
Two young scientists built a $250M business using yeast to clean up wastewater - sethbannon
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2020/07/06/how-two-young-scientists-built-a-250-million-business-using-yeast-to-clean-up-wastewater/#591ecf777802
======
gandreani
I wrote some cliff notes if anyone else is interested

Company is called Solugen. $12 M/yr in 2019, on track for >30 M/yr in 2020

Wastewater treatment is 80% of their revenue

Bio-engineered a yeast to create produce enzymes that create hydrogen peroxide
from feedstock sugar

The solution produced also contains organic acids that breakdown minerals.
Mineral buildup can clog and corrode pipes over time

Initially created 5 gallon batches, for use in pools, hot tubs and spas. Found
that market after a group of float-spa owners contacted them on facebook

Joined Y-Combinator

Partnered with wipe manufacturer to sell them hydrogen peroxide solution
hoping the deal was stepping stone to bigger industrial customers

Hired a salesperson from oilfield services Schlumberger to market wastewater
cleaning products to oil drillers

The product is appealing for the wastewater cleanup market because of it's
anti mineral buildup effects and it does not cause algal blooms compared to
HEDP. It's a $5 B/yr market. Includes oil and gas drilling which regulation
requires wastewater to be cleaned. The product had a successful test with an
oil and gas customer. The customer had 20% reduced efficiency in it's water
injectors because of iron-scale buildup and lost $29 M/yr. The product
increased production again without the need of additional acid sitmulation.
Demand for wastewater treatment increases with age of oil drilling sites. “We
go head to head with phosphates, We are not premium.”

Production of solution also sequesters 1.35 tons of CO2 compared to it's
competitor HEDP which emits 3 tons. According to independent audit from Life
Cycle Analysis

Also produced more than 100K gallons of hand sanitizer that it dontated to
healthcare facilities. Partenered with local ethenol facility. Plans to
increase hand sanitizer production mini-mills (smaller regional production
facilities) and considering commercial opportunities

Plans to expand to agriculture fertilizing, a $175 B/yr market. Hoping to re-
invent fertilizer with biodegradable alternative that replenishes essential
minerals and metals to soil

~~~
OJFord
> I wrote some cliff notes if anyone else is interested

What does this mean? Tongue-in-cheek interpretation: 'some simple paragraphs
without full stops follow'. Is it some sort of note-taking framework though?

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Cliff notes is a series of books that are extremely abridged versions of
things that students need to read.

------
nostromo
> Their sales pitch was that the product was petroleum-free, a boon for spas
> that like to market being “natural.”

It's interesting that people see genetically modified yeast producing hydrogen
peroxide as "natural" \-- but not regular hydrogen peroxide.

~~~
velox_io
The entire ad campaign around OxiClean: "usages the power of oxyzen" as if it
natural and chemical free. It may be natural, but it isn't the [semi] friendly
O2 variety that we breath.

Read some of the Q&As for Ozone Generators on Amazon, many people think it's
safe for humans and pets. The internet is a dangerous place for information at
times.

~~~
taneq
Arrrrrgh oxygen is a chemical, everything is made of chemicals.

~~~
freshpots
Oxygen is an element. Diatomic oxygen commonly known as O2 is a chemical.
Everything is made of elements, including chemicals.

~~~
taneq
Oxygen gas, colloquially referred to as 'oxygen', is a chemical.

If you want to be a smartypants I guess noble gases are elementary.

~~~
freshpots
I didn't start the pedantry.

------
Mvandenbergh
Very cool. Slight correction though:

>“It was a Trojan Horse for us, with an aim of selling the brand and getting a
supplier contract,” he says. As in the Iliad, the plan worked.

The Trojan Horse isn't actually in the Iliad, it's in the Little Iliad, a now
lost epic poem.

~~~
skuhn
Nice catch. The Iliad doesn't actually concern itself with the end of the
Trojan War.

The horse is mentioned briefly in the Odyssey, since it's attributed to
Odysseus's cunning wit. Probably the work that describes it most thoroughly is
the Aenid, which came hundreds of years after Homer's works or the Little
Iliad.

~~~
colechristensen
That's six or seven hundred years that Virgil wrote the Aneid, as a sort of
founding myth for Rome during its transition from the republic to ... or
really at the beginning of the empire (not long after Julius Caesar's death).
It was almost a sort of political propaganda, legitimizing and linking the
empire to an ancestral root to their gods.

The Romans often were inspired by, appropriated, imitated, or embraced Greek
culture which was looked upon highly. Much of their success can be attributed
to their ability to integrate many cultures and meld them into a diverse Roman
culture.

