DetoXyFi, Low-cost biodegradable wood based filters.

Waterborne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid are a serious public health issue, causing 3.4 million deaths annually. They disproportionately affect the ~2 billion people globally that do not have access to clean drinking water. Additionally, these communities are disproportionately affected by excess rainfall, flooding, and higher temperatures caused by climate change, leading to water stress and serious contamination - further exacerbated due to inadequate infrastructure and resources. In India, 38 million
people are affected by water scarcity and 73 million work days are lost due to waterborne illnesses. 205 million people per year have needed humanitarian assistance since 1996, with over 30 million people displaced by disasters in 2022 alone. According to the World Meteorological Organization (2021), flood-related disasters have increased by 134% since
2000, and such incidents are expected to get worse with climate change. These issues affect developing as well as developed countries, but limited infrastructure and resources in developing countries cause greater devastating impact. The lethal mix of depleting clean drinking water combined with increasing incidences of humanitarian crises is placing an increasing proportion of the global population at risk for contracting waterborne illnesses, and necessitates the need for highly scalable, rapidly responsive, and sustainable water treatment solutions, particularly for disaster relief.
Rapid response in the direct aftermath of disasters (before community-level water infrastructure can be reinstated, which typically takes 3-5 weeks) often involves distribution of packaged or bottled water, but the sheer weight and volume of water involved and damage or flooding of roads makes it difficult. Boiling or water purification tablets may be used - but the former requires fuel, and the latter is not effective against protozoa, typically does not remove turbidity or chemicals, can generate harmful by-products, and

suffers from issues of poor taste and lack of social acceptance. Current commercial point-of-use water filters are typically expensive (e.g. $30 or more), making it difficult to reach millions of people in need. There is a critical need for affordable and sustainable water filtration solutions, especially those that serve the most vulnerable populations globally. Enabling access to clean drinking water is an important first step in achieving health, economic and social security. 

DetoXyFi has developed a patent-pending (PCT/US2022/076211) low-cost, sustainable and biodegradable filter with a short use life (<1 week), which builds upon extensive research, stakeholder feedback, and field validation at MIT over 10+ years. Our technology utilizes the xylem tissue of plants that is responsible for the flow of sap from the roots to the leaves. In 2014, one of our founders (Dr. Rohit Karnik and collaborators at MIT) showed that the xylem tissue present in the sapwood of conifers (such as pine trees) can
be used to filter water. Further development, including human-centered design, led to foundational understanding and designing of water filters based on xylem tissue in wood, with third-party tests showing the ability to meet ‘Comprehensive Protection’ standard for microbial protection as per WHO. Our wood filters are the size of credit cards (e.g., 5x5x10 cm3), which we aim to package to patent-pending biodegradable, foldable filters that fit in a wallet-sized pouch, weigh ~100 g, cost ~$1, and provide 10- 50 L of clean
drinking water in 2-3 days. Our fabricated filters showed a ~log(3) rejection of E. coli as tested by a third party lab.
Within the initial market of disaster relief and urban slums in India, there are no other filtration technologies that can provide similar features (low cost, rapidly deployable, biodegradable, highly effective at removing all contaminants, and sustainable). The main alternatives are boiling (requires fuel), bottled/packaged water, water purification tablets/chlorination, other commercial filters, retail filters (e.g. Brita, ZeroWater) and plastic water bottles. Our product is more affordable, effective and innovative than available alternatives. The key advantages of our solution is summarized as follows:
Acceptability: Field studies have shown that people find the natural and with human-safe chemical treatment features of the xylem
filter very attractive. This is a major advantage compared to other low-cost methods such as chlorination.
Access, affordability and rapid dissemination: We have the ability to provide clean water in a rapidly deployable manner at low cost
in disasters where surface water or other contaminated water is available. Our filters cost <$10, which is one third the price of most
competitive water filters.
Sustainability: The xylem filter uses low-grade by-product wood of the wood industry, such as branches and peripheral wood. The
global timber production exceeds 1 billion m3, but just 10,000 m3 is sufficient to make up to 500 million xylem filters. Plus, the filters
can be re-used to make pulp, charcoal, or fuelwood, effectively providing clean water without consuming the material. Furthermore,
filtering water using xylem uses less than 1/30th of the wood required to boil the same amount of water

