The rise of micropollutants in drinking water supplies has emerged as a serious health threat to communities in the U.S. and worldwide. These contaminants comprised of industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and components of personal health care products - collectively called micropollutants - can be found in extremely low concentrations  of parts per billion or trillion levels. Some micropollutants are persistent in water resources and are known to escape from municipal water treatment plants which supply tap water to over 85% of the U.S. population. As a result, consumption of such contaminated tap water creates a direct pathway for their accumulation in the body.

The safety of drinking water is the foremost environmental concern for Americans. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2017, 63% of Americans express significant concern about pollution in their drinking water. Another survey by Nestle Waters North America in the same year revealed that 66% of Americans are worried about the cleanliness of their local community's drinking water. These fears and concerns surrounding the safety of drinking water are substantiated by the identification of new "hot spots" across the country each year, where residents are advised to refrain from using tap water due to the presence of harmful micropollutants at elevated levels. Furthermore, several U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) surveys and studies have confirmed that micropollutants are not completely eliminated from source waters and pass through drinking water treatment facilities reaching consumers. These findings highlight growing "greater awareness by the general public of the presence of these contaminants in the environment and the direct link of the environmental presence to household use" as acknowledged by USGS.

NSF-sponsored Phase I and Phase II programs helped optimize DEXSORB technology, a cyclodextrin-based polymer adsorbent platform, from ideal synthesis conditions to scale-up feasibility to exploration of several form factors (granules, filter papers, and extruded blocks) for successful incorporation into home use filtration products. The effectiveness of DEXSORB in removing micropollutants was established in these different form factors, demonstrating its robustness and applicability to wide range of use cases. DEXSORB exhibits exceptional selectivity owing to its sub-nanometer cyclodextrin cups with size-exclusion characteristics. This feature uniquely allows DEXSORB to target contaminants at trace concentrations with rapid uptake while providing resistance to fouling by other contaminants found in water.

During the Phase IIB period, Cyclopure successfully advanced the development of DEXSORB adsorbent to its incorporation into a gravity pitcher filter in granular form, designed to remove taste-and-odor compounds and micropollutants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in household drinking water. The focus of this process was on the optimization of particle size and loading volumes of DEXSORB with additional granular media and the assessment of hydraulic and removal performance under flow-through conditions at both relevant and challenge micropollutant concentrations. Cyclopure also successfully sourced components required for the production of finished filter cartridges, marketed as Purefast.

The Purefast filters were tested by NSF International and successfully passed certification requirements as a drinking water treatment component with a treatment capacity of 65 gallons for the reduction of chlorine in accordance with NSF/ANSI Standard 42 and for PFOA/PFOS reduction in accordance with NSF/ANSI Standard 53. Following the commercial launch of Purefast filters in 2022, there has been a consistent increase in consumer interest and demand. Cyclopure's successful entry into the point-of-use water filtration market paves the way for the adoption of DEXSORB technology in various residential water treatment applications, providing consumers with more options and flexibility to access safe drinking water.

Last Modified: 06/14/2023
Modified by: Frank A Cassou