Innovative Business Porifera Awarded $3.8M in CEC Grants
In 2017, Porifera relocated its headquarters from Hayward to San Leandro. Porifera manufactures proprietary forward osmosis membranes and provides process solutions to a variety of industries. Porifera’s innovative Forward Osmosis solutions enable industries to efficiently extract water and retain only the most valuable components of their products. This unique technology facilitates the reduction of water waste, improvements to water reuse, and more efficient processing solutions to create better products using less energy. Established in 2009, Porifera serves more than 100 customers in over 23 countries.
On September 16, 2018 Porifera was selected for two grants totaling $3.8 million from the California Energy Commission (CEC). Both of the company’s technologies were selected to receive awards from the $15 million CEC Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy program to help California’s food processing industry achieve state energy goals through technological advancement. Porifera’s proposals were selected from a field of 32 applications across a total of seven project areas.
The grants will empower Porifera to produce pilot systems for Jackson Family Wines and Frito-Lay to demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of forward osmosis technology for the food and beverage processing industries. “These grants will provide opportunities for commercial demonstration of the wide-ranging benefits of Porifera’s forward osmosis technologies to reduce energy consumption and improve water reuse for development of food products,” commented Porifera CEO, Olgica Bakajin. “We are proud to apply our technologies to advance the state’s energy goals and help California food processing and production industries remain competitive in the global marketplace.”
Porifera currently employs a workforce of 23 scientists, engineers, and support staff, and enjoys steady growth as product awareness and demand increases. The company has been selling its equipment and process solutions since 2013. Porifera’s products are applicable in the food/beverage, manufacturing, oil/gas, resource recovery, municipal water reuse, and agriculture industries. The inventive process can be used to reclaim wastewater as well as concentrate solids for re-purposing. For more information, visit: www.porifera.com
What a huge benefit for San Leandro to have such a forward looking company in our City! Thanks for this article – San Leandro Next is such a great way to keep up with the transforming economic development and innovation happenings.