DetoXiFy believes in access to clean and safe drinking water as a human right. In India as a next step to making our products available to the communities who need them most, we want to begin piloting our filters - starting with slums and informal settlements in New Delhi. India has more than one billion people who live in different ecological, social and cultural regions. Providing safe water and improved sanitation to such a large and diverse population is a challenge. One such community that struggles every day to secure clean drinking water are the households living in slums of the city, New Delhi. New Delhi is home to about 17 million people.
It is the largest Indian city in terms of area and has the highest population density in the country. New Delhi has housed about 6,343 slums with approximately 1 million households. With our filters we are looking at impacting a diverse group of people, from informal settlements and low-income backgrounds as well as people who experience the aftermath of natural disasters and try to recoup from the environment. 

The target demographic includes mainly low-income rural or semi-urban communities in developing countries across the world impacted by flooding, or rural, low-income communities (including first nations communities) impacted by flooding in the US and other developed countries. 

In the US for instance, 77 million people can be affected per year with access to water from sources which violate safety standards because of disasters or other infrastructural issues. We see the greatest impact in the southwest and southcentral parts of the US where high social vulnerability, particularly along race and ethnicity, exacerbates issues surrounding access to clean drinking water. We hope our affordable solutions shifts power back into the hands of the people. We are currently targeting disaster relief market in US with our bag filters and individual consumption market in India with our box filters designed for household consumption. 

During development of this technology and scaleup, the filter in different form factors were tested across thousands of people in rural India (see images below), Uganda, Madagascar, and the US and was well accepted by the community given the naturality, efficacy, and ease of use. We also have interested humanitarian organisations wanting to work with us given that we can get this funding to build devices. We envision reaching our target demographic via NGOs and other agencies working on disaster relief.

We have received verbal and in writing interest from various humanitarian and relief organisations. These include, DRIIV (India) for large scale pilot and written email chains as well, verbal interest from Water Aid (India) for large scale pilot and written email chains as well 2) Verbal interest from Piramal Sarvajal Foundation (India) for pilot and written email chains as well 3) Verbal interest from Samaritan’s Purse (faith based organization) to pilot and field test.

The team lead has lived in India his entire life and personally faced the effects of unclean drinking water. All three co-founders have. We have been a part of those communities and want to give power back to the people by providing affordable filters they can use.

We have developed and tested our filters in multiple developing countries.  For instance, in India the filters were tested using natural water in Uttarakhand, and user-centered studies were performed in Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Bengaluru. We now have support from DRIIV, WaterAid, Piramal Sarvajal etc to not just test but also deploy on a paid basis. 

We have released a prototype for our Indian market targeted to low-income households. Currently our team is running a field study to gather data related to the product and collect feedback from households in Delhi slums. Our team is also trying to understand the cost that families will be willing to pay per filter and their perception around clean drinking water. Our nature paper (https://www.nature.com/article...) was awarded the best paper in IIT Madras from 100+ papers across 15 countries.

Dhananjay Goel is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and is currently a joint degree student at HKS/Wharton. He has successfully built and commercialized a profitable fintech startup in India (Timble), is well connected within the startup ecosystem and helps with sales outreach and strategy. 

Rishon Benjamin is a graduate of MIT and HBS. He has successfully assisted medical device companies scale innovations in the dental and clinical spaces. Most recently, his extensive experience managing supply chains for a global firm will allow DetoXyFi to optimize production/sourcing. 

Prof. Rohit Karnik is the Tata Professor at MIT, and a globally recognized leader in research in micro/nanoscale fluidic systems with applications in water, healthcare, energy, and environment. He has co-authored about 100 journal papers and is co-inventor on over 25 patents or patent applications. Among other honors, he is recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the US Department of Energy Early Career award. 

We have a functional prototype of our bag filters (Phone 1 & 2) which can filter a few liters of water per hour. It can last for a few weeks and is completely biodegradable. The bag is made with a blend of polyethylene, nylon and polyethyleneterapthalate.  Once completely used (current lifespan is around 50 litres of water filtered) it stops working. Through SOLVE we can work to increase the lifespan of the filter. These bags filters are light weight and easy to carry. It is particularly suitable for disaster relief market where there is urgent requirement of clean drinking water.  

