Megan Tatum: From Mit Technology Review, I’m Megan Tatum. This is Business Lab, the program that helps business leaders to make sense of new technologies that leave the laboratory and market.
Today’s episode is presented in association with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Our theme today is to launch a technology startup in the state of Michigan in the United States. Developing an innovative idea in a viable product and company requires knowledge and resources that people may not have. That is why Michigan’s Economic Development Corporation, or the MEDC, has launched an innovation campaign to support technology entrepreneurs.
Two words for you: starting ecosystem.
My guest is Dr. Denise Kay, co -founder and Executive Director of Despire Solutions, a Michigan -based startup focused on eliminating synthetic chemicals forever called water PFA.
Welcome, Denise.
Dr. Denise Kay: Hello, Megan.
Megan: Hello. Thank you very much for joining us. To start, Denise, I was wondering if we could talk a little more about assembly solutions. How did the idea arise and what does your company do?
Denise: Well, my co -founder, Meng, and I had careers in consulting, advising customers about the destination and toxicity of chemicals in the environment. What we did was evaluate how chemicals moved through soil, water and air, and what toxic impact could have on humans and wildlife. That put us in a really unique position to see early in the environmental and health ramifications of artificial chemicals in our environment.
When we knew of a very novel and elegant chemistry that could effectively destroy the PFA, we could foresee the value of making this chemistry available for commercial use and the potential of a significant positive impact on the maintenance of healthy water resources for all of us.
As mentioned, PFA is known as a chemist forever because it is very resistant to decomposition. It does not unfold naturally in the environment, so it only circulates around and around. This chemistry, which would break that cycle and separate the molecule, could really support the health of all of us.
Ultimately, Meng and I stop our work, and we founded Despir. Our goal was to design, manufacture and sell equipment at a commercial scale that destroys the PFA in the water based on this chemistry at the laboratory bank scale that had been discovered, the objective is that this toxic pollutant does not continue to circulate in our natural resources.
At this point, we have won an EPA prize and the Department of Defense, and we demonstrate our technology in more than 200 different water samples ranging from groundwater, surface waters, leachate of landfills, industrial wastewater, [and] municipal wastewater. It is really everywhere. In what we are seeing traction at this time are the applications of customers that manage semiconductor residues. Groundwater and surface water around airports tend to be high in PFA. Centralized waste removal facilities that collect and manage liquids contaminated with PFA. And also, even the transition from fire trucks to foams of fire extinguishing without PFA.
Megan: Fantastic. That is a great amplitude of applications, incredible things.
Denise: Yeah.
#Fight #chemicals #start #fatigue
