Just 25 years of age and hailing from Timaru, Williams hit the headlines when he developed and successfully exited four revolutionary inventions, including polarised contact lenses to treat photosensitive epilepsy and a system to destroy methane gas produced on farms.
He received awards for his inventions, including a National Merit Award at the Eureka Science and Innovation Competition.
He is also named in 2020’s Forbes’ 30 under 30 – the well-known American magazine lists who it considers the most promising businesspeople under 30 in the world.
Williams has sold four of his inventions, three to overseas companies, and is now on a mission banking on a cornstarch-wool combination, to save the NZ strong wool industry with his latest invention.
Shoulder-tapped by the NZ Merino Company (NZM) to take up the role as director of technology and innovation in late 2019, Williams is dedicated to championing sustainable business.
“The strong wool industry is incredibly interesting, most farmers will know that it actually costs more to shear their sheep than they get for the wool, so it’s actually quite dire,” Williams said.
“Whatever invention I created had to have scope and scale, so what I did was look for the industry that uses the most material and of course that’s plastics – they use thousands and thousands of tonnes a year.”
Williams worked out a method to break down the wool and put it into pellets.
“And pellets are pretty much the building block for all plastic products on the planet,” he said.
The method combines polylactic acid (PLA) from cornstarch with coarse wool.
PLA is widely used around the world as a plastic substitute, but combining it with wool is unique.
In just 18 months, a global patent was secured, the company Keravos was established to market the pellets made from PLA and wool, the factory was built, and, amid covid, processed four tonnes of material a day.
The new biocomposite Keravos is wholly organic and categorised as industrially biodegradable and compostable.
Broadening the scope, a bond with biopolymer is also being explored.
“The way we see it is if we can partner with plastics companies and launch a product, we can be part of the journey to help them get a natural solution,” he said.
“We have made our invention accessible to everyone, no one has to change the machinery, equipment or factory, and that’s how simple it is, so it’s actually really easy to get customers on board.
“They are really invigorated for a market because plastics is this highly commodities market where everyone’s fighting for the smallest margin.
“If we can come in and put this exciting natural fibre into these products, it gives them a marketing edge to get a premium for their products, so everyone is excited to join us.”
Williams says with scale there’s the ability to completely transform the wool industry.
Keravos has a wide scope of uses and is casting its net as wide as possible, currently supplying for 16 different products, including kayaks, catamarans, tiles, buttons and zippers, furniture, lighting fixtures, claddings, doors and fabrics.
Partnered with NZM through dollar-for-dollar funding with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MP) in the W3 Unleashed PGP, Keravos set the wool price at $3 a kilogram for the first two years.
“That’s so we can get on our feet and then $5 is the target after that, which should be really transformational for the whole industry,” he said.
Any type of wool is acceptable.
“The type of wool actually doesn’t matter when we are just feeding it into a pellet,” he said.
“We really want to get to the point where we have a broom and a shovel on the bottom of the shearing shed, scooping up every last bit of wool, dags and all.”
Williams’ motivation is driven by his desire to solve real life problems.
NZ produces about 220,000 tonnes of wool a year and 90% of that is strong wool.
“I’m confident we can make $1/kg, then it’s a billion-dollar company, potentially one of the most profitable companies in NZ, and returning dollars to farmers,” he said.
“We are a country that is producing thousands of tons of just commodities, where we could actually be achieving a lot more value by making consumer-facing products.
“We need to be making products that are valuable and selling directly to customers, not just being invested in the supply chain and losing a story.”
While his inventions have undoubtedly paid off, Williams, despite being a millionaire at 25, is not driven by money.
“I get really frustrated with problems; I do this because I’m passionate about science and technology, and inventing things that will improve NZ,” he said.
Williams is taking part in E Tipu 2021 – shaping the future of food and fibre, which will be held in Christchurch in May.
For more information go to: https://etipu.boma.global/
