Parjana Distribution's clean-water technology isn't trying to reinvent the way cleaning H2O is done in nature. It just wants to accelerate the process.
The downtown Detroit-based startup is commercializing a filtration technology that cleans contaminated water through the earth’s natural ground filtration system. Water in underground aquifers ends up there after gravity takes it through the different layers of ground. The dirt filters out contaminates and creates potable water, similar to how a Brita filter works.
"We're just using mother nature," says Gregory McPartlin, co-founder & managing partner with
Parjana Distribution. "Our technology is not doing the work. Our technology is the key that allows us to use the earth as Mother Nature intended but faster."
Parjana Distribution technology, Energy-Passive Groundwater Recharge Parjana, speeds the rate of infiltration by first utilizing waters properties of adhesion and cohesion to attract the water into the pumps chambers, filling the chambers.
"All currently drainage is done through positive pressure," McPartlin says. "We want to do it through negative pressure."
Parjana Distribution's technology was first developed by Andrew Niemczyk, a mechanical engineer from Hamtranck, in 2004. This technology is now employed at 150 sites around the world, including Detroit, Ohio, New York, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Parjana Distribution was one of the first investments for
Oakland Energy and Water Ventures, a Farmington Hills-based investment firm. Parjana Distribution currently has a staff of 10 employees, 10 independent contractors and two interns. It has hired five people in the last year. It recently moved into bigger office (1,000-square-feet to 4,000-square-feet) in downtown Detroit.
"We want to be part of the rebirth of Detroit," McPartlin says.
Source: Gregory McPartlin, co-founder & managing partner with Parjana Distribution
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.