Owner: Bill Cumbie
Founded: 2014
Location: 1100 Exploration Way, Suite 302Q, Hampton, VA
Number of Employees: 5
While small in size, Pancopia’s impact is immense. As an environmental and energy engineering company, they focus on wastewater treatment and research and development projects, including contracts with NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the City of Norfolk. Pancopia combines the Greek prefix “Pan,” meaning relating to a group of people, and “Copia,” which is Latin for abundance or supply.
The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer and Senior Project Manager Bill Cumbie, who has worked in wastewater environmental engineering for over 35 years with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and 29 years with the multinational company CH2M. Wanting to develop new technology in research and development, Cumbie accepted an early retirement offer from CH2M, but it didn’t last long. Two weeks later, a new NASA project was announced with the objective of recycling water on the International Space Station. Cumbie wasted no time in applying and was successfully accepted, resulting in the founding of Pancopia.
Locally, Pancopia is working with the City of Portsmouth and its water treatment plant, evaluating clarifiers and handling residual disposal. The company is also assisting the City of Norfolk with its lake aeration system, helping the city save money on power costs while improving the quality of drinking water. Cumbie notes that only about half of current water treatment plants remove carbon and nitrogen. Removing nitrogen would stop algae blooms in natural water systems, and Pancopia is focused on retrofitting systems to improve water quality, reduce costs, and even generate profit for facilities that adopt their technology.
“In the longer term, Pancopia is interested in developing sustainable solutions to environmental problems, mostly in the area of water and wastewater,” Cumbie shares.
Working out of the Peninsula Technology Incubator with access to the National Institute of Aerospace laboratory facilities, Cumbie believes it is essential for Pancopia to be based in Hampton due to the company’s access to resources and facilities. The incubator has also provided additional laboratory support, including part-time staff to assist with chemical testing and analysis.
Starting the small business was made easier with help from the incubator, which added credibility to Pancopia’s proposal to receive a grant from NASA for a large-scale project. It also allowed Cumbie the freedom to pursue the research and development work he had always wanted.
Currently, Pancopia is in Phase Two of a $750,000 contract with NASA to develop a system capable of condensing wastewater and recycling it into drinking water for use on the space station. “Right now, it costs $83,000 to bring a gallon of water into space, so it’s essential that they recycle their water,” Cumbie explains. “Their goal is to recycle 95 percent of it, and they’re not near that yet. Our treatment is being developed to help achieve that.”
The company’s greatest achievement so far has been its success with the first phase of the NASA contract. Pancopia exceeded the performance of any system used in the past 15 years in removing carbon and nitrogen for reusable water. “It was a huge success. We were able to successfully freeze-dry organisms, reconstitute them, and use them in a system to remove carbon and nitrogen from wastewater,” Cumbie says.
Working with large organizations such as NASA and the Navy might seem ambitious for a small company of five, but Cumbie says the biggest challenges have been financial – covering operating costs, health insurance, and regulatory requirements. Despite those hurdles, Pancopia continues to grow, adding laboratory space and analytical equipment to support ongoing research.
Learn more at www.pancopia.com.
See the original article at https://covabizmag.com/small-businesses-big-results-pancopia/
