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ABOUT PANCOPIA

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE ENVIRONMENT

Good for the environment, good for business

Pancopia is an environmental technology innovator that develops sustainable solutions that help people, animals, and the planet. We use profitability as a lever to drive environmental change. Our innovations in chemistry, physics and biology improve operational efficiency and transform waste into a productive resource, enabling business to be more profitable while reducing waste and improving the environment. Our goal: provide safe, high-quality water for all, while improving the environment.

Sustainable animal husbandry and aquaculture

Live protein production through swine farming, dairy, and aquaculture is a vital part of our nation’s fabric, affordably feeding our growing population. However, the efforts towards “greening” these industries have often been too expensive, too labor-intensive, or haven’t worked well enough to be worth the expense. Pancopia’s big idea is flipping the script on what we believe has the potential to become “the new black gold”: animal waste.

However, there’s a key nutrient standing in the way: nitrogen. Our system reliably and cost-effectively removes this hurdle, allowing carbon capture technology to get biogas out of swine waste without negative side-effects, and maximizing the amount of energy the waste can create. With Pancopia’s systems in place, farmers can not only produce the best quality protein for the American people, but valuable electricity to our nation’s power grids while minimizing a farm’s effect on the environment and surrounding communities.

NASA: recycling of water in space

It takes $83,000 to lift one gallon of water into space. Since the high prices of water take up to 92% of the costs to sustain operations in space, NASA has invested in technologies to help efficiently recycle its human wastewater back into drinkable, potable water. Pancopia got our start developing technologies to help do just that: process and recycle human wastewater in space. Since then we have continued to work with NASA on various innovations to help prolong the useful life of water in space, including: freeze drying, novel oxidation technology, and a second-stage reactor that cuts the cost of removing excess nitrogen.

Municipal wastewater and sanitation

Pancopia’s energy-efficient wastewater management and purification technologies have great future promise for the production of fresh potable water for human populations. It will enable municipal WRRFs to meet increasingly stringent nitrogen removal limits while controlling costs. Pancopia is pioneering an anammox-based system that could make this treatment available to small and decentralized treatment plants. The Hampton Roads Sanitation District, a national leader in water resource recovery, hosted Pancopia’s two pilot plants demonstrating this technology.

Energy Optimization: Lake Aeration

The Norfolk Lake Aeration project best embodies the energy optimization services that Pancopia has offered. The project has operated successfully for more than twenty years. Pancopia’s founder Bill Cumbie originally managed this project while working with CH2M (now Jacobs Engineering) in the 1990’s. The City of Norfolk’s investment of $4.5 million to install a lake aeration system improved water quality and permitted the City to avoid installation of a $60 million ozone/carbon facility, while continuing to improve the quality of the lakes and Norfolk’s drinking water.

Resource Management: Portsmouth Residuals

Pancopia has worked with the City of Portsmouth since the company’s inception, with a relationship originating much further back in time. Water plant residuals are currently removed from the lagoon on an annual basis utilizing a system they developed, and are dewatered and applied to farmland. Pancopia teams up with Jacobs Engineering to supervise this project each year.

Water Purification: Clarifiers

Pancopia water purification experience includes the Clarifiers project for the City of Portsmouth Lake Kirby Water Treatment Plant. This project entailed a condition assessment and report for the Superpulsators, including vacuum systems, PAC and polymer facilities that could impact Superpulsator performance. This work and subsequent refurbishment ensured that the clarifiers remained in top condition, and continued to produce high quality water.

About our name Pancopia

“Pan” is a common Greek prefix which means “including or relating to all.” “Copia” is a Latin word meaning abundance. When put together these elements create our name ‘Pancopia’, representing our belief that our world has abundant resources to meet our physical needs with proper stewardship of our environment, and wise use of resources including water and energy.