An Oregon product designed to provide clean drinking water in Third World countries may also hold the solution to a problem that plagues construction sites: how to clean stormwater.

Beaverton-based Puralytics first caught widespread attention when it unveiled the SolarBag. The bag, which uses sunlight to clean contaminated water, has been used in 60 countries around the world, according to Mark Owen, Puralytics’ CEO.

Owen’s company is now working on an overgrown version of the SolarBag. The new product, called the LilyPad, is in the spotlight for its potential to not only clean large sources of water in impoverished countries and disaster areas, but also serve commercially viable markets such as construction and agriculture.

Owen, a self-described “serial entrepreneur,” started Puralytics seven and a half years ago with an eye toward using LED light to activate nanotechnology to purify water. That early search resulted in a product called the Shield, an LED-powered purification system designed for decentralized drinking water systems, multiunit housing or small-scale water stations.

Even as they developed Puralytics’ first product, Owen and his staff began to ponder whether they could replace LEDs with sunlight to purify contaminated water. Their search resulted in the creation of the SolarBag.

The SolarBag quickly caught the attention of the tech community and captured a string of awards for Puralytics, including a grand prize for best clean technology business at the 2010 CleanTech Open. But Puralytics wasn’t done noodling ideas for better – and bigger – ways to clean contaminated water.

With a 3.5-liter capacity, the SolarBag was limited to producing a maximum of 10.5 liters of clean water per day – enough for a single person. Owen and his staff wondered if they could make a larger version of the bag to clean a much larger volume of contaminated water.

“The question was: How big could we make it, and could we treat the water source?” Owen said.

At the time, Owen figured the product that would become the LilyPad would again find its main purpose in areas where pure drinking water is a problem. Owen envisioned it being used mainly in open-topped water tanks and ponds. But as he talked to people about the product, he soon realized it also might have commercial potential.

“There’s been tremendous interest from the (construction) industry,” Owen said. “We’re looking at its potential to clean stormwater, to clean water used on farms for crops.”

Creating a product for widespread use in a commercial market would be a big boost for Puralytics. The high costs associated with developing technology – the SolarBag and LilyPad both rely on a combination of five processes – require tech startups like Puralytics to rely on investors and funding from sources like Oregon BEST.

Money from Oregon BEST, which works to direct research revenue from multiple sources to companies in the state, helped Puralytics work with Oregon State University to conduct an initial phase of research on the LilyPad.

“The LilyPads are designed to float on the water surface,” said Tyler Radniecki, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at OSU. “We did some lab tests with (collected) stormwater and found that four inches of standing water is the ideal depth.”

Armed with that information and $94,000 more from Oregon BEST, Radniecki is ready to start a second phase of LilyPad testing for Puralytics.

The testing will be done in a rain garden area at the OSU-Benton County Green Stormwater Research Facility in Corvallis, which will allow Radniecki and one of his students to study how the LilyPad stormwater treatment technology performs in real-life conditions.

“(The facility) has all the bells and whistles as far as monitoring,” Radniecki said. “We can measure water flow, sunlight. For Mark’s technology that I’ll be testing, that will be critical – how the sunlight intensity affects the rate of contaminant absorption.

“(The LilyPad) is designed for more than one-time use, so we’ll (also) be looking at how long they last, how leaf debris that falls on top of it affects it.”

For Radniecki, the LilyPad testing results will provide material for papers for peer review in scientific journals and a topic for his assistant’s master’s thesis.

The tests also promise to provide civil engineers with information about ways to make it easier to maintain rain gardens, according to Radniecki. Rain gardens often are used to help clean stormwater, but they require a high degree of care.

“Maintenance is a big thing with rain gardens,” Radniecki said. “A rain garden needs the grass mowed. You have to clean the silt. You have to take care of the plants, but a lot of times that doesn’t happen.”

During the testing phase, Radniecki and his assistant will examine whether the presence of the LilyPad changes the amount of maintenance that needs to be done to keep the garden in proper working order.

As for Puralytics, if the testing upholds expectations, the company will be able to walk away with what it says is crucial for earning recognition – and commercial acceptance – for the LilyPad.

