Cycleau

In post-industrial cities across the United States, the effects of aging water and wastewater infrastructure are affecting rates of public health by increasing mortality and the spread of disease. Water distribution mains built in the last century made of lead and copper have caused drinking water crises in cities including Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey, where the presence of contaminants in household water supplies has posed an immediate threat to the health and safety of local residents. Wastewater infrastructure built at the same time has also become undersized proportionate to population levels in multiple U.S. cities, and the excess of wastewater generated by residential and commercial buildings has caused a pattern of sewage overflows into local waterways that now poses a threat to the health of regional aquatic ecosystems. Each of these systemic challenges stems from a lack of technological diversification in municipal water infrastructure, the decentralization of which may allow for greater investment and engagement by stakeholders in maintaining the health of local water systems. 

Across the United States, it is estimated that approximately 7.2 million Americans become sick from waterborne disease each year, largely as an effect of contamination in public water supplies(1). In 2021, approximately 268 chemicals were identified in municipal water supplies across the country by the Environmental Working Group, which is nearly three times the 90-some drinking water contaminants the USEPA regulates(2). In post-industrial cities, these safety concerns have been magnified by a pattern of limited public investment in water infrastructure combined with overall declining economic revenue and population loss. Crises involving lead and copper in drinking water have predominantly impacted low-income communities of color, while public corruption in some cities such as Flint have further stagnated any efforts to overhaul local water piping systems. In these urban areas, expanding opportunities for point-of-use water treatment can be a viable means to protecting residents from the contaminants that may derive from aging distribution mains.

At the same time, increasing rates of wastewater generation are threatening aquatic ecosystems in the U.S., driving a vicious cycle that impacts both human and environmental health. The average American uses approximately 80 to 100 gallons of water each day, with national daily usage estimated at more than 345 billion gallons(3). Just as aging water infrastructure is underfunded, antiquated wastewater infrastructure is as equally incapable of managing these rising rates of wastewater generation, which has led to a pattern of increasing sewage overflows in many urban waterways. By 2022, 40% of all lakes in the U.S. were deemed unsafe for swimming or fishing, creating adverse impacts both on local aquatic wildlife and on the welfare of proximate human communities(4). Advancing water reuse as a resource-saving measure is consequently becoming increasing more critical in order to protect both the users and stakeholders of our national water resources.

Sources

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2023, www.cdc.gov/healthywater/surve... . 
2. Environmental Health News. 2021, www.ehn.org/drinking-water-pol... 
3. National Geographic. 2020, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/partner-content-americas-looming-water-crisis.
4. GlobeWater. 2022, https://www.globewater.org/facts/water-pollution-statistics/

Cycleau is a compact greywater treatment system designed to retrofit below sinks to capture and treat greywater for potable water reuse applications. The hardware unit, which is sized at approximately 30 centimetres by 30 centimetres by 70 centimetres, connects to the drain pipe and water supply lines which remain exposed below most sinks to redirect incoming municipal water supplies through a point-of-use treatment system that removes public water contaminants, while also collecting greywater for immediate treatment and purification to potable standards. To provide clean water, Cycleau serves as a point-of-use treatment system where water can be filtered and purified immediately before it’s consumed. To reduce sewage pollution, it directly reduces the size of a building’s wastewater footprint by capturing a fraction of greywater for on-site reuse applications, while also treating all other wastewater before it leaves the building to prevent household contaminants from entering the local aquatic ecosystem. 

Cycleau operates by way of a comprehensive, five-stage wastewater treatment system. Greywater first passes through a coagulation chamber, where a chemical coagulant such as aluminum sulphate is added to water supplies to attract and coagulate suspended particles. Physical particles are then filtered through a bed media chamber where media such as activated carbon, fine sand, and drainage gravel capture particulate matter in wastewater. Water is then treated by three stages of membrane filtration, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration. Water is then disinfected by UV irradiation and purified by advanced oxidation, which effectively eliminates all bacteria and pathogens remaining in water. These stages mirror the processes used in municipal wastewater treatment plants; however, Cycleau is designed using elements of modularity to scale the hardware needed for these stages to fit the specifications of a below-sink treatment system which is not larger than two feet by three feet.

Cycleau is designed to meet the water management needs of residents in post-industrial cities. In such municipalities, federal investment in public water and wastewater infrastructure has declined steadily causing a series of water infrastructure management challenges that has resulted in a dire need for an accessible diversification of wastewater treatment systems. This begins with the drastic loss in water quality in many post-industrial cities which still use lead and copper pipes for drinking water distribution, or which run on combined sewer systems that overflow into local waterways. Lead and copper pipes are at higher risk of leaching dangerous contaminants, including neurotoxins, into water supplies as an effect of their age and materiality. At the same time, high rates of wastewater generation and rainfall in these municipalities has caused a rising rate of combined sewer overflows in cities such as New York City and Baltimore, where excess wastewater has been cited as among the leading causes of waterway pollution. Still to this day, a combination of divestment and corruption in local governments has prevented an overhaul of lead water pipes and combined sewer systems in several post-industrial cities, creating an urgent need for a consumer-driven diversification of water treatment options that can be adopted by homeowners outside of the public water distribution system.

