BioLargo seeking 'to make life better' when it comes to clean water, clean air, and health

Targets solid waste, wastewater, industrial odor, advanced wound-care and distinfectant markets Clyra Medical unit has applied its technology to the coronavirus pandemic with public sales of its disinfectant spray  Flagship product CupriDyne Clean marketed to cannabis producers seeking odor elimination Working with US EPA to develop system to remove harmful 'forever chemicals' from drinking water What BioLargo does: BioLargo Inc (OTCQB:BLGO) is an environmental engineering company with a simple mission: “To make life better” when it comes to clean water, clean air and good health. The company, based in Westminster, California, has developed several innovative and patented products targeted at three markets: water and wastewater treatment, industrial odor and volatile organic compounds (VOC) elimination, and advanced wound care.  BioLargo operates four subsidiaries: Odor-No-More Inc, BioLargo Water Inc, BioLargo Engineering, Science & Technologies Inc (BLEST) and Clyra Medical Technologies Inc.  The Odor-No-More division’s main product is CupriDyne Clean Industrial Odor and VOC Eliminator, which is aimed at the solid waste/landfill/compost, wastewater, and oil & gas industries. The product eliminates odor-causing compounds rather than masking them. The BioLargo Water division develops the Advanced Oxidation System (AOS), an industrial water treatment technology designed to eliminate waterborne pathogens and recalcitrant contaminants with better energy-efficiency and lower operational costs than current technologies.  The BioLargo Engineering division piggybacks on BioLargo Water by offering consulting and engineering services for the water and wastewater treatment industries. It also conducts environmental and Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace-safety compliance audits. The engineering division, along with the Odor-No-More unit, is targeting cannabis companies to adopt the company's CupriDyne Clean product, which eliminates the strong, pungent odors and VOCs emitted during growing and production. BioLargo cites some 15,000 cannabis production sites in California as potential customers.  The Clyra Medical unit - in which BioLargo owns a minority 45% interest via a subsidiary - develops medical products to safely treat chronic wound infections and promote healing while reducing the need for antibiotic  based on BioLargo's technologies through a license agreement calling for 6% royalty payments.  Clyra is advancing with its stem-therapy technology called SkinDisc that uses a patient’s own bone marrow and plasma to help heal chronic wounds. The division also has US Food and Drug Administration clearance to market its Clyra Wound Irrigation Solution product for cleansing, irrigating, and debriding dermal wounds and burns. The subsidiary has also taken its wound-healing technology and applied it to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the form disinfectant products, including Clyraguard personal spray, a hospital-grade, FDA-registered germicide that can be easily applied on the go without having to remove a mask. The spray has been proven to deliver 99.999% antimicrobial efficacy against viruses, bacteria and fungi and demonstrated complete inactivation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. How is it doing:  On March 31, 2021, BioLargo posted its full-year 2020 financial results that saw its consolidated revenue rise 31% year-over-year as its cleantech technologies gained commercial traction. For the year ended December 31, 2020, the company reported consolidated revenue of $2.43 million, a 31% increase compared to annual revenue in the year ended December 31, 2019. Meanwhile, for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020, BioLargo generated around $900,000 in revenue, a 36% increase compared to the third quarter of 2020. BioLargo Engineering recorded total sales in 2020 of $615,000 and an additional $435,000 of intersegment revenue that is eliminated in consolidation. Intersegment revenues are composed of billings to other BioLargo subsidiaries for work related to R&D and commercialization of its AOS and AEC water treatment technologies. ONM Environmental made $1.5 million in revenue in 2020, and had a net loss of $483,000, as it expanded sales and operations capacity. Clyra Medcal logged a net loss of $2.14 million, representing 22% of BioLargo's total net loss for 2020. BioLargo is not obligated to provide working capital to Clyra, or pay its debts. In 2020, BioLargo boosted its balance sheet by retiring over $3 million in debt, from $4.8 million down to $1.7 million. In March 20231, BioLargo retired an additional $650,000 in debt. Other than debt owed by its partially owned subsidiary Clyra Medical, only SBA/PPP loans and fixed-price convertible debt now remain on BioLargo's balance sheet. Away from the financials, the main focus in 2021 has been on BioLargo's engineering activities in the water sector. On January 9, BioLargo revealed that it had completed manufacturing of its first-ever, commercial-scale AOS water treatment unit, which was being shipped to a municipal wastewater treatment plant near Montreal for a pilot project. The company said the pilot is to be run independently by water treatment technology experts from the world-renowned Centre des Technologies de l'Eau (CTE) in Montreal and will provide real-time data of AOS performance in a municipal wastewater stream.  