“One of the challenges is that you need third-party certification and a qualified lab to talk about results,” Owen said. “The industry really wants to see that.

“This is going to help us cross that gap for internal testing to formal field training with a well-monitored application in a public setting. It will give us the (real world) data. That’s essential.”

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It is not a secret that the U.S. Department of Defense has started investing more time – and money – in pursuit of sustainability initiatives.

In April, the department set some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in history: The Air Force, Army and Navy are now committed to deployment of three gigawatts of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal by 2025.

For clean technology companies around the country, that commitment to renewable energy could be a golden opportunity.

Bill Boyk, a Banks resident whose background includes military service and work in the solar industry, is one of many entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on the Defense Department’s shift to clean energy. In 2008, he began developing a dual-axis solar tracking system designed for remote and off-grid installations.

Boyk, who served in the National Guard for six years, says solar power could save lives by reducing the number of fuel shipments needed in active military zones.

“In Afghanistan, fuel convoys become targets,” Boyk said. “The military is looking in all directions for ways to reduce the demand for those fuel deliveries.”

His company, which is a regional semifinalist in the national Cleantech Open business competition, operates under the name of . The small startup is now seeking financial investment in its third patent-pending prototype, which uses a GPS system to rotate the panels in relation to the sun’s location in the sky. Boyk says the portable Ameristar system generates up to 40 percent more power than fixed panels.

Ameristar’s solar tracker also has a low center of gravity, which increases the system’s stability when it’s mounted on rough terrain. In addition, a simple racking system reduces installation time and ongoing maintenance needs. These qualities, according to Boyk, make the technology ideal for deployment on cargo containers, steep hillsides, ocean pontoons and other rugged landscapes.

“You can take this solar equipment onto a site, set it up in an hour, and put a big dent in the need for gas and diesel,” he said.

The Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition, an association of mostly manufacturing and technology firms, in April hosted its first event to focus specifically on the growing clean tech sector.

“(Clean energy) is one of the top priorities of the Department of Defense,” said Sean Murphy, executive director of the coalition. “Finding more clean energy resources is a national security issue, so we need to try to connect these people.”

Boyk attended the PNDC clean tech symposium, in Bremerton, Wash. There, he was encouraged by military officials who verified the demand for products like his solar tracking system. The Marines’ special forces, for example, may be interested in portable solar systems to generate power for telecommunications systems, Boyk said.

And if the Defense Department were to identify a need, major investment would likely follow. The department increased its investment in clean energy by a staggering 300 percent between 2006 and 2009, according to a 2011 report from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Not only did the amount of investment jump from $400 million to $1.2 billion in that three-year period, but the report also projected spending to surpass $10 billion annually by 2030.

Promises by the deep-pocketed Defense Department to invest in clean technology are positive signs for startups like Ameristar.

“There are a whole lot of companies doing this type of work out there,” Murphy said. “Sometimes it comes down to timing (and) sometimes it’s knowing the right people, but there are a lot of opportunities out there right now.”

Nevertheless, Boyk is continuing to look for opportunities in various markets for his fledgling company.

“Right now this has been solely financed by us,” he said. “We’re still those struggling entrepreneurs with a great idea.”

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Before fleeing to Oregon, Miodrag Ognjenovic owned a company that installed security systems in buildings in his native Yugoslavia.

But bitter ethnic conflicts and violence in the 1990s tore apart the country, which is still reeling. Ognjenovic was one of the thousands of refugees from Sarajevo, which is now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who left it all behind.

“It’s all gone – there’s no reason to go back,” he said.

Ognjenovic ran his company in Sarajevo until April 1992, when the war made it too difficult to run a business. At that time, he said, his only concern was how to survive and save his family.

But in Oregon in 1999, he founded another company – .

“I’m a fighter,” Ognjenovic said. “I’ve had a passion for electronics for a long time, but making something happen has got to be a long-term thing.”

NADAC Systems began by installing access controls and data cables. The work supplemented Ognjenovic’s efforts for Multnomah County; in fact, he continues to test security and life safety equipment for the county.

