About

About Shockwave

Shockwave was founded on a simple belief: valuable materials shouldn’t become waste.

Driven by a passion for sustainability and solving real-world manufacturing challenges, founder Joe Fitzgerald built Shockwave to help companies transform difficult byproducts into valuable resources. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, Joe and the Shockwave team work alongside each customer to understand their material, validate the process, and develop the right approach for their unique operation.

Today, Shockwave partners with manufacturers across multiple industries to recover value, reduce waste, and create new opportunities through innovative drying, milling, separation, and material processing technologies. The journey from a single experiment to a proven processing platform is captured in the milestones below.

Shockwave equipment at the Redfield, Iowa demo facility

Milestones

2013 to today.

2013
Formalizing the Work
Acquired our first Pulver Dryer. Early results demonstrated enough promise to formalize operations under the Shockwave name. R&D continued with a focus on understanding what the technology could and couldn’t do across different materials and conditions.
2014
First Commercial Installation
Installed the first commercial Pulver Dryer system at a pistachio processing facility in Bakersfield, California. The project demonstrated the technology’s ability to process agricultural materials at an industrial scale and provided valuable operational data for future applications.
2016
Corn Ethanol Innovation
Installed a slipstream corn fractionation and deamination system at an ethanol plant in northwest Iowa. The project proved the technology could recover valuable corn co-products while operating alongside an active ethanol production process.
2018
Scaling Up & Technology Ownership
The success of the Iowa installation led to a full-scale corn fractionation system at an ethanol plant in southwest Minnesota. That same year, when Pulver Dryer ceased operations, Shockwave acquired the company’s complete asset portfolio — including real estate, inventory, engineering drawings, vendor relationships, and intellectual property — securing full ownership of the technology and laying the foundation for future growth.
2018–2022
Years of Applied R&D
Worked through a wide range of feedstocks in active field conditions: eggshell calcium separation, hard-cooked and liquid egg, mushrooms, algae, glass, fly ash, and corn ethanol co-products. Each material taught the system something new.
2022–Present
Validation & Joint Ventures
Commissioned a full-scale demo unit and processing facility where prospective partners can run real material before committing. Long-term revenue-share partnerships followed across proven applications, with significant volumes converted into biochar along the way.
2025
Equipment Sales
For applications outside Shockwave’s core partnership model, the technology is now available for direct equipment purchase — backed by years of active deployments, proven vendor relationships, and hands-on operational expertise.

Read more about how we work with new customers in our Customer Engagement Model — or contact us to talk about your material.

Our Promise

Our promise is simple: we will not ask you to invest in a full-scale Shockwave system based on assumptions. We evaluate your material, compare it with what we have already proven, and when needed, test your actual material so you can see real performance data before moving forward. If we do not believe Shockwave is a good fit for your material or application, we will tell you honestly.

Evidence before investment. Honest answers before commitment.

Talk to Our Team or (515) 412-0287

Evidence before investment