We also have a prototype of box filter for low-income households in India. We are conducting a pilot to understand its requirement and how we can improve this prototype according to the requirements of the families in India.  

Through SOLVE we hope to become a part of a community whose core interest, a passion on which they thrive, is to build big bold solutions to solve the world's biggest problems. I hope through SOLVE we can build better filters and validate our prototype— easier to use, longer lifespan, more robust at removing even more contaminants. I also hope through SOLVE we can connect with and provide humanitarian agencies and people across the world affected by disasters the filters they need NOW. 

Finally, an initial marketing and outreach campaign for a month via Google, Facebook, and Instagram has resulted in over 100 signups across 20 countries. The competition grant money, if made available, would put us in a comfortable position to start production soon and also build connections across countries and communities so that we can get these filters out to millions displaced and affected by disasters every year.

We also seek to leverage the MIT ecosystem to identify humanitarian organizations that we could partner with as well as product designers to help design a more user-friendly product for our customers. 

Our aim is to start production of at least 10,000 units of our India prototype which will help us deploy our products in low-income households through a paid model. 

At DetoXyFi, we develop and commercialize low-cost, compact, lightweight, effective, and rapidly deployable filters to provide clean drinking water to communities struggling with access to clean drinking water. Our filters are natural and made of engineered waste wood as a functional material, offering unique advantages of sustainability, low cost, biodegradability, and social acceptance (filters were developed with user input from disadvantaged communities). To build community resilience and address the general clean drinking water crisis, starting with disaster relief as a key application with potential for large humanitarian impact, we envision bringing a range of products such as light-weight collapsible filters and household filters with fully bio-based replaceable that remove physical, chemical, and biological contaminants. DetoXyFi is committed to improving affordability and access to clean drinking water for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities under adverse and normal conditions. There are four key capabilities that allow us to retain a competitive advantage:

Ability to selectively tackle contaminants: In addition to removing all contaminants that commercially available filters target, DetoXyFi filters can be eliminate disease causing agencies (bacteria, viruses, protozoa) and can be coupled with other natural sorbents to provide enhanced targeted protection against contaminants in specific geographies (e.g Arsenic in India or Lead in Flint, Michigan). Our filters can also tackle contaminants that other filters cannot, such as bacteria viruses and protozoa. A more detailed chart of this is attached below for your reference.

Readily available raw materials: A mere fraction (less than 0.1%) of the world’s timber waste annually can be transformed into millions of filters. This allows for the ability to produce filters for nearly everyone that needs it with very little burden to the environment.

Cost: We can provide filters at a fraction of the cost of our competitors. In the case of disaster relief, competition can also take the shape of alternative methods. A snapshot of that has been attached below for your reference.

Scalable forms and sizes: Our filtration platform can be sized, shaped, and modified to accommodate different use cases (community, single use, individual use, field use etc.) thereby lending itself as a platform for filtration.

This chart should help provide insight into the proposed costs and benefits that we can achieve (and a comparison with competition) in comparison to other commercially available filters, for when we attempt to enter the household market.

Below is our theory of change-

We believe that clean water is a right, and that the ownership for clean water should be with the people. In the face of climate-related disasters where water infrastructure is devastated, DetoXyFi’s filters provide access to clean drinking water at the point of use for a minimal cost and in an eco-friendly manner. Our filters reuse waste wood, are naturally biodegradable and are 1/10th the weight of alternative portable solutions like packaged water (also using plastic), reducing carbon emissions (~ 360 MT of CO2 annually estimated*) and plastic waste. Our filters are 10x more effective against chemical AND biological contaminants, protecting entire communities against waterborne disease.
We have evidence to support the effectiveness of our filters against chemical and biological contaminants through third party lab testing. Our two main objectives in the near term are to gather evidence to establish the use cases for our filters in the aftermath of disasters and in urban, low-income, informal settlements with the most suitable form factors - along with pricing strategies, user interface and supply channels. Our product is in the post-prototype stage and ready to be field tested in developing countries such
as India and in the US. The DIV award would kickstart the piloting process and accelerate it rapidly in the following order of evidence generation.
Immediate project outcomes:
a. Fabrication and lab validation of our filters with synthetic challenge waters from New Delhi (and other local target areas in India)
to meet desired specifications (filtration rate, volume, microbiological removal, filter size/weight).
b. Validation of product utility by field testing (user-friendliness, filtration performance, pricing strategy, form factor design) via teams
at NGOs working on disaster relief in local communities.
Longer-term:
c. Endorsement and uptake of product by local NGOs, UN agencies, and governments, and its successful use in urban slums
(everyday use for chronic water stress) and post-disaster acute situations (number of filters distributed and used).
d. After uptake by NGOs and agencies, measuring the impact of the product via metrics such as the number of people provided with
drinking water in a given slum/ post-disaster region by a purchasing agency, compared to the number that would have been
reached with clean water in the same setting in the absence of the product.
e. Randomized control trials (if possible) on the impact of providing the product and the incidence of waterborne disease.
f. Leverage scale and learnings from urban slums and disaster relief applications to develop next gen water filters capable of
reaching audiences needing longer term use.
g. Development and uptake of wood-based filters for everyday household water treatment.
The proposed product is based on 12 years of research at MIT. The resulting research docket is published in Nature.

