Zolx offers a membraneless clarification platform that uses surface‑engineered panels to resist fouling and operate at pressures below 0.8 bar, extending runtime 3–5× while cutting cleaning demand by about 40 %. The system starts with chip‑scale screening of custom anti‑fouling chemistries and scales the winning designs to modular panels that retrofit onto existing clarification skids for bioprocessing, dairy, food, water and oil‑in‑water applications.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Bioprocessing operations that rely on conventional membrane filtration suffer from rapid fouling, high pressure drops, and frequent cleaning‑in‑place (CIP) cycles, leading to downtime, high energy use, and shear damage to sensitive proteins and cells.
Solution
Zolx provides a membraneless clarification platform that uses surface‑engineered panels to resist fouling and operate at pressures below 0.8 bar. The platform begins with chip‑scale screening of custom surface chemistries under controlled shear and fouling conditions, allowing rapid weekly iteration of designs. Successful chemistries are transferred to coupons and full‑size panels that maintain the same coating, pressure regime, and hydrodynamics, ensuring performance consistency from laboratory to pilot and plant scale. Modular panels snap into existing clarification skids, enabling retrofits with minimal capital expense while extending runtime 3–5×, reducing cleaning demand by about 40 %, and lowering energy consumption through low‑ΔP operation. The system supports gentle handling of shear‑sensitive cells and proteins, making it applicable across industrial enzymes, dairy, food, water treatment, and oil‑in‑water streams.
Target Audience
Primary customers are biomanufacturers and process engineers in enzyme fermentation, cell‑based therapeutics, dairy and food processing, and industrial water/oil‑in‑water treatment seeking higher throughput, lower energy, and reduced fouling in clarification steps.
Features
- Chip‑scale screening platform for rapid evaluation of engineered anti‑fouling surface chemistries under defined shear and fouling environments
- Surface‑engineered, membraneless panels that maintain low pressure drop (<0.8 bar) and resist cake formation
- Scalable architecture from 1 cm² assay chips to 1.5 m² production panels with consistent hydrodynamics
- Modular panel design that retrofits onto existing clarification skids for pilot and plant deployment
- Low‑shear operation preserving viability of delicate cells and activity of shear‑sensitive proteins
- Integrated clean‑in‑place (CIP) compatible surfaces that cut cleaning frequency by ~40 %
- Runtime extension of 3–5× compared with conventional membrane fouling controls