The U.S. provided Ognjenovic a fresh start, but challenges too. He struggled to perfect his English and encountered competition from existing installers. Eventually he started searching for a gap in the market, and in 2006 he began developing a complete key management system that integrates with existing building controls.

Ognjenovic earned a patent, and is now finalizing design of a control system that not only increases building security, but also can create significant energy savings. And with more state and local governments creating benchmarks and incentives to reduce energy use in buildings, NADAC Systems may be in good position to profit.

The system, called Smart Dragon, has already caught the eye of Slobodan Petrovic, an associate professor at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

“Energy efficiency is becoming more and more important,” Petrovic said. “(NADAC Systems) could have significant applications in green buildings.”

Smart Dragon is targeted for use in government buildings, airports, college campuses, and other commercial buildings with complex controls. When it’s incorporated into existing systems, Smart Dragon streamlines several applications – including key management, access control, and time and attendance.

But it’s Smart Dragon’s potential to create energy savings that excites Petrovic and others about the prospects for NADAC Systems. Unlike most building controls, Smart Dragon can recognize who is in a building, and then distribute energy based on real occupancy.

When an employee walks into a large office building, for example, Smart Dragon “knows” the location of the person’s workspace and can turn on heating, cooling and lighting only in that particular area. Ognjenovic’s initial projections show that this level of integration could reduce energy consumption in buildings by more than 40 percent.

Petrovic is creating a project in conjunction with a major building management company and NADAC Systems that could verify these energy-efficiency claims. If the deal were to come together, OIT renewable energy engineering students would conduct more tests and help commercialize Smart Dragon.

NADAC Systems also is a semifinalist for the Pacific Northwest region in the national Cleantech Open competition. Ognjenovic hopes that will be a springboard to help him secure the $300,000 still needed to finalize Smart Dragon software. He also expects to seek $500,000 to $800,000 more to devise a market approach and make NADAC Systems profitable.

“I’ve already done a lot of the work,” he said. “Many people that came from my area got here and weren’t able to find enough strength to move a little forward. I have some good ideas and some bad ideas, but I see that this system can be a great benefit.”

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Toward the end of summer 2007, Jeff Gilbert, then a technical engineer at Intel, was relaxing on a cruise in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when he was struck with an idea that changed the course of his life.

As the ship’s stacks blew out exhaust from the engines, kitchens and elevators, it dawned on Gilbert that there might be a way to turn those emissions – and wasted air flowing from all sorts of systems – into electricity.

When he returned to Oregon, Gilbert started looking seriously into the idea and was happy to find that no one else seemed to be developing the sort of energy recovery and generation technology that he had in mind.

“A lot of people are looking into energy efficiency technology, but we’re the first ones to also create electricity,” he said.

Gilbert founded later that year, and has since earned a U.S. patent for a device that connects to existing HVAC systems and converts exhaust into electricity.

“There aren’t any competing technologies, but we’ll be competing for the same energy efficiency dollars,” Gilbert said. “Others just save energy, though; we provide a choice for what to do with it.”

The patented Exhaust Capturing Electrical Regeneration Device (ECERD) is essentially a group of mini wind turbines that mount onto cooling towers, vents or fan decks. When the exhaust from a building’s HVAC system blows out, the device turns that by-product, which Gilbert calls “synthetic wind energy,” into electricity.

“Wind is blowing out of these systems and being wasted,” said Mike Gilbert, Jeff’s brother and the company’s executive vice president. “We wanted to know: How can you capture that?”

To answer that question, Mike Gilbert said they were “operating under the cloak of darkness” for years as they tested their ideas. It wasn’t until their first patent was approved in September 2011 that the Gilberts began spreading the word about Regenergy365.

“That’s when we knew we really had something on our hands,” he said.

Hopes are definitely high for Regenergy365: The Gilberts have already given up successful careers in the building industries to commit to the new venture. Jeff left Intel in 2010, and Mike ended a 12-year run as a residential architect.

The Gilberts’ father, Chris, spent his career manufacturing components for wind turbines and is now president of Regenergy365.

