Vermont’s Seldon Labs wants to keep soldiers’ water pure

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WINDSOR, Vt., April 26, 2004 — A research lab here in the Green Mountain State has won a contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a water filter that uses carbon nanotubes to stick it to pollutants.

Founded only 16 months ago, Seldon Laboratories LLC has already delivered a prototype filter that skewers biological pathogens as a soldier gulps water into his mouth. Next up is a $2 million contract to make an improved version that blocks poisons, debris and other pollutants, resulting in water pure enough to use for medical purposes right on the battlefield.

Alan Cummings, the lab’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said the ultimate goal is a filter that can quickly purify water from any source — a river, ground well or mud puddle, for example — into a form pure enough that it can be mixed with freeze-dried blood for immediate transfusions.

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The U.S. government has a long list of unacceptable pollutants for “injection-ready” water, Cummings said, so “we’re just going down through the list of contaminants one by one until the water is suitable for injection.”

The filter is shaped somewhat like the holding case for a compact disc: about 5 inches on each side, and 1 inch thick. Water enters the filter through a tube on the bottom, and exits in purified form via another tube on the top.

“If you look at the material, it doesn’t look like the water will go through at all,” Cummings said. But water can pass the barrier, using only the power a person generates as his lungs create a vacuum to suck the liquid into his mouth. “You can drink it as fast as a human can drink.”

The crucial bit of technology is how Seldon binds its nanotubes into one formation so they act as a filter. Cummings declined to say how that process works, nor did he disclose how many nanotubes are used or how thick the membrane is. Another Seldon researcher working on the project, Jonathan Wilson, described the tubes as “multifunctional” and using a variety of physical and chemical properties to block pathogens.

The military has two groups exploring water filtration: the Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., which works in units for individual soldiers; and the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Mich., which focuses on filters for larger groups of soldiers. Both agencies are aware of Seldon Labs’ work and plan to meet with Cummings’ team soon.

“It seems like a very interesting technology,” said Roger Masadi, a researcher at the Soldier Systems Center. “Water is heavy, and soldiers carry water.”

The military always tries to supply clean water to its troops, Masadi explained, but battlefield units, such as special forces squads, can find themselves in unfamiliar territory where they must survive on whatever is available.

Masadi said the military already uses commercially available filters, which can block pathogens down to about 1 micron in size. The unmet need is a filter to block even smaller particles, such as gas molecules from a chemical attack, and the filter must use as little power as possible. “Nanocarbons can give a much better filtration,” he said.

Cummings founded Seldon Labs in January 2003 with Chris Cooper, a doctoral candidate at Dartmouth College who had studied nanotubes for more than a decade. They teamed up with Roger Kennedy, a former Clinton administration executive who serves as a business consultant.

The company now has 15 employees and relies on research grants for revenue. It has never taken venture capital, although Cummings said he is looking for partners to help him commercialize the early version of the Seldon filter.

Incidentally, the name “Seldon” comes from Hari Seldon, the protagonist in a series of novels written by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. In the novels, Seldon’s scholarly research helps save a future galactic empire of humans from anarchy.

“We believe our product can clean the water of the world,” Cummings said, “… and that’s one small step to saving the universe.”


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Company file: Seldon Laboratories LLC.
(last updated April 26, 2004)

Company
Seldon Laboratories LLC

Headquarters
7 Everett Lane
Door 18
Windsor, Vt. 05089

History
Founded in 2003, Seldon bases its work on technology developed by Dartmouth College physics doctoral student Christopher Cooper. The company has launched a subsidiary, Seldon Water Technologies, for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing its forthcoming fluid purification system.

Industries potentially served
Safety / Security: Monitoring / Substance Detection and Analysis

Small tech-related products and services
Seldon’s core technology involves binding together carbon nanotubes to create a filter that rids fluids of microorganisms without chemicals, heat or ultraviolet light. The company has already delivered a filter prototype to the U.S. Air Force for testing. Seldon is now working on enhancements to eliminate poisons and pollutants.

Management
Christopher Cooper: co-founder
Alan Cummings: CEO and co-founder
Roger Kennedy: advisor and co-founder

Barriers to market
While Seldon has developed an exciting technology in a high-interest area, the company will be competing with companies offering more traditionally accepted methodologies. Seldon will need to clearly show both process and price advantage over other players in this niche.

Contact
URL: www.seldontechnologies.com
Phone: 802-674-2444
Fax: 802-457-3777
E-mail: mailto:www.seldontechnologies.com

— Research by Gretchen McNeely

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