Having identified the systems that currently limit equitable access to clean water in post-industrial U.S. cities, we designed Cycleau to provide a low-cost, accessible water treatment system for households that could achieve the following functions:

1. Integrate a point-of-use water treatment system to treat incoming municipal water for any dangerous contaminants. By having water treated within the household right before it’s used — at the point of use, instead of the point of source — residents can be protected against poor quality water that might be impacted by underfunded water distribution infrastructure.
2. Directly reduce the wastewater footprint of a household by capturing and recycling a fraction of greywater for immediate treatment to potable standards, where it can then be reused within the household instead of sent to a wastewater treatment plant or dumped in a local waterway. By recycling greywater within households, public wastewater distribution systems will be less burdened, and overflow rates will decrease as a direct function of reduced sewage outputs. This will improve the overall quality and health of local waterways, allowing aquatic wildlife to thrive while increasing accessible to waterways for recreational use by residents.
3. Reduce water utility costs for homeowners by decreasing their household water inputs and outputs as a direct function of the rate of wastewater recycling achieved by Cycleau. Because Cycleau is designed to capture and reuse greywater on-site, residents will be able to decrease the amount of water they use from municipal providers as well as how much wastewater they generate as sewage outputs. This will lead to a direct reduction in their water and wastewater utility costs, which can support low-income residents currently overburdened by high utility rates in post-industrial cities.

This project has been directed and coordinated by our principal investigator, Noemi Florea, in partnership with a large number of stakeholders in post-industrial U.S. cities and supporting engineers who have contributed to the applications, design, and mechanics of Cycleau. Our wide network of contributors allows for a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that ensures Cycleau will respond to the gaps and constraints of water infrastructure management across domains of policy, economics, technology, and social justice. More information on the backgrounds of our contributors is below:

Noemi Florea, principal investigator

Our team’s principal investigator, Noemi Florea, has been investigating the challenges concerning water infrastructure in post-industrial U.S. cities for three years, having begun her work in 2020 during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Noemi began this project by interviewing residents in Baltimore, Maryland who had witnessed firsthand the disparities in water access that existed between low- and high-income neighborhoods; she also later expanded her research to account for similar experiences faced by residents in other post-industrial cities including Flint, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio. In 2022, Noemi founded LÆRO, a multidisciplinary design studio specializing in participatory design practices to build on her experiences in co-designing product and technology solutions such as Cycleau with the stakeholders of her work.

Contributing stakeholders and advisors

Multiple residents and activists of post-industrial U.S. have contributed to and advised on how Cycleau is designed to meet the gaps and constraints of local water infrastructure management. Our contributing stakeholders include:

• Melissa Mays, activist and founder of Water You Fighting For (Flint, Michigan)
• Nayyirah Shariff, activist and co-founder of the Flint Democracy Defense League (Flint, Michigan)
• Monica Lewis-Patrick, executive director of We the People of Detroit (Detroit, Michigan)
• Yvette Jordan, chair of NEW Caucus (Newark, New Jersey)
• Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director at Clean Water Action (Newark, New Jersey)
• Maria Lopez-Nuñez, Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy at Ironbound Community Corporation (Newark, New Jersey)
• Gary Brune, Senior Policy Manager at NJ Future (Newark, New Jersey)
• Peter Chen, Senior Policy Analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective (Newark, New Jersey)
• Pastor Mark James, Barnes Memorial Church (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Rianna Eckel, Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Mary Hughes, resident (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Molly Amster, Maryland Policy Director at Jews United for Justice (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Pearl Chen, coordinator of Utilities for All (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Larry Bresler, executive director of Organize! Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Brian Mallory, community organizer at Organize! Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Don Bryant, activist and resident (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Joseph Meissner, attorney (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Owen Foote, co-founder of Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club (Brooklyn, New York)
• Arif Ullah, executive director of South Bronx Unite (The Bronx, New York)

Contributing engineers

Multiple engineers have contributed to and advised on the mechanics, construction, and manufacturing of this project as it involves water treatment processes and product automation. Our team’s engineers and engineering advisors include:

• Alex Serrat, controls engineer
• Maurel Aza-Gnandji, electrical engineering professor
• Ichor Joshua, mechatronics engineer
• Kevin Leddy, civil engineer
• Yunus Kovankaya, civil engineer

In spring 2023, we completed developing our first operational prototype capable of processing wastewater on an automated basis. Our prototype is made up of three chambers, including a loading tank containing a mesh pre-filter; a bed media chamber containing drainage gravel, fine sand, and activated carbon; and a third chamber holding two membrane filters and a UV bulb. This prototype, which also serves as our minimum viable product, is automated with the use of an ultrasonic sensor which measures water levels in the first loading tank and triggers pressure pump operations when water levels reach the tank’s seven litre holding capacity. This automation has been programmed using an Arduino microcontroller. As we have been able to demonstrate our baseline standard for hydraulic flow through this prototype, we have also monitored our system’s general treatment efficiency by monitoring levels of turbidity, total dissolved solids, and pH in water before and after treatment to ensure that our system meets minimum aesthetic standards in treated water. Following this, we intend to test for our system’s removal efficiencies in treating the 92 drinking water contaminants currently regulated by the USEPA to be able to fully validate its efficacy for pilot program deployment.

