McFarland company has an answer for drug-polluted water

Mike Ivey  —  10/29/2008 4:07 am

McFARLAND -- The alarm bells sounding over discarded pharmaceuticals reaching public water supplies could prove golden for a local startup company.

Since its founding in 2005, BioIonix, with just a handful of employees, has been quietly working on using electrical current to kill bacteria and other contaminants in various types of liquid waste.

So far, the BioIonix research has focused on treating municipal sewage, cooling water for food processing or other industrial purposes. The firm has already teamed with the village of Jackson outside Milwaukee on sewage sludge and Alkar-RapidPak of Lodi on meat packing equipment.

But the technology is also well suited for removing drug residues from the waste stream, a pitch BioIonix will make at the annual Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium Nov. 5-6 at Monona Terrace Convention Center, which brings together potential investors and startup companies.

Located on an industrial strip on the east side of U.S. 51, BioIonix has already completed one round of funding, gathering nearly $1.7 million from 15 investor groups in Wisconsin, Illinois and New York. Among them: Rock Mackie, co-founder of Madison-based TomoTherapy.

Now, BioIonix is looking to secure another round of investment as it moves from the lab to the marketplace. Its industrial patented water cleansing systems sell for anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000, depending on the size.

"We have a freight door and a warehouse and we're actually shipping product," said Jim Tretheway, president and CEO. "Look over at the University Research Park and you won't find any freight doors."

Much of the current promise for BioIonix comes from recent national reports that hospitals and long-term care facilities are pouring millions of pounds of unused drugs down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water system. Some are discarded medications that are expired, spoiled or unneeded. Others are left when patients die.

Moreover, millions of Americans are also sending residues of drugs -- everything from anti-depressants to street heroin -- into public water systems every time they use the toilet.

All these contaminants can now be found in rivers and lakes because they are not typically removed by municipal wastewater systems. Evidence is now showing that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild.

Even more significantly, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of many drugs. This so-called "endocrine disruption" interferes with genes that control nearly every aspect of embryonic and fetal development.

"It's becoming a major concern," said researcher Curtis Hedman of the Wisconsin State Hygiene Lab, which has been testing the BioIonix technology and found it effective for removing drug residues.

Federal and local legislative hearings have brought calls for mandatory testing and disclosure. Although nothing has yet been written into law, BioIonix officials would love to see some legislation.

"As far as we know, nobody else has come up with a better or cheaper way to get drugs out of the water," said Russ Schlager, the firm's sales manager.

Schlager's father, Ken, an electrical engineer from Hartland, invented the technology (along with Steve Gorski of Eagle) and remains the majority shareholder.

"Honestly, I think they're on to something," said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. The WTC hosts the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, formerly known as the Venture Fair (www.wisconsintechnologycouncil.com/events/earlystage).

BioIonix's process involves running wastewater through a high-frequency electromagnetic field that breaks apart the water molecules, creating H2O2, or hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide kills any organic compounds, then breaks back down into water and oxygen, with clean H2O flowing out the other end.

A former employee at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Illinois, Tretheway said the BioIonix system also works for brightening paper and textiles, eliminating the expense and hazard of transporting chlorine, which is used in conventional whitening processes.

The company is projecting sales of $50 million within five years and an increase in the number of employees from seven to 80. The long-term goal for investors is a sale to a larger company like GE or Siemens, which have recently made over $10 billion of acquisitions in the water and wastewater field.

Even a slumping world economy hasn't dampened spirits.

"I think we're well positioned," said Tretheway. "We're also tied to food safety and water reuse and those issues aren't going away no matter what happens."

mivey@madison.com

Mike Ivey  —  10/29/2008 4:07 am