The unit being shipped can treat up to 100 gallons per minute of municipal wastewater, and will eliminate bacteria, viruses, and other organisms. As a modular design, it can easily be scaled up by adding modules to treat whatever volumes are needed to manage required wastewater streams for the customer, the company said. Meanwhile, at the end of January, BioLargo told investors that it was preparing for commercial trials for its AEC water technology as soon as possible after new testing showed it could remove 99.9% of PFAS, the so called "forever chemicals," from water in just a single pass.  Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemical contaminants found in various products such as cookware and electronics. They do not break down easily in the environment or in humans and are associated with serious health problems. Testing at the University of Tennessee showed that PFAS compounds are attracted and bound to the surface of the AEC's proprietary membranes, which in a single pass collect over 99.995%, such that less than one out of 50,000 PFAS molecules was able to penetrate the membrane, said the company. In a statement at the end of February, the company noted that the US President Joe Biden's new administration has decided to create a national standard for what concentration of these chemicals will meet the threshold for regulatory action when found in drinking water supplies, and will now start the process of regulating the chemicals through the Safe Drinking Water Act. BioLargo pointed out that the Biden administration has also given advance notice that it may designate PFAS as federally-regulated hazardous substances and/or regulated hazardous waste. The company said these actions have set off a long-anticipated race for municipalities across the country to identify and adopt water treatment systems that effectively and affordably remove the hard-to-treat chemicals from drinking water. According to the company, in some areas of the US, such as Southern California, municipalities are already actively installing PFAS treatment systems as federal regulations go into effect.   BioLargo said it plans to roll out its AEC PFAS water treatment solution in pilots and commercial trials at municipalities in Southern California and the Midwest over the next year. Also in February, BioLargo revealed that it had teamed up with Garratt-Callahan Company, a national industrial water treatment company, to co-create and develop a wastewater treatment product that will salvage usable water from commercial facilities wastewater streams. The developer of cutting-edge environmental technologies and a full-service engineering firm said a mutual concern for the environment and the care and conservation of water makes the collaboration between the two companies a "symbiotic match". The group said the shared goal is to design and manufacture a new piece of wastewater treatment equipment centered around a new patented water treatment process developed by Garratt-Callahan to reduce wastewater discharged from commercial facilities. BioLargo's engineering division will design, build and pilot a prototype of the new system. When refined, the two organizations have agreed to offer the system commercially to Garratt-Callahan customers and select BioLargo distributors, with BioLargo serving as the equipment's ongoing manufacturer. The collaborative team targets having full-scale units in operation in mid to late 2021 or early 2022. In the same month, away from its engineering division, BioLargo announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary ONM Environmental had acquired a deodorizing and sanitizing technology called EcoMist, which helps raise the customer-care bar for solid waste collectors to treat all types of waste receptacles in real-time during pick up.  The company noted that EcoMist is a device installed directly onto any waste collection vehicle that automatically sprays odor control products and/or sanitizer into refuse bins or dumpsters during the waste collection process. ONM plans to test-market the product directly with its major solid waste handling customers, by packaging it with its popular odor and VOC (volatile organic compounds) control product CupriDyne Clean. The company said ONM's acquisition of EcoMist is part of its strategy to grow revenues of its air quality control division through chemistry deployment systems that lead to more scalable sales of its disruptive odor and VOC control product CupriDyne Clean. It also helps ensure ONM can provide the largest waste handling companies in the country, with a broad range of tools to solve their odor and VOC control challenges in all facets of their business.  BioLargo said that ONM's only obligation under the acquisition agreement is a 10% royalty on EcoMist system sales. Inflection points:   What the boss says: In the March 31, 2021, statement accompanying the company's 2020 numbers, BioLargo CEO Dennis Calvert said: "In the last year, we developed and refined new technologies that are now ready for commercial trials, formalized strategic relationships to expand sales and revenues, arranged for demonstration pilot projects for our AOS water treatment system, increased revenues, including those of our flagship product, CupriDyne Clean. We also began the process to register our CupriDyne technology with the EPA to make advanced sanitization and disinfection claims." He added: “The impending commercial launch of our PFAS water treatment solution, the AEC, is set to begin its first demonstration pilots and commercial trials soon,” said Calvert. “These are great times for BioLargo, as our products and technologies are well positioned to find adoption with customers and partners and become leading solutions in their category." Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com