https://www.nature.com/article...

DetoXyFi has developed a patented innovation that relies on wood as the raw material to create low cost, fully sustainable water filtration devices that provides a low cost, fully sustainable, water filter that provides protection against BOTH inorganic pollutants (salts, heavy metals etc.) AND organic pollutants (such as bacteria). DetoXyFi’s sustainable water filter uses reclaimed timberwood and transforms it into sustainable water filters. We do this through a proprietary chemical process which has been developed at MIT for over 12 years by Prof. Rohit Karnik. The technology, as an overview, utilizes the properties of xylem tissues present in plant stems (which enable transport of water in plants). We also make  use of rejected coconut husk in our manufacturing process. Through this, we have been able to create water filters that exceed WHO purification expectations and is able to filter out chemicals, metals (such as arsenic and lead), microplastics, and pathogens (virus, bacteria, protozoa) – unparalleled by any existing commercial solution. 

We are developing a chemical-free, low-cost, gravity-driven water filter based on naturally occurring xylem tissue in plants. The xylem tissue is responsible for the flow of sap from the roots to the leaves. In 2014, oneof our team members (Dr. Rohit Karnik and collaborators at MIT) showed that the xylem present in the sapwood of conifers has membranes can be used to filter water. The sapwood is the low-grade byproduct of the wood industry and is available in very large volumes. The ability to create filters from different gymnosperms, widespread availability of gymnosperm xylem low cost, natural appeal, ease of transport and distribution, and the traditional comfort associated with wood, could help xylem filters lower the barriers of access, affordability, and social acceptance, and thereby facilitate access to safe drinking water.

Preliminary Data: Results of our initial testing demonstrated the microbiological performance of the filter. To assess the potential health impact of xylem filters and their effectiveness in reducing the risk of diarrheal diseases, we tested the filters’ ability to remove E. coli, MS-2 phage, and rotavirus (the single largest causal organism of diarrhea) from water. Xylem filters (4-cm diameter, 0.375-inch thickness, stored for 2 years, no pre-filtration) made from ginkgo were operated under a 1.2-m gravity head with GTW containing WHO- prescribed concentrations of E. coli (≥106 CFU/mL) and MS-2 phage (≥105 PFU/mL)37 and NSF-prescribed concentrations of rotavirus (≥104 PFU/mL).  E. coli and MS-2 phage were dosed simultaneously in the same test solution while rotavirus removal was tested separately. The bacteria and virus removal was tested at the start of filter operation and when permeance declined to 75, 50, and 25% of the initial value. After the first sampling point at the start of filter operation, dust was added to the test solution to accelerate clogging. The filters showed >4-log removal of rotavirus and >3-log removal of E. coli and MS-2 phage. With such rejection performance, xylem filters would fall under the comprehensive protection (high pathogen removal)’ category (★★) as per the WHO scheme for classifying water treatment technologies. 