By combining their expertise and bringing in financial and communications specialists, the Gilberts hope that Regenergy365 can significantly reduce energy that’s wasted in HVAC systems around the world.

The ECERD technology may be best suited for heavy energy users such as data centers, hospitals, high-tech manufacturing facilities, and other commercial and industrial buildings. Because such facilities have HVAC systems that run 24/7, the small amount of electricity generated by each mini turbine would add up to create noticeable reductions in operating costs.

The electricity could either be fed back into the facility and consumed immediately or stored for times it is needed most. The Gilberts are also working with a lithium ion battery company from the Midwest to develop a customized battery system to sell along with their device.

“The next layer of energy efficiency is really in energy storage,” Mike Gilbert said. “It’s really a hot little market.”

The startup was recently named a regional semifinalist in the business competition. The team is hoping to partner with Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center, or possibly Intel, to continue testing its product.

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When compared to some of the super high-tech gadgets that are defining the growing “clean tech” sector, soil microbiology may sound a bit dull. But a startup in Corvallis is finding some exciting new applications for its soil-altering technology.

was established in 2004 after spinning out of Oregon State University’s soil biology lab. The company tests soil and also sells products to help repair land damaged by industrial waste or excessive fertilization. Vineyards in California, coffee plantations in Guatemala and tomato farms in Mexico are among Earthfort’s recent clients.

But a small Japanese city near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant recently expressed interest in another application for Earthfort’s services: reducing the spread of radioactive material following a nuclear disaster.

When a devastating tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, the ensuing nuclear accident led to far-reaching health and safety concerns. One of the long-term fears surrounds food production. Several studies have taken place to determine whether vegetables and other food grown in Japan are safe to eat, but results are varied.

Research published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences last year suggests that the spread of radioactive isotopes into land surrounding the plant is likely to severely impair food production.

That’s where Earthfort comes in.

The eight-person company recently signed a letter of commitment with a Japanese company that is working with the government to come up with ways to limit the movement of Cesium-137. It’s a radioactive element that can linger in the environment for decades following a nuclear meltdown.

Researchers have found that the area surrounding Fukushima had levels of Cesium-137 that exceeded official government limits for arable land.

“Everything we do is related to the repair and remediation of soil, but the radiation issues are more glamorous than an over-fertilized field,” said Scott Smith, Earthfort’s CEO.

Here in Oregon, OSU’s nuclear engineering and radiation health physics department tested Earthfort’s product to see whether it could stop a more benign version of the radioactive material from traveling into groundwater or entering radishes grown in tainted soil.

The results are promising, according to Kathryn Higley, professor and department head.

“You can’t destroy radiation; that’s not physically possible. But if you can block it from getting into crops or keep it from moving down into the groundwater – that’s a really good thing,” she said. “That’s why this product is interesting.”

The data suggests that Earthfort’s product prevents nearly half of the radioactive Cesium-137 from entering plants and significantly reduces its movement through the soil.

With such promising results, Earthfort’s president and lab director, Matt Slaughter, is already considering long-term plans to work with the areas of the Ukraine still being impacted by the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and in other countries with nuclear capabilities.

But for now, the company, a Northwest semifinalist in the business competition, is focusing on its work to help American farmers produce food more efficiently and with less environmental impact.

“We have huge opportunities in several areas, and we’re exploring them all,” Slaughter said. “It’s been a fun journey.”

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Portland startup is quickly growing its weatherization business.

The 16-person company isn’t even two years old, but in the past two months it has gained national recognition and a partnership with a leading Oregon contractor.

Sam Pardue founded Indow Windows as he sought a cost-effective and energy-efficient replacement for old or drafty windows. He developed a customized insert, edged with patent-pending compression tubing that creates a seal similar to one of a refrigerator door.

The innovation advanced the company to the national , where it was awarded a total of $60,000 in cash and services. Some of the winnings will likely help pay for legal expenses associated with a Series A round of venture funding that Pardue is aiming to complete by the end of this year.