Through the prototyping process, we have also been able to project the manufacturing costs of our system to be approximately $70 - $100 per unit, based on the following budget breakdown from our prototype’s development:

Unit: Prototyping Cost (USD$)

• Ultrasonic sensor: $19
• Pressure pump: $13
• Microcontroller: $4
• Piping: $11
• Ultrafilter: $22
• Nanofilter: $26
• Bed media: $15
• Ultraviolet irradiation bulb: $28

Based on this breakdown, the total cost of acquiring our prototype’s components at the retail rate was $138. Assuming that wholesale acquisition rates will cost approximately 50% of retail rates, we consequently can project that manufacturing rates will cost $70 - $100. Then assuming a 40% profit margin, we can ultimately expect to sell our units at about $200, compared to an industry average rate of $170 - $2500 of competing water filtration units. This is also before any subsidies or discounts are applied by our NGO and public partners when distributing our technology to low-income users. 

The following diagram and image also show how our current prototype is assembled. While we are testing for removal efficiencies on this system, we are also iterating to improve our system’s aesthetics, user interface, and marketability.

Because our solution is still being developed and tested, we have not yet deployed our technology for real-time use by consumers. Over the next year, our emphasis will continue to be on testing and validating our system’s removal efficiencies against a wide range of contaminants and other real-world variables. This research will best position us to advocate for policy reform in ways that could have a transformational impact on U.S. water systems for decades to come. A reform in local, state, and/or federal building codes to permit potable reuse projects such as ours could impact anywhere between 200,000 to 360 million individuals over the course of the coming decade, depending on how quickly our production capacity can scale to meet supply demands created by fresh legal compliance.

However, we project reaching a total urban population of 46.2 million residents across the United States who are currently affected by drinking water contamination and/or who live in proximity to contaminated waterways. This projection is based on the combined populations of twenty-one post-industrial U.S. cities largely contained in the “Rust Belt” region of the country, plus the populations of all U.S. cities with populations above 500,000. Our target market in post-industrial U.S. cities specifically addresses the challenges of divestment and pollution that these communities are especially vulnerable to, while our market of large U.S. cities also addresses the challenges of rising water consumption and scarcity that many urban centers are grappling with. The total urban population is of the following U.S. cities combined: Rock Island, Illinois; Gary, Indiana; Flint, Michigan; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; Rochester, New York; Youngstown, Ohio; Canton, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Steubenville, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Erie, Pennsylvania; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; McKeesport, Pennsylvania; Wheeling, West Virginia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Madison, Wisconsin; Baltimore, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, California; Dallas, Texas; San Jose, California; Austin, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Denver, Colorado; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Nashville, Tennessee; El Paso, Texas; Washington, District of Columbia; Boston, Massachusetts; Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Fresno, California; Tucson, Arizona; Sacramento, California; and Mesa, Arizona.

Within these urban populations, we expect to reach 3.4 million users living in poverty — which is classified in the U.S. as living at or below 50% of the Federal Poverty Level — 7.8 million low-income users living at or below the Federal Poverty Level, and 23.4 middle-income users living at or below 75% of their city’s median income level. Ultimately, these projections reflect only the number of Americans who may be positively impacted by this solution, and we expect that our total global impact will be vastly higher. However, for the purposes of piloting, projecting revenue streams, and measuring impact we have felt that it remains more realistic to focus on American populations for monitoring and evaluation to start.

To us, Solve represents one of the strongest global communities invested in tech entrepreneurship in social impact, and we are seeking to involve ourselves further in that community by connecting with others to achieve both technical and social validation of our product.

In the long run, our main barrier to implementing Cycleau is the need for policy reform around local, state, and federal building codes to permit potable reuse technologies in residential and/or commercial buildings. Because our technology is completely innovative as it pioneers the world’s first compact potable reuse system for consumers, it is not yet recognized by public building codes and as such cannot be legally deployed. Through Solve, we are seeking advising and introductions to representatives of city and state building offices who may apply permissions for Cycleau and similar technologies to be deployed in buildings following extensive technology validation.

