HAMPTON, VA — Pancopia has been awarded a $650,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant to advance its FreshFlush™ nitrogen-management technology toward commercial deployment.
The project, Improving Swine Productivity and Health Through Nitrogen Management (FreshFlush™), will expand commercial-scale testing of FreshFlush and quantify its ability to improve swine productivity while reducing ammonia associated with recycled lagoon flushwater.
FreshFlush biologically treats recycled flush water before it returns to swine barns. The process converts ammonia nitrogen into less volatile forms and lowers water pH, reducing the amount of ammonia available to return to the barn atmosphere. Rather than treating ammonia after it becomes an air-quality problem, FreshFlush addresses it at the source while integrating with existing lagoon-flush infrastructure.
“Our goal is to turn better water management into better animal production. If we can improve the environment in which pigs are raised while increasing the amount of healthy pork produced from the same farms, feed, water and infrastructure, that is a win for producers and the environment,” said Bill Cumbie, P.E., founder and CEO of Pancopia.
Pancopia has already demonstrated FreshFlush at commercial scale. During an initial field cycle at a 6,000-head finishing farm, the system reduced ammonia-N in recycled flush water by an average of 73.1%. The FreshFlush-treated barn also recorded 34% lower mortality, 5.3% higher average daily gain and nearly 20 pounds greater sale weight per pig compared with the four control barns.
The USDA Phase II project will build on those results through expanded commercial-field validation across multiple production cycles. The work will evaluate FreshFlush system reliability, ammonia reduction, swine productivity and farm economics, while also examining broader benefits associated with nutrient management and renewable-energy production.
The project is designed to move FreshFlush from successful, full-scale demonstration to a commercially ready agricultural technology. The award also continues Pancopia’s longstanding relationship with USDA and builds on water-treatment technologies developed through research supported by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy.
About Pancopia LLC
Pancopia LLC turns wastewater into a productive resource. Born from NASA-backed water-recycling research, the Hampton, Virginia-based company develops patented technologies that accelerate natural biological processes to recover water and nutrients while improving farm performance. Its flagship FreshFlush™ system treats recycled lagoon water before it returns to livestock barns, helping producers improve animal productivity, air quality and resource efficiency. Pancopia’s technology has advanced from laboratory research to full-scale commercial-farm deployment with support from NASA, USDA and the U.S. Department of Energy. Pancopia LLC is built around a simple idea: environmental improvement should pay for itself.
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