Indow Windows has already raised $375,000, but Pardue is targeting a total of $750,000 – enough to pay for an expansion up to Vancouver, British Columbia, and down to San Francisco. A planned second round of funding would be used to cover marketing, sales and operating costs of a national expansion.

“It’s purely by happenstance that we were born here (in Portland),” Pardue said. “A huge percentage of our potential customers are in the Northeast, for fairly obvious reasons.”

He cited a market-potential analysis that looked at factors including weather patterns and utility rates.

A few weeks before the national CleanTech Open ceremony, Indow Windows forged a new partnership with – one of the Northwest’s most prominent design-build and remodeling companies.

“Neil Kelly has a well-deserved reputation for being on the cutting edge when it comes to green remodeling,” Pardue said. “And they certainly have shown that with their aggressive adoption of Indow Windows as a key part of their service and product offering.”

More than 150 Portland homes are now outfitted with Indow Windows, and the number is “rapidly rising,” according to Pardue. Neil Kelly is the largest dealer, with contracts to represent Indow Windows in Seattle, Portland, Salem, Eugene, Bend, Hood River and Astoria.

Also, the partnership with Neil Kelly brought Indow Windows into the nonprofit program that to date has helped more than 1,000 homeowners finance remodels to increase energy efficiency.

“Our contractors kept saying over and over again how much they loved the Indow Windows product, so we’re just trying to serve that market,” said Derek Smith, CEO of Clean Energy Works Oregon.

CEWO usually settles on product recommendations by relying on Energy Trust of Oregon standards, but it made Indow Windows an option because of a high level of interest.

“Window replacements aren’t always an affordable option for a range of our customers,” Smith said. “And we haven’t heard of interest anywhere near this on any other product.”

At $20 per square foot, the acrylic inserts boost the performance of single-pane windows to the equivalence of standard, double-pane windows at about 20 percent of the cost.

“We’re getting orders left and right,” said Chad Ruhoff, general manager for Neil Kelly’s home performance division, which in 2011 has grown from five employees to 31 because of the CEWO work.

Ruhoff said the training for contractors is “pretty intensive,” and requires several computer tutorials, tests and a half day of on-site training.

Part of the instruction focuses on Indow Windows’ customized software, which enables technicians to measure windows with a laser tool, and then wirelessly transmit the dimensions to a web application installed on a laptop at the Indow Windows manufacturing facility in North Portland.

Although the software still has some kinks, its success is also the key to expansion.

“About a year and a half ago I basically had a heart attack when I realized how complicated it was going to be to set up a national dealer network with the precision required to scale our business up,” Pardue said. “But we’ve been working on the IT system ever since, and the platform is stable and fully functional.”

Pardue recently hired three part-time production staffers through Portland Youth Progress, a nonprofit that helps high-risk youth, many whom have cognitive disabilities, have suffered abuse or have spent time in juvenile corrections facilities.

“We are ready to scale up nationally just by hiring more people,” Pardue said.

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The national winners of the 2011 CleanTech Open were announced today, and Portland-based Indow Windows came very close to the top honors.

A Minnesota-based company that uses laser-based systems to improve manufacturing efficiency took the $250,000 grand prize. But Indow Windows, regional winner for the Pacific Northwest, won the National Sustainability Award for its “excellent alignment of business goals with an overall sustainability strategy,” according to the judges, and was named a runner-up for the grand prize.

Indow Windows manufactures thermal window inserts that simply press into the inside of window frames to deliver double-pane window performance at a fraction of the price. The company will benefit from $10,000 in cash and services for its selection as the National Sustainability Prize winner.

HM3 Energy, a Gresham-based biomass processing company, also participated in the national competition.

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The third annual Pacific Northwest Awards Expo for the Cleantech Open is scheduled for Oct. 5. At the ceremony, finalists will be named for the national business competition. The event will take place from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle. Tickets cost $65.

Following is a look at four of the region’s semifinalists.

MountainLogic

This startup, which has offices in Portland and Seattle, is rolling out a wireless system that transforms the way homeowners control their heating and cooling systems.