To support how we overcome this main legal barrier, we are also currently examining related social and technical barriers concerning how this technology is validated and deployed. On the technical front, we recognize that Cycleau must show effective removal efficiencies against the 92 drinking water contaminants regulated by the USEPA to be validated enough to sway policy reform around potable reuse projects. In the next six to twelve months, we are actively seeking connections to water sample testing labs and/or to onboard a water quality technician or chemist to join our team to support these validation efforts, and we anticipate that Solve will provide a strong network to facilitate these team-building efforts. Similarly, we are seeking access to local makerspaces and/or prototyping labs to support how we iterate on our prototype, which we also believe the Solve community can point us towards. Finally, to tie together these efforts we are aiming to raise $30,000 specifically to fund our water quality testing expenses, which we are hoping to raise in partnership with the Solve community.

Socially, we also recognize that our stakeholder communities must receive full transparency on this technology to be engaged and in support of how it may improve their access to clean water. Though we have already made extensive headway in building the right relationships and trust with our stakeholders through our many community partnerships, we are also planning for how we may deploy educational programming tangential to our technology development to enhance how residents perceive this new device as it may support them. Through Solve, we would love to partner with other water justice activists and community groups who may be based in our target cities across the United States, which include sixteen post-industrial U.S. cities and thirty-two U.S. cities with populations over 500,000 residents.

In researching previous developments regarding both clean water access for post-industrial U.S. cities as well as improving wastewater management in urban centers, we identified several technologies which Cycleau improves  upon based on gaps users reported. 

First regarding access to clean water, we identified a wide range of portable water filters and household water treatment devices that had previously been deployed in cities such as Flint and Newark to provide what would be a “band-aid” solution to a systemic crisis of water contamination. In speaking with users of such products, we found that usability was a critical issue with many filters, and that they were often viewed as a “cheap” and “flimsy” alternative to infrastructure upgrades for lead and copper pipes, which could cost up to millions of dollars and take multiple years or decades to complete. Consequently, we aimed to develop a technology that was situated between emergency relief and an infrastructural overhaul, and which would instead diversify existing water treatment systems through technological decentralization. 

Then considering existing interventions for wastewater management, we identified that the lack of financial return inherent to most greywater systems today could be a critical limiting factor for how much impact this type of technology would have in the coming decades. Because current greywater systems require households to be repiped to merge new connections between sink drains and toilets or outdoor irrigation, they are only financially accessible to buildings that are being newly constructed or completely renovated. 

As an effect, one of our guiding points of innovation was designing a household greywater system that would be affordable to a low-income family. To do so, we prioritized passive design and a compact equipment size to reduce costs. We also examined where in the household could greywater equipment be retrofitted without removing walls or flooring to enhance the accessibility of the installation process. We scoped out typical household plumbing blueprints to identify where in a household are water and wastewater supply pipes close enough in proximity that they could be joined without affecting the rest of the household piping. We found that by connecting water supply lines and drain pipes below the sink, shower, or laundry machine, we could effectively redirect water flows into a compact treatment system without affecting any part of the building’s structural integrity. 

With each of these factors in mind, our technology keenly innovates on existing water treatment system design by adopting a modular construction that allows what were once exclusively municipal-scale systems to be reconfigured into a compact equipment piece capable of fitting below the average sink or wash basin. Cycleau’s ability to capture and treat greywater is a key innovation in how it provides a household appliance for treating used water to a potable standard. This alone allows households to immediately reduce their water footprint by making greywater systems accessible, cost-effective, and easy to install.

Goal one: Quantify and validate the removal efficiencies of the Cycleau greywater treatment system against the 92 drinking water contaminants regulated by the USEPA

These contaminants include different types of particulate matter, organic pollutants, and chemical and pharmaceutical contaminants. We intend to achieve this goal through a combination of in-house and outsourced water sample testing done both with testing equipment our team has already acquired as well as through our partnerships with local EPA-certified labs that can test samples for specific contaminants at a small fee.

Timeline

July 2023 - May 2024

• • Establish contractual partnership(s) with EPA-certified NYCDEP water sample testing facilities
  • Coordinate acquisition of greywater samples spanning geographic areas, time of day, and potential rates of contamination
  • Outsource testing for the following contaminants: Cryptosporidium, Giardia lamblia, heterotrophic plate count, legionella, enteric viruses, bromate, halo acetic acids, total trihalomethanes, arsenic, copper, lead, acrylamide, alachlor, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, carbon tetrachloride, chlordane, 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane, 1,2-Dichloroethylene, dichloromethane, 1,2-Dichloropropane, Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, dioxin, epichlorohydrin, ethylene dibromide, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, hexachlorobenezene, polychlorinated biphenyls, pentachlorophenol, picloram, tetrachloroethylene, toxaphene, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, alpha particles, beta particles and photon emitters, radium 226 and radium 228 (combined), uranium, chlorite, chloramines, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, antimony, asbestos, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cyanide, fluoride, mercury, nitrite, selenium, thallium, atrazine, carbofuran, chlorobenzene, 2,4-D, dalapon, o-dichlorobenzene, p-dichlorobenzene, cis-1,2-dichloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethylene, trans-1,2-dichloroethylene, di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate, dinoseb, diquat, endothall, endrin, ethylbenzene, glyphosate, hexachlorocyclopentadiene, lindane, methoxychlor, oxamyl, simazine, styrene, toluene, silvex, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, and xylenes

