Date: Jan 12, 2017 Source: innovation news (
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FORT COLLINS -- Symbios Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of dynamic aqueous plasma technology platforms, today announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase IIB supplement for $500,000.Symbios_logoUSE
Symbios said the money will be used to commercialize its Tubular Plasma Reactor by scaling the system for first customer deployment to treat industrial process and wastewater.
Symbios' original SBIR Phase II project "Advancing a Novel Low-voltage Electric Arc Method to Oxidize Organic Material in Contaminated Water" (NSF Award ID 1256582) will be extended through the Phase IIB supplement and will continue to focus on productization and commercialization of the TPR platform for final scale-up and field trials with a large industrial end customer.
The new funding will enable more robust system automation, user interface, safety enclosure, and new plasma electrode features as well as initiate the regulatory approval process, the company said.
"Symbios' mission 'to improve human and environmental health through products that harness plasma technology' has garnered interest from companies in Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Chemical, Bioscience, Power, and Municipal industries around the globe and has been made possible by research funded by the NSF SBIR program," said Justin Bzdek, Symbios president, CEO and principal investigator on the project.
"With funding from NSF and other organizations, we are commercializing a disruptive solution that simultaneously disinfects and mitigates organics in difficult-to-treat fluids at up to 20X lower cost than alternatives without chemical additives."
"Our objective in requesting the Phase IIB funding was to provide additional R&D resources to further accelerate commercialization of the TPR," said Bzdek.
"With strong support from industry and academic organizations that understand the value of our patented plasma technology and an excellent work plan put together by the Symbios team, we are grateful for the NSF award that matches 1 dollar for every 2 dollars of financial commitments from our commercial partners."
