Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Concerns about the coronavirus and ways to effectively clean surfaces have generated a wave of new business for bioPURE Services, the start-up that we spotlighted about six weeks ago in this teknovation.biz article.

The Johnson City-based company has a disinfectant, registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, that utilizes chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) as its active ingredient in combination with a proprietary electrostatic sprayer to properly disperse the chemical on the surface.

Now, with the coronavirus outbreak, Jim Wilson says his phone has been ringing constantly as individuals and companies look for ways to treat their facilities. We caught-up with bioPURE’s Chief Executive Officer late last week while he was in Nashville.

“We are treating one million square feet of space this week here and are on pace to treat two million next week,” he said. That’s just in Music City. Wilson has received inquiries from companies as far away as the State of Washington, one of the hardest hit areas.

“When I asked the caller how he found-out about us, he said he read it in teknovation,” Wilson told us. As you might imagine, that was music to our ears.

In the earlier article, Wilson explained that bioPURE’s process involves the interworking of positive- and negative-charged (or neutral) items. When dispersed by the electrostatic sprayer, the disinfectant receives a positive electrical charge as it is being sprayed. Then, because most of the objects to which the chemical is attracted have a neutral charge, the product reaches the targeted surface as well as places that it might not otherwise reach since it tends to wrap and envelop the object.

Those interested in learning more about the way the technology works can watch these videos (Video 1 and Video 2).

One of bioPURE’s early clients was Clemson University and its athletic department, specifically the football program. Wilson says he learned last week that Coach Dabo Swinney reported that the team had the lowest number of flu cases during his tenure with the Tigers.

“Seventy percent of germs that get into the body do so through the hands,” Wilson reminded us.

The company will be launching a new product – the bioPURE Shield – in April. It is a water-based hand sanitizer that is registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It provides hours of residual protection,” Wilson says in addition to not drying-out hands the way the alcohol-based sanitizers do.

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