Goal two: Deploy a pilot program of three Cycleau greywater treatment systems with volunteer partners from three post-industrial U.S. cities to test the effectiveness of our system against real-world conditions

We plan to work with volunteers from our partnering stakeholder organizations across cities of Detroit, Cleveland, and New York to deploy our pilot program in our target context of post-industrial U.S. cities. We plan to ask at least one organization and/or individual in each of these three cities to test one of three greywater treatment models we aim to produce in our first year of operating. During this pilot program, we will abide by testing protocol wherein volunteers will be asked to collect samples of their water after it has been treated through Cycleau at varying but predetermined times of each day for contaminant testing by our team and/or lab partners. 

Timeline

June - July 2023 

• • Fabricate three working prototypes of the Cycleau greywater treatment system for pilot program deployment
  • Coordinate deployment schedule with community-based partners in Flint, Cleveland, and New York
  • Coordinate legal liability protections for pilot program

August 2023 - June 2024

• • Launch pilot program through deployment of one working prototype of Cycleau with partners in  New York City, Cleveland, and Detroit. Potential partners include the Gowanus Dredgers, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, South Bronx Unite, Utilities for All, Organize!Ohio, Water You Fighting For, the Flint Democracy Defense League, and We the People of Detroit.
  • Coordinate acquisition of greywater samples spanning time of day and use patterns with participating volunteers

To consistently deliver on our value propositions to both our beneficiaries and customers, we intend to use the following metrics to demonstrate our impact on urban social and environmental health:

1. To first quantify the direct impact Cycleau has on water quality, we will report the removal efficiencies of the Cycleau water treatment system against all drinking water contaminants regulated by the USEPA for public access on our website and in print-outs with all of our commercial units. This will allow users to understand how effective Cycleau is against their contaminants of concern. 
2. To demonstrate the improved water quality Cycleau may have as a function of reduced wastewater discharges from households, we also intend to partner with local citizen science programs to test the water quality of urban waterways after periods of sewage overflow over the course of our technology’s expanded deployment to measure reductions in waterway pollution potentially as a function of Cycleau being used in households. By testing against all potential real-world variables, we will be able to approximate the direct impact Cycleau has on local waterbodies as another measure of our impact. 
3. In addition to our direct impact, we will also report on how we have been able to influence the broader context of water infrastructure management by measuring the extent of building code reform which permits potable reuse projects, as well as the expanded allotment of recreational water permits and/or public programming as a function of improved waterway health. Measuring how much our initiative has affected local policy will signify the transformational impact our work has had, as it will have tangibly altered the opportunities available to other companies and utility providers as we collectively work towards improving equitable access to clean water in the U.S.

In addition to these custom indicators for our solution, we will also be reporting on how our intervention fulfils targets which align with Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 14, which represent access to clean water and life below water, respectively. Within SDG #6, we will utilize indicators measuring the proportion of our target population using safely managed drinking water and the proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows which are safely treated as direct measures of our intervention’s impact. Over longer periods of time, we will also measure the proportion of bodies of water in our target communities with good ambient water quality as an indirect measure of our intervention’s impact; to quantify this, we’ll draw from indicators under SDG #14 which measure the index of coastal eutrophication, plastic debris density, and average marine acidity (pH) as a function of average levels of wastewater pollution in our target communities. Using a combination of custom indicators tailored to our technology’s intervention along with broader indicators of human and environmental health across two sustainable development goals will ensure that our intervention maintains the impact it was designed for, and that this impact aligns with the overarching needs established by international governance bodies.

Within LÆRO, the interdisciplinary design studio under which we designed Cycleau, our team specializes in product and program interventions at the intersection of emergency relief and an infrastructural overhaul. Each of our initiatives, ranging from industrial design to systems planning, aims to diversify existing infrastructure and public services. We achieve this by deploying grassroots-level technologies that have a high capacity to scale by our partners’ decentralized production networks. Our theory of change encompasses eight stages ranging from an idea to widespread evolution: 

1. Idea: We believe that ideas can come from anyone, from an individual to a community-based organization to a large firm.
2. Education: Propagating and developing an idea, including by building the right team, starts with educational programming for target audience(s).
3. Technology: With the right stakeholders engaged, technology solutions can be co-designed, prototyped, and tested.
4. Funding: By leveraging project findings and showing proof of activities, teams can acquire funding through investments and/or grants.
5. Policy: Policy reform can codify how a new technology or practice is consistently utilized across industries.
6. Market: Fresh legal compliance combined with a commercial precedent can spur entire markets to build upon one group’s innovation.
7. Innovation: Other hosts can innovate upon a preceding idea by addressing its gaps and adapting it for new applications.
8. Evolution: Widespread market innovation can enable populations to shift their consumption habits, creating a social evolution.

