Page 95 - Innovation Delaware 2021

ThruPore Technologies, Inc.: Pivoting to Produce Life-Saving Technology
If FRANCHESSA SAYLER could offer one word to describe the last year, it would be “adaptability.”
That’s because ThruPore Technologies, the innovative materials company she founded a decade ago, has made
a full and surprising pivot. As her team brainstormed new applications for their unique carbon manufacturing platform during the early months of the pandemic, they landed on a one- of-a-kind, spray-on treatment to purify the air and kill viruses, including COVID-19. Its efficacy rate? 99.99%.
“If you had talked to us this time last year, it was not the same company,” she says. “We’d been focused on green chemicals. But this is just a whole different level; this is potentially saving people’s lives, and we are working super hard and super fast to get this out there because there’s nothing like it.”
Branded as “Dr. Filter,” the treatment is applied to air filtration by spraying onto existing HVAC filters. Viruses and bacteria — including COVID-19 and other emerging
pathogens — are eradicated with no reduction in air flow, according to Sayler. ThruPore was able to
partner with Delaware property management company NAI Emory Hill to test Dr. Filter in empty, commercial office buildings last year.
ThruPore’s core technology gives Dr. Filter its porous structure for high airflow and allows the non-toxic minerals in Dr. Filter to catalytically break down viruses at room temperature.
With data submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sayler says she is hopeful approval will be fast- tracked within the next several months. When it is, Delaware is first in line for the rollout.
In January, the company shared that it had received a $167,000 Innovation Grant from the Federal CARES Act to launch the new filter treatment in Delaware. As thanks, it is offering free first treatments for one million square feet of office space in New Castle County.
“I feel like Delaware is a unique collection of people from all different backgrounds that are willing to go the extra mile to really get to know other people in the community,” says Sayler. “The result is the seemingly ‘one degree of separation’ that is Delaware. In actuality, it is a community that genuinely cares about one another and has a top-of-mind awareness about the people they get to know.”
ThruPore Technologies was co-founded by Sayler and spun out of The University of Alabama in 2012 before she moved
its virtual headquarters to Delaware. In 2014, it was awarded more than $1.7 million from the National Science Foundation to develop various technologies and, to date, has more than 50 customized catalysts under its innovation belt.
“Launching Dr. Filter will allow us to have a bigger and more meaningful presence in Delaware,” says Sayler, who plans to fully relocate ThruPore’s entire operations from Alabama
to New Castle County by the end of the year. “Now that the science is finished, our biggest goal for the next year is to get the Dr. Filter treatment into as many buildings as possible and figure out exactly how to do so.”
With a new website, businesses and property managers can learn more about contracting with Dr. Filter to have their air filtration systems cleaned with the new technology. Those that do will receive a decal to apply to their front window, according to John Currie, vice president of business development. Pricing will be cents per square foot.
Sayler says focusing on adaptation instead of fearing change helped get her through 2020. In the end, it also created something the world hasn’t seen. “To claim we have the world’s first and it works the way it does, that’s pretty amazing,” she
adds.
FRANCHESSA SAYLER
—Christi Milligan
INNOVATION DELAWARE 93