The “MountainWise” system features wireless temperature sensors to measure the temperature of separate rooms. A wireless master unit then uses computer algorithms to identify the rhythm of each home and ultimately predict desired temperatures.

The system is predicted to reduce energy costs by at least 40 percent, according to CEO Scott Elliott. will be able to test that estimate thanks to a $255,500 grant from the Bonneville Power Administration.

The grant will support trials in 200 homes within the BPA’s service area. Half will serve as a control group, and receive only measurement systems to see how much energy they use for heating and cooling. The other hundred will receive the MountainWise system to identify how much it can reduce energy costs. Elliott hopes the trial will succeed in providing sufficient evidence to bring in partnerships with utilities.

The company plans to concentrate its efforts on the West Coast, primarily in California because of the state’s strong conservation incentives. The cost of the system is predicted to be approximately $1,000.

Versalence

Nancy Kroner, owner and operator of this Camas-based startup, is working to develop a low-impact, hydrokinetic turbine that is “water-to-grid” ready.

developed a system that can generate electricity in water flowing as slowly as three miles per hour. The system involves a floating turbine, generator and grid connection system that can be mounted on a barge in river systems and tidal areas, or on a series of concrete pads at the foot of dams and in stable river flows.

The business is focused primarily on providing training, maintenance and testing services for the control systems in hydroelectric generating dams. Kroner said her 18 years of hydropower experience led to development of the innovation.

“We want to bring something all-encompassing to the market,” she said. “A lot of people have designed brilliant turbines, but very few have generators attached, let alone the ability to connect to the grid, which we do have.”

The Cleantech Open business competition helped Kroner realize that the product isn’t quite market ready, but she hopes it will be by summer 2012. Versalence presently employs five people, including Kroner. All of them are volunteering their time, and the hydrokinetic turbine projects are entirely self-funded.

“People feel strongly about this technology and about moving this concept forward,” she said.

Three Dimensional Timberlands

This limited liability company, based in Gold Beach, is developing biomass pyrolysis facilities along Oregon’s coast. has plans for three pyrolysis plants that will use forest slash and other low-grade wood products to produce biochar and bio-oil.

The first plant will be in Curry County, the second in Coos County, and the third near Astoria. Three Dimensional Timberlands strategically planned the locations to give the plants easy access to deep-water shipping ports. That will enable the products to reach markets across the Pacific Ocean without prohibitive transportation costs.

The company was named a regional Cleantech Open semifinalist, but in May pulled out of the competition because it did not have necessary time or resources to continue, according to co-founder Chip Weinert.

GreenPrint

This company has received widespread media coverage since it started in 2005. CNN, Grist, Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg and many others have reviewed ‘s software, which can measure, manage and ultimately reduce printing paper waste.

“Our launch was kind of serendipitous – it was the post-‘Inconvenient Truth’ era,” said Hayden Hamilton, GreenPrint’s co-founder and CEO. “Everybody was rushing out there with a green edition of whatever magazine they were publishing, and we were kind of the perfect story.”

GreenPrint has formed key partnerships with firms including Xerox and Staples, and received large orders from international businesses. The company also benefits from the simple fact that its software helps solve a problem that many people find annoying, Hayden said.

GreenPrint focused for the last 18 months on developing new analytic and management software systems, which Hayden hopes will help the company continue to break into growing markets.

The company reached the regional semifinals of the Cleantech Open, but decided to withdraw because of time constraints.

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A Portland-based company, , has figured out a way to use the turbulence that occurs naturally in fluids to combat air and water pollution.

Vorsana has 10 patents and 43 international patent applications covering intellectual property and technology that isolates pollutants from potentially valuable substances including coal, oil, natural gas and manure in dairy farms.

“All of it is about getting the good stuff isolated from the bad stuff,” Vorsana CEO David McCutchen said.

The fundamental idea is that when a fluid is fed through two disks that are rotating in opposite directions close to each other, and a source of suction is put on top, thousands of little vortexes arise in the space between the disks. The result is that heavier particles move outward and lighter ones are sucked into the center.