Within Cycleau, this overarching theory of change connects our outcomes to impacts as follows:

1. Idea: The initial concept and applications behind Cycleau were created through collaborative brainstorming between our team and community activists across multiple post-industrial cities
2. Education: Digital learning modules published on LÆRO’s website illustrating themes of water pollution, treatment, and reuse help break down existing cultural and behavioural barriers users may have to consuming recycled wastewater
3. Technology: Cycleau is prototyped and validated against USEPA-regulated contaminants to demonstrate the feasibility of recycling greywater to drinking water under compact system constraints
4. Funding: Equity-free funding provided through both philanthropic and public sources enables early manufacturing and distribution of Cycleau units to off-grid markets such as RVs, temporary encampments, special entities, and mountainous communities.
5. Policy: Early commercial and technical validation of Cycleau, combined with community-driven educational programming, influences building code reform to permit potable water reuse in buildings
6. Market: Cycleau is deployed at scale in residential and commercial buildings to achieve its intended impact.
7. Innovation: Other utilities, companies, and entrepreneurs innovate on Cycleau to create similar compact greywater treatment systems capable of on-site water reuse
8. Evolution: Wastewater reuse within households is normalized and scaled globally to achieve a new cultural norm.

This theory of change has been conceptualized and validated through co-design efforts with our stakeholders, multiple of whom specialise in non-profit leadership and community development. Stages 1 through 5 ranging from idea to policy reform are currently underway in parallel processes as we partner with both think tanks, our technical team, and community stakeholders to deploy program and non-program activities synchronously.

Cycleau is a compact under-the-sink greywater treatment system designed to capture and treat greywater used for household cooking, cleaning, or bathing for potable reuse applications within that same household. To provide clean water, it serves as a point-of-use treatment system where water can be filtered and purified immediately before it’s consumed. To reduce sewage pollution, it filters and disinfects water before it leaves the building to prevent contaminants from entering the local aquatic ecosystem. Cycleau operates as both a stand-alone piece of equipment as well as one that integrates into a household’s preexisting water infrastructure, with connections available for supply lines and drain pipes that may already be in use. Contaminated greywater can be treated in this compact, low-energy system as it passes through five comprehensive stages of water treatment which include coagulation, bed media filtration, membrane filtration, disinfection, and advanced oxidation. These treatment processes are as follows:

1. Coagulation 

Coagulation is often one of the first steps in water treatment. A chemical coagulant, like aluminum sulphate or ferric sulphide, is added to wastewater to attract suspended particles. When small particles are bound to a coagulant, they form a larger group of particles which is easier to filter out. In Cycleau, a coagulant is injected into the water stream through a Venturi injector, after which it settles in a coagulation basin. Water passing through and settling in the basin has time to interact with the coagulant, and particles can group together before filtration. 

2. Bed Media Filtration 

Larger particles are then filtered out through a sediment filter containing find sand, activated carbon, and drainage gravel, all together known as “bed media.” This reduces the load of particles that will eventually pass through membrane filters, and also improves the appearance and taste of water. 

3. Membrane Filtration

Membrane filters with pore sizes ranging from 10 nanometers (1 x 10-9 meters) to 10 micrometers (1 x 10-5 meters) can filter out the smallest of particles which still contaminate water. In Cycleau, a microfilter, ultrafilter, and nanofilter are used consecutively to comprehensively filter water three times. We have selected to use these three membrane filters in place of a single reverse osmosis filter as another point of innovation when compared to similar products. Using these three membranes reduces the sediment load which can threaten the durability of any single membrane, while also reducing the energy usage and amount of water which can be rejected as discharge by a reverse osmosis filter.

4. Ultraviolet Irradiation

Even with all that filtration, some bacteria and pathogens can still be lurking in the water. Disinfection through UV irradiation can deactivate bacteria to prevent consumers from illness. In Cycleau, water passes through a UV irradiation bulb following membrane filtration. We selected UV irradiation over chlorination at this stage to reduce the risk of carcinogenic by-products from being formed, which can sometimes happen with chlorination. 

5. Advanced Oxidation

Oxidating the water by adding ozone can provide the final push to ensure water is fully disinfected before consumers use it. In Cycleau, ozone is added by an injector attached to a ceramic pipe which water flows through.

Our technology builds on existing water treatment systems, and primarily those found in municipal-scale water treatment plants, while innovating on their modularity to develop a compact, low-cost alternative that can be adapted by homeowners for everyday use. We use a combination of low- and high-tech units, such as the biosand sediment filter and the ultraviolet bulb, to make use of water treatment innovations found across the world and throughout history in order to improve the resiliency of our system as it stands to operate even against power disruptions and reduced energy inputs.

