocatalysts can boost efficiency, lower costs, and produce higher yields of chemicals, including some impossible to make with today's technologies.

Kerrin Jeromin 7:42

But okay, let's think back to middle school biology a bit. Cells are the foundation of life. Enzymes live and work inside them. So taking those reactions outside the cell isn't exactly straightforward. It takes new tools from molecular engineering, machine learning, and high-throughput screening.

Taylor Mankle 8:00

And that's exactly what NLR researchers are building. In the lab, robots can test thousands of enzyme variations in a single day, far faster than any human could.

Kerrin Jeromin 8:11

Then artificial intelligence steps in to help researchers sort through the data, identifying which enzymes are the most stable, efficient, and ready to work outside a cell.

Taylor Mankle 8:21

From there, researchers link those enzymes together into precise reaction chains, kind of like an assembly line, turning plant sugars into targeted chemicals.

Kerrin Jeromin 8:31

The goal here is full control, no extracellular processes, no wasted energy, just the exact reactions needed, start to finish, to create biochemicals.

Taylor Mankle 8:41

Looking ahead, researchers are even combining enzymes with traditional chemical catalysts, mixing biology and chemistry in the same system to get the best of both worlds.

Kerrin Jeromin 8:51

And with growing partnerships across universities, national labs, and industry, they're working to scale this up and bring cell-free biomanufacturing into the real world.

Taylor Mankle 9:08

Oh, Kerrin, it's so good to be back behind the microphone with you.

Kerrin Jeromin 9:11

Yeah, back at you, friend. I know I've really missed talking about like cool science with you. It's been far too long.

Taylor Mankle 9:16

You can say that again, and we want to thank you, our listeners, for sticking with us through these last few months. We'll be back in two weeks with more news from the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

Kerrin Jeromin 9:26

That's right. And remember, we're back with you under a new name, Peaks to Power. Make sure to look for us on your favorite podcast feed. And while you're there, drop us a five-star rating if you like what you hear. We'll catch you in two weeks.

Kerrin Jeromin 9:44

T his episode was adapted from our National Laboratory of the Rockies news articles from March and April 2026, written by Caitlin McDermott Murphy, Justin Daugherty, and Erik Ringle. Our theme music is written and performed by Ted Vaca, and episode music by Chuck Kernick, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. This podcast is produced by the National Laboratory of the Rockies' Communications Office.