Damage Control

REVIEW SUMMARY
Company. Dais Analytic Corp.
Industry. Nanotechnology
Key. Finding new methods of cleaning and conservation
By the numbers. Click here to review Dais' performance over three years.

Pasco County is a long way from Silicon Valley, but that isn't stopping Dais Analytic Corp. from stepping up its own technological advances in air and water purification.

If all goes as planned, the company's Odessa headquarters will garner as much status on the world tech map as, say, Cupertino, Calif., home of all things Apple.

That's part of the reason why Tim Tangredi spends so much time on the road lately. The company's president and CEO presented its innovations in mid-September during a “clean technology” session of Rodman and Renshaw's Global Investment Conference at the New York Palace Hotel.

These are big dreams for a company with only 24 employees at the West Pasco Industrial Park and an over-the-counter stock listing trading around 30 cents a share. However, Tangredi is hoping to catch Wall Street's attention to make it a much larger company.

“We have the ability to employ well over 1,000 people over a five-year period,” Tangredi says. There will be even more jobs for subcontractors and suppliers as the company increases exports of its four key products, he adds.

Dais Analytic took its first big leap from local obscurity in September 2009, signing a $200 million international trade agreement with a Chinese government-owned entity to provide heating/cooling and water-cleaning products. The contract aims to reduce China's carbon footprint, especially after pollution problems threatened the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Smarter Saran Wrap

At the center of Dais Analytics' product lines is a thin, gray membrane Tangredi describes as “Saran Wrap with embedded intelligence.” The nano-structured, high-charge density electrolyte can filter liquids, gases or a combination of both for use in wastewater treatment, water desalination, air conditioning, refrigeration and energy storage.

The company's four key applications include:

• ConsERV, a multi-layer air filtration system for commercial-grade heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that can reduce energy usage up to 57%, lower system capital costs by up to 33% and substantially limit carbon dioxide emissions.

• NanoAir, an HVAC system that eliminates the use of ozone-depleting fluorocarbons by using chilled water instead of refrigerants.

• NanoClear, a water-purification process now in development that separates molecules from impurities and is marketed as an alternative to reverse osmosis and other distillation methods.

• NanoCap, an ultra capacitor currently in the research stage that can store an electrical charge without requiring the chemical energy commonly found in batteries. Tangredi calls it “potentially the most ground-breaking application we've done yet.”

Dais Analytic's ultimate goal, according to Tangredi, is offering new solutions to air and water purification, heating and cooling, and power storage to replace all those that have damaged the planet for so many decades. “We've done some really stupid things to the environment. This is a way we can fix that,” he says.

Tracing its roots back to 1993 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Dais Analytic was formed in 2000 through the merger of two firms that combined identities for the company's current name. Tangredi and Scott Ehrenberg, the company's chief technology officer, have known each other since 1999, one year after Ehrenberg sold his fuel-cell business to Chevron Corp.

Support from Pasco

Dais Analytic relocated to Odessa after seeking economic incentives from several states and was welcomed to Florida by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. It was the type of high-tech firm cities and counties still clamor to get, with Pasco Economic Development Council president John Hagen calling the company a “poster child” for the county's focus on entrepreneurial businesses.

“Folks in Pasco County have been incredibly supportive,” says Tangredi, who worked in biotech prior to joining Dais Analytic. “The people here understand what we're trying to accomplish because it's the right thing to do.”

Currently occupying 7,000 square feet at 11552 Prosperous Drive, Dais Analytic seeks to build more space to accommodate expanded use of its applications. This past spring, the company signed a $48 million sales agreement with CAST Systems Control Technology Co. Ltd. and Genertec America, an overseas subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned company.

That deal, along with the broader one valued at $200 million, was spurred from a $28,000 investment Tangredi and Ehrenberg made to attend the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in March 2009. Despite being up against far larger competitors like General Electric Co., they connected with Yuen Kong, Genertec's chief strategy officer, who clearly liked what he heard.

“The world community needs a fresh approach, using a mixture of current and new industry participants,” Yuen said in announcing the Chinese trade agreement with Dais Analytic last year.

More patents pending

However, the company isn't coasting on the success of its Chinese deal. It has seven patents that have been granted, with nine more pending, focusing on nano-structured materials, processes and applications.

This fall, the company signed a research agreement with the University of Florida in Gainesville that is expected to move NanoCap from successful materials testing to prototype and, eventually, market introduction. The materials test results, conducted by GE's Global Research and Development Center, shows the application promises to yield a power storage device that can expand from consumer electronics to various forms of transportation.

The company also received a one-year, $680,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy to commercialize its NanoAir process. Tangredi says more federal support would be helpful to finding nanotech solutions to cleaning up the environment.

Dais Analytic has up to 44 other potential applications in the pipeline, yet Tangredi cautions that it has to get its first four to catch on. For example, it has to convince the world that NanoClear, which is able to produce water 1,000 times cleaner than most other processes, is effective in purifying sewer water — a prospect that still makes people queasy.

“We have erred on the side of being super cautious,” he says, “not trying to over commit.”

Prospect of profitability

Despite sales approaching $3 million this year, Dais Analytic Corp. has yet to yield a profit. This includes a net loss of $555,692 posted in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, for which results were announced Nov. 17.

Although the Odessa-based company doubled its nine-month sales to nearly $2.4 million from 2009, its net loss for the same period expanded to $1.7 million from $1.4 million last year. The increase is attributed to recognition revenues from its clean water process with CAST/Genertec and increased ConsERV sales, but the loss is due primarily to growth-related manufacturing and supply chain issues for ConsERV that the company believes are close to being resolved.

“We continue to make strong progress validating our nanotechnology's ability to offer 'disruptive' performance in three sectors of the clean technology markets,” Dais Analytic President and CEO Tim Tangredi stated in announcing its most recent financial results. He added that the company recently demonstrated the scalability of its NanoClear water treatment process in China, which it plans to leverage for more business in coming quarters.

David Longacre, vice president of ConsERV sales and marketing, stated that the firm is working to expand its efforts to other targeted growth markets such as South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Also, the company took steps last quarter “to improve our manufacturing efficiencies and supply chain practices, which we believe will drive greater profitability, more reliable delivery times and higher quality product,” says Craig Ducharme, general manager of operations and manufacturing.