A wide range of literature has been published on treatment processes for direct potable water reuse, ranging in scale from household to municipal treatment facilities. Some of the literature we referenced in our own technical design process includes:

• Pecson, B., Trussell, S., Pisarenko, A., & Trussell, R. (2015). Achieving reliability in potable reuse: The four Rs. JournalAWWA. https://doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2015.107.0047 
• Mosher, Jeffrey. (2015). Framework for Direct Potable Reuse. 10.13140/RG.2.1.4047.2406. 
• Hai Duc Minh Tran, Sandrine Boivin, Hitoshi Kodamatani, Keisuke Ikehata, Takahiro Fujioka, Potential of UV-B and UV-C irradiation in disinfecting microorganisms and removing N-nitrosodimethylamine and 1,4-dioxane for potable water reuse: A review, Chemosphere, 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.131682, 286, (131682), (2022). 
• Kyle A. Thompson, Eric R. V. Dickenson, A performance‐based indicator chemical framework for potable reuse, AWWA Water Science, 10.1002/aws2.1191, 2, 5, (2020).

Beyond academic research, a number of direct potable reuse facilities are in operation in several cities around the world, including in California’s Orange County Water District and Singapore’s NEWater. We closely examined the treatment processes and hardware units used in these facilities to identify which points of modularity will allow such methods to scale down into a compact greywater treatment system capable of retrofitting under sinks. By utilizing verified data from facilities operating in real-time, we are incorporating proven technology to achieve direct potable water reuse within Cycleau. Furthermore, through our early prototyping efforts we have been able to monitor levels of turbidity, total dissolved solids, and pH through tested greywater samples to ensure that Cycleau achieves significant reductions in turbidity and total dissolved solids while maintaining an average pH reading of 7. 

Due to the extensive research and validation put forward by other experts in the water reuse industry, our technology and its proposed methods have been verified in other case studies prior to our own applications regarding a retrofitted hardware unit below sinks. Our point of innovation consequently is not the process of treating greywater to drinking water in itself, but rather scaling this process to the hardware unit that we have custom designed for residential and commercial buildings.

While we maintain a firm quota policy ensuring that a minimum of 50% of our staff and board members are women and/or people of color at any point in time, our true ethics of diversity and inclusion stems from the communities we engage with and those we conduct the co-design process with. Our studio promotes methodologies of co-design, participatory planning, and human-centered design as being at the core of our work, and as such much of our work is conducted outside of the team and instead with the stakeholders of the products we design, often in their resident communities. Because we prioritize projects which uplift human health and socioeconomic exchange in underserved communities, many of the stakeholders we engage with are primarily of a low-income background in predominantly Black and Latinx communities. As such, many of our community-based partners are led by local residents who personally identify with our stakeholders, and consequently we often engage and enable our community-based partners to facilitate planning and design activities as a capacity-building practice for their own neighborhoods. While we aim to handle technical work regarding product-service development, the real premise and applications of any project are developed by the stakeholders themselves to ensure optimal and relevant results.

Within our initiative Cycleau, we have applied this methodology and our ethics to fostering engagement within the communities of Gowanus and the South Bronx around local water issues, be them water contamination, sewage pollution, or the rising cost of water. We have also engaged with the residents of Newark (New Jersey), Flint (Michigan), and Baltimore (Maryland) regarding these same challenges, as we ultimately envision our technology and its influence on water infrastructure being deployed nationwide. Each of these communities is made up of residents who are predominantly classified as low-income and minority, as it remains these financial and historical power dynamics which continue to overburden some residents more than others as we all seek to acquire the basic resources we need to survive. Consequently, ensuring that our stakeholder population is as diverse as the communities we aim to support, and moreover that our engagement process is as inclusive as possible, remains a core principle of our work. We not only follow concrete design methodologies for achieving this, but we also instill organizational policies which require that any sub-population of our organization — be it our board, our staff, or the community representatives we co-design with — meet the quotas we have in place to reflect a realistic representation of our stakeholder communities and, more broadly, the city and country we live in.

Cycleau is a product-driven intervention supplemented by capacity-building services as we aim to develop the world’s first compact potable water reuse technology. Our key program activities involve the manufacturing and distribution of Cycleau greywater treatment systems, while our related programming involves expanding advocacy and education for water reuse opportunities.  

Multiple populations will be impacted by our intervention as either beneficiaries or customers. Low-income residents of post-industrial cities impacted by water contamination and/or sewage pollution in local waterways are among our core human beneficiaries, as Cycleau is designed to provide point-of-use water treatment while directly reducing the wastewater footprint of households to lower rates of sewage pollution. Improving the quality of local watersheds by reducing levels of sewage overflows can also support local aquatic ecosystems, and we consider the wildlife of such waterways to also be among our beneficiaries. To our users, Cycleau’s core value proposition relies on how it may protect users from the dangerous contaminants often found in public water supplies, while it may also promote savings on sewage utilities as a function of its on-site greywater recycling.

