Jul 22, 2026 · 30 min · 10 segments
In this episode of Green Shoots & Big Shifts, host Reetu Gupta sits down with Aaron Fitzgerald, the founder of Mars Materials, Inc. PBC, to discuss innovative approaches to sustainability and climate…
Aaron FitzgeraldGuestReetu GuptaHostYou know, for, for folks like, you know, who are not technical and yeah, tell us more about like, like what's, what's your technology? Obviously don't share anything that's proprietary, but you know, it just seems like magic to me.
But if you want to have impact and I think and really create breakthrough science and really, I think, change the world in a materials way, nothing magical about it.
But at the core of what we have is a alternate pathway to make these multi-billion dollar market materials like carbon fiber and polyacrylamide for water soluble polymers.
And at the core of those two markets are one feedstock or one raw material that both use and are derived from.
We call it AN for short, but you can also work to say it 10 times fast, acrylonitrile.
And we all use it every day in our lives, particularly if you exist in modern society.
It's anticipated that every person on the planet consumes about a kilogram of this material per day.
And this material is used, yeah, to make everything from our carpets to our keyboard keys to like Lego blocks and other materials.
But it's also used in some cases where it's the sole ingredient And for our particular markets, carbon fiber and water-soluble polymers is the sole feedstock for those two materials.
So today the world makes all of its acrylonitrile, you know, so we all consume about a kilogram of it per year.
So that kilogram per year that you use is made wholly from oil, gas, or coal through a legacy chemical process.
You know, for, for folks like, you know, who are not technical and yeah, tell us more about like, like what's, what's your technology? Obviously don't share anything that's proprietary, but you know, it just seems like magic to me.
But if you want to have impact and I think and really create breakthrough science and really, I think, change the world in a materials way, nothing magical about it.
But at the core of what we have is a alternate pathway to make these multi-billion dollar market materials like carbon fiber and polyacrylamide for water soluble polymers.
And at the core of those two markets are one feedstock or one raw material that both use and are derived from.
We call it AN for short, but you can also work to say it 10 times fast, acrylonitrile.
And we all use it every day in our lives, particularly if you exist in modern society.
It's anticipated that every person on the planet consumes about a kilogram of this material per day.
And this material is used, yeah, to make everything from our carpets to our keyboard keys to like Lego blocks and other materials.
But it's also used in some cases where it's the sole ingredient And for our particular markets, carbon fiber and water-soluble polymers is the sole feedstock for those two materials.
So today the world makes all of its acrylonitrile, you know, so we all consume about a kilogram of it per year.
So that kilogram per year that you use is made wholly from oil, gas, or coal through a legacy chemical process.
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