Since the virus particles are smaller than the expected pore size of the filters (MS-2 phage and rotavirus are 2448 and 70 nm49 in diameter, respectively, while the pore size is 100–500 nm12), the results suggest that the mechanism of virus removal is likely to be adsorption-driven. Virions can adsorb on cellulose-based materials, with cellulose nitrate reported to remove virions that are much smaller than the filter pore size. We hypothesize that the relatively slow flow rate and the large thickness of xylem filters could facilitate adsorption and removal of viruses and provide ‘comprehensive protection’ against water-borne pathogens as per WHO’s performance criteria for household water treatment technologies. However, the contaminant removal ability of xylem filters could be improved further which will be the focus of our future research/testing efforts.

Link to paper

Boutilier, M. S., Lee, J., Chambers, V., Venkatesh, V., & Karnik, R. (2014). Water filtration using plant xylem. PLoS One, 9(2), e89934.

6- Full-time staff (including the co-founders)

2- Consultants

Total- 8 members

4 years

I think a core method through which we aim to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion is by being as much as possible amidst the population that we aim to serve and incorporate their views and inputs as much as we can. People from across all spaces are welcome into our team and really the heart of what we are trying to do and address is to help people get clean water. Incorporating that lens through our own experiences and our team's experiences is a reminder also of the work that is left to be done.

Main revenue streams: For the beachhead market, DetoXyFi will be selling individual use devices (life span of 1 week). As we move
towards the retail market, DetoXyFi will operate using the razor blade model. Every replaceable filter (usable life of ~ 1 month) generates a 50% gross margin and grows to 65% with scale(>200k units). In addition to the direct revenue stream, DetoXyFi is considering two secondary sources:
1) Once the filters have been spent/used, DetoXyFi can resell these filters back to paper/pulp manufacturers for further transformation
2) Given that our technology plays a key role in eliminating carbon emissions, DetoXyFi has been approached to consider selling
carbon offsets in the market against heavy polluting industries

Business model innovation: Decentralized water filtration poses a huge logistical lift that is both operationally and capital intensive.
To mitigate this, DetoXyFi will work with agencies that centralize their buying of water filtration units. For instance, agencies like
Samaritan’s Purse, stores in inventory 150-200k filters annually with purchasing spread out over quarters. DetoXyFi filters will be sold to a central agency that then will disburse the filters during aid relief.

Business model scalability: Because the key raw material for our filters is considered scrap, DetoXyFi as a firm enjoys very high operational leverage (high ratio of fixed to variable costs). This allows DetoXyFi to rapidly expand profit margins that are essential to
sustain marketing, product development, and sales efforts for the eventual retail market.

Our key KPIs for the next 12-18 months include:
Health: 80% reduction in waterborne disease amongst communities using our filters. Reducing the health costs of managing waterborne illnesses for customers by at least 50%
Access to water: Our filters become available to 100k in post disaster communities and chronic low-water access informal settlements and slums ; this will be between 1-3 countries depending on market penetration
Customers: Our filters get tested, approved and procured by signing a recurring purchase contract with at least 3 large-scale disaster relief or other local water-providing agencies
Testing: Our two initial pilots make way for further paid pilots (at least 2 in different geographies and use cases), and increase the
reach of our filters.

For the beachhead market, DetoXyFi will be selling the individual use devices (life span of 1 week). As we move towards the retail market, DetoXyFi will operate using the razor blade model. Every replaceable filter (usable life of ~ 1 month) generates a 50% gross margin and grows to 65% with scale(>200k units). In addition to the the direct revenue stream, DetoXyFi is considering two secondary sources:

Once the filters have been spent/used, DetoXyFi can resell these filters back to paper/pulp manufacturers for further transformation. 

Given that our technology plays a key role in eliminating carbon emissions, DetoXyFi has been approached to consider selling carbon offsets in the market against heavy polluting industries. 

We have won many grants that have provided us the seed capital: 

1. Adrian Cheng Fellowship at the Center for Social Innovation and Change Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School. 

2. Harvard iLab Spark Grant (2022,2023)

3. Harvard Health Lab Startup Pitch Competition 2023

4. Harvard Undergraduate Capital Partners 

5. Jacobson Social Impact Prize 2022

6. Penn Wharton Innovation Fund 2022

7. UPenn Startup Challenge 2022

8. Weiss Fund 2022

9. MIT Water Food and Agriculture Prize 2023

10. Because Accelerator Program- Oct 2023

11. Social Impact Fellowship Fund (March-Aprik 23)

12. 10k$ SAFE Note from 77.xyz