Cycleau’s deployment will alternatively be facilitated by our core customers, which include local and state governments; architects and developers; homeowners and renters; community-based organizations; and non-government organizations, all of whom have a stake in ensuring the provision of clean water for all. To our customers, Cycleau’s value proposition rests in how it may be a low-cost method for diversifying water and wastewater infrastructure to improve homeowners’ resiliency to sudden changes in water quality. It can also improve the quality of local waterways, which will open new opportunities for waterfront recreation that can create jobs and improve the quality of life in urban areas. Of the different populations that will invest in Cycleau, we estimate our revenue streams to break down by the following customer segments:

• Architects and developers: 30%
• Homeowners: 30%
• Local and state governments: 20%
• Community-based organizations: 10%
• Non-governmental organizations: 10%

Our projections are based on our understanding of these different populations’ expenditure rates; flexibility of capital; and direct incentives to invest in Cycleau. Architects, developers, and homeowners will be among our top customers due to their direct advantage in using affordable and accessible technology for water efficiency, utility savings, and household insurance. To further incentivize architects and developers to install Cycleau at a wholesale rate during building construction and/or retrofits, we also intend to have our technology certified by third-party platforms such as LEED to promote Cycleau as an accredited product that will improve the overall sustainability of an architectural project. Local and state governments, as well as CBOs/NGOs, also make up smaller revenue streams for our enterprise as they may invest in wholesale units of Cycleau to distribute for free or at a subsidized rate to our users to ensure that this technology reaches those who may need it most as a function of their own institutional responsibilities to promote equitable access to basic resources.

Cycleau is structured as a direct employment social enterprise which embeds its mission within its core product distribution. Our vision is of a world in which every plant and animal has equitable access to clean water resources, while our mission is to advance water reuse technology to reduce the health impacts of water pollution on humans and wildlife. By creating a technology which enables point-of-use water treatment with reduced wastewater discharges, we are able to sell a product and create profits while achieving our mission for social and environmental impact.

In our first two years of operation, we will primarily generate capital through sustained donations and grants for technology development. It will be critical for us to leverage grant funding in order to prototype and validate our technology prior to distribution without incentivizing equity-driven business growth through venture capitalism. The following list of expenses demonstrates our expected budget during the first two to five years of product development, including sources of potential funding:

Total Expenses: $305,525

1. Total material expenses: $121,500
   1. Casement/structural material: $8,000
   2. Electromechanical equipment: $12,000
   3. Outsourced water quality testing: $100,000
   4. Digital modeling software: $1,500
2. Total product validation expenses: $49,025
   1. Turbidimeter: $1,600
   2. Total dissolved solids meter: $150
   3. pH meter: $100
   4. Filter photometer: $11,300
   5. Fluorometer: $18,375
   6. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer: $17,500
3. Total staffing expenses: $135,000
   1. Mechanical engineer: $35,000
   2. Chemical engineer/water quality specialist: $35,000
   3. Product designer: $30,000
   4. Lab technician: $35,000

Total potential funding: $1,309,500

1. The New School Student Research Award: $6,000 (confirmed January 2023)
2. The New School Civil Engagement and Social Justice Mini-Grant: $1500 (confirmed November 2022)
3. Eugene Lang Innovation Award: $7000 (confirmed December 2022)
4. Swarovski Foundation Creatives for Our Future Award: $20,000 (confirmed September 2022)
5. MIT Solv[ED] Award: $5,000 (confirmed receipt May 2023)
6. HP Create What’s Next Prize: $15000 (confirmed receipt May 2023)
7. CIV:LAB Award: $50,000
8. Hudson River Foundation Innovation and Synthesis Grant: $25,000
9. Make It Circular Challenge: $10,000
10. 11th Hour Racing Grant: $25,000
11. National Geographic Level I Grant: $20,000
12. NIH Small Business Innovation Research Grant: $275,000
13. NIH Small Business Technology Transfer Grant: $275,000
14. James Dyson Award: $35,000
15. Seoul Design Award: $40,000
16. SBIR Environmental Technologies Grant: $200,000
17. Imagine H2O Urban Water Challenge: $100,000
18. USAID Development Innovation Ventures: $200,000

Following the first two to five years of product development, our operations model for financial sustainability will shift to reflect a greater dependency on increasing amounts of sales to create a profit which can be reinvested into our enterprise. At this stage and continuing throughout the rest of the enterprise’s existence, we will achieve financial sustainability by selling our product at a profit to customer segments including architects and developers; homeowners; local government agencies; and NGOs/CBOs. Because we intend to operate as a social business, we will reinvest our profits in scaling the production and distribution of Cycleau technology, while also funding non-program activities targeted at education and advocacy for water reuse opportunities.

We have currently raised $54,500 from the following grants:

• The New School Civil Engagement and Social Justice Mini-Grant ($1500)
• The New School Student Research Award ($6000)
• The Eugene Lang Innovation Award ($7000)
• Swarovski Foundation’s Creatives for Our Future grant ($20000)
• MIT Solv[ED] grant ($5000)
• HP Create What’s Next Prize ($15,000)

This funding has enabled us to develop our first working prototype which can now be validated in both simulated and pilot contexts. Following our prototype’s validation against USEPA-regulated drinking water contaminants, we will be able to distribute our product commercially in off-grid markets to begin generating sales revenue in order to achieve financial sustainability.