------
jcims
The Thought Emporium on YouTube has a few livestream-style videos where he
does gene editing experiments like this for fun (?). Very interesting stuff. I
feel like textiles will be coming soon.

[https://www.youtube.com/c/thethoughtemporium](https://www.youtube.com/c/thethoughtemporium)

~~~
gandreani
Great share!

I wish these were shorter but I guess I have to breakout my notepad again

~~~
patmorgan23
He has some shorter scripted videos.

------
eximius
On one hand, really impressive stuff that is simply a net positive over what
we had before.

On the other, there is no way for joe schmoes like me to invest in a great
company like this. :(

------
elmolino89
Mixing H2O2 with ethanol in one bottle looks strange. EtOH should just oxidize
and one ends up with a bottle of vinegar or pure water with CO2 dissolved in
it. They ad some stabilizer so the active oxygen is not being released or is
it some kind of magic?

------
realtalk_sp
It wasn't clear to me in reading this article whether or not this is actually
cost competitive with existing hydrogen peroxide production methods. Or is it
more about it being an environmentally-friendly play?

~~~
robbomacrae
They said something about being cost competitive with the established
suppliers "we are not a premium".

------
ppf
They're only several hundred years late - us Brits have been using yeast to
clean up our water into nice safe beer for a long time!

------
jcfrei
So is this one of the emerging multi billion dollar companies built on the new
gene editing tools?

~~~
blaufast
This one looks like it makes money which is strange

~~~
why_only_15
> [the company expects] revenue to surpass $30 million this year, though the
> company is not yet profitable as it spends heavily to expand

------
econcon
Wow! I like these chemical and biological processes which can alter the
materials.

Guys! Can you suggest an easy way to convert PET plastic to PETG? Can we make
bioengineered bacteria for this process.

I make 3d printing filament from plastic waste (currently using abs) and I can
find lots of cheap PET plastic but it's not good for printing but PETG is.

------
milofeynman
What are the legal/ethical/regulations you have to jump through to be allowed
to dump genetically modified yeast into a pond?

~~~
sdinsn
They don't dump genetically modified anything anywhere. Inside a lab, they
produce chemicals using genetically modified enzymes instead of traditional
methods of chemistry.

~~~
milofeynman
Ah I see, so it's a hydrogen peroxide and mineral solution produced from the
yeast. They are selling this solution with no microbes inside.

------
chejazi
edit: plz ignore, misread (thanks bb611)

Anyone else think it's suspicious that they paid $3M for a plant to the
cofounder's father?

~~~
bb611
I think you simply misread the article.

> A half hour later, he was touring a decommissioned chemical manufacturing
> plant that had been used to turn oil into plastics, with Chakrabarti’s
> father, Gopendu, a chemical engineer and entrepreneur. The hulking factory,
> on a 5-acre site, still had intact piping and tanks, and even boasted a
> 1-acre apple and pear orchard, planted by the previous owner as a carbon
> offset. The elder Chakrabarti swore they’d never find a better space. After
> touring 20 more sites over the next month, Hunt finally agreed. Solugen paid
> nearly $3 million for the plant.

They toured the plant with him, taking advantage of free advice from a
knowledgeable, skilled person. They didn't pay him.

------
adenadel
Has anyone else ever heard of an MD-PhD student being called a "mud-phud"? I'm
in a PhD program (and have several friends that are MD-PhD candidates) and my
wife is an MD and I've never heard of this term.

~~~
franctic
I’m a mud-phud, use it myself and have heard it used all over!

~~~
asdff
What region? This thread is the first I've heard of it too.

~~~
franctic
Northeast for the most part, heard it as far south as NC

~~~
adenadel
Wow, so interesting. I go to school in the northeast. I'll have to ask around.

------
smash1213
Very impressive!

~~~
robbomacrae
Indeed! These inspiring stories give me a glimmer of hope in the future. It
seems that a combination of low carbon demand by the end consumer and a desire
to work on low carbon technologies by our brightest minds are disrupting the
otherwise formidable capital of established high carbon tech.

------
econcon
Is it possible to create engineered bacterias at home? Or it can only be done
in advanced institutes with big machines which average Joe can't afford?

~~~
blaufast
Yes it is very possible. It is very expensive to verify that you did it
correctly and that it works as intended.

Genetics are not like code so unless you are copying previous work expect a
very long road

------
ur-whale
[http://archive.is/DoCrH](http://archive.is/DoCrH)

