COMPANY OVERVIEW
Aurora Catalytic LLC is a “Design for Demise” catalyst company. Founded in 2025, our company’s mission is simple and radical: solve problems through chemistry by engineering smart catalytic systems that make materials safely vanish when their job is done.
Aurora’s initial “Catalytic Demise” product offerings focus on carbon composites with an emphasis on reentering space debris. Terrestrial applications of this IP also abound, with wind turbine blade recycling and disposal being the highest volume market. We also plan to target the disposal of nuclear and industrial graphite as our core Catalytic Demise IP is effective toward bulk graphite as well. Additional catalytic products in the ideation phase of Aurora’s R&D pipeline target the degradation of industrial and environmental PFAS “forever chemicals” and demise of silicon carbide satellite components that currently survive atmospheric reentry.
For 150 years, materials science asked one question: How do we make it last?
Aurora Catalytic is asking the next question: How do we make it disappear—safely, completely, and on purpose—precisely when it needs to?
FOUNDERS OF AURORA CATALYTIC
Reese Hufnagel and Matthew Ray are entrepreneurs and founders of Aurora Catalytic LLC.
Reese Hufnagel
Reese directs research and characterization for Aurora Catalytic while pursuing a degree in Chemistry with minors in both Materials Science and Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and has worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Matthew Ray
Matthew designs the catalyst systems and oversees business development at Aurora Catalytic. He is a Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and serves as chair of the Department of Chemistry and Physics. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Lehigh University and previously worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific as an R&D Manager.
Beyond their technical acumen, both founders have demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the aerospace materials market through extensive market research that includes over 50 customer discovery interviews and direct engagement with manufacturing operations by further taking their core “Catalytic Demise” technology through the NSF I-Corps program.