“Pollution is more difficult to handle when it is diffuse,” McCutchen said. “This process strips out all of the good stuff that is obscuring the bad stuff. Then you’re dealing with a concentrated pollution stream.”

There are numerous patent-pending uses of the McCutchen Process, which was developed by David McCutchen’s older brother, Wilmot. Vorsana has patented one basic machine that can be adapted into many different models; two are being manufactured in Portland and Utah.

In Portland, the company is making prototypes for a Nevada mining company that David McCutchen said he couldn’t name. Vorsana has a contract with the Nevada-based company for technology that will be used to recover more metal out of “tailings,” which is waste rock from the mining process.

“It’s a secret process that’s much, much more efficient,” McCutchen said. “It’s a way of getting more valuable stuff out of what they would otherwise throw away, and preventing pollution in the process.”

Vorsana, founded in 2008, is a regional semifinalist in the Cleantech Open business competition. The national winner will receive a $250,000 grand prize. Vorsana has moved forward mainly with money from angel investors, and contributions from the company’s four members.

The next stage for Vorsana will be to test and refine the engineering through partnerships with universities or industry groups able to study the “separation phenomenon.”

“There are large markets available in the oil and gas industry and also in the dairy industry, generally in wastewater treatment,” McCutchen said. “We see the need and the opportunity in those areas in the near future, even if we can’t take advantage of them right away because we don’t have the equipment yet.”

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When Sam Pardue looked into fixing the “beautiful, leaky, old windows” in his 1906 Portland home, he became so frustrated by the lack of options that he began developing his own solution.

Pardue came up with a customized, acrylic insert that boosts the performance of single-pane windows to the equivalence of standard, double-pane windows at about 20 percent of the cost. The window inserts stay in place because of a patent-pending spring bulb that creates a seal similar to that of a refrigerator door.

One year ago, Pardue left his position as CEO of Portland-based photography product company Lensbaby to fully pursue starting , a business that has gained a significant amount of attention from customers, clean technology investors and utilities.

A grant from the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center helped secure Portland General Electric’s participation in the review of an Indow Windows pilot installation planned for later this summer. As a regional semifinalist in the Cleantech Open business competition, Indow Windows has been able to refine its pitch to potential investors.

“The Cleantech Open is a different type of competition or engagement than anything else out there as far as I can tell,” Pardue said. “It provides you with coaching and business plan development and resources which are designed to help companies succeed in the marketplace, regardless of whether you win the competition or not.”

Some Indow Windows customers had faced the same problem that had frustrated Pardue: attractive, historic windows that were drafty but irreplaceable. Indow Windows were installed this year in a home listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Pardue hopes others will see that the product does not detract from existing architecture.

But people also are interested in installing Indow Windows to save money on utility payments. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that windows can account for up to 25 percent of a home’s heating bill.

Noise reduction is another selling point. The company recently introduced an acoustic-grade insert that cuts outdoor sound by 70 percent, and has drawn attention from commercial customers including the Leftbank Annex in Northeast Portland and the Olympic Mills Commerce Center.

Pardue knew that for Indow Windows to continue growing, it would need a system to manage all of the information pertinent in a mass customization business. The startup conquered that milestone just a few weeks ago, he said.

The company invested in customized software that will enable technicians to measure windows with a laser tool, and then wirelessly transmit the dimensions to a web application installed on a laptop at the Indow Windows manufacturing facility in North Portland.

“With the push of a button, any dealer anywhere can submit a purchase order to us and it’ll be received into our cloud-based database, and from there we can drive all manufacturing and order fulfillment,” Pardue explained.

“We invested quite a bit of time, effort and money in order to develop a complete IT system that will allow us to do business in Salem or Seattle or St. Louis, and that’s really the key in making this a national business.”

Indow Windows has drawn customers through a large referral network in the Portland area, but it plans to transition to working with wholesale dealers in the fall. Pardue said he is discussing wholesale arrangements with about a dozen dealers in Oregon and Washington, including businesses that sell curtains and blinds, home contractors, solar panel installers and window shops.

The list price for customized panes is $20 per square foot, with a nominal measurement and installation fee.

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