A local startup created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and focused on developing air purification technology is expanding its St. Louis-area footprint, with plans to begin operating later this year from a new headquarters in Fenton.
The startup, Chesterfield-based Micron Pure, says it's currently renovating a 25,000-square-foot facility in Fenton that offers it research and development capabilities to rapidly design and test new technologies to expand its product portfolio.
Founded in March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic emerged in the U.S., Micron Pure has developed ozone technology designed to kill the Covid-19 virus and other airborne viruses and bacteria. It says testing of its technology resulted in eradicating 99.9% of the Covid-19 virus in 1.2 seconds. Micron Pure is part of Hecto Group, a research and development firm founded by John Bergida that has also developed cooling, water and energy products. Bergida is president of Micron Pure, which has been funded through private investment.
Micron Pure has exclusively licensed its air purification technology to Marmon Holdings Inc., an industrial holding company owned by Berkshire Hathaway. It will commercialize the technology through CerroZone LLC, a brand that's part of Marmon Holdings' plumbing and refrigeration group. The first product it is commercializing is a mobile air purification device that has wheels, allowing it to be moved within facilities.
Michael Duggan, president of CerroZone, said the brand is currently in the process of selecting a new manufacturing facility in the St. Louis region, with plans to begin shipping units in the next 90 to 120 days. He said CerroZone plans to begin production of its units with about 40 employees.
Earlier this month, the mobile air purification device being launched by Micron Pure and CerroZone received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be registered as a 510(k) Class II medical device. Bergida said FDA approval isn’t required to commercialize air purifiers, but that its decision to seek the medical device clearance will help expand the technology to key commercial markets, such as health care.
“We wanted to do it to differentiate the technology and also so that it could be used inside hospital settings,” he said.
Bergida said Micron Pure is focusing its efforts now on developing smaller versions of air purification devices that use its technology. Its new headquarters in Fenton will serve as its R&D facility, which Bergida said will help Micron Pure pursue new devices and applications of its technology. He noted agriculture, impacted by diseases such as avian flu, could be another market for the company’s technology.
“We’ll be able to create new versions of air purification technology, sensors and simulate in settings all in-house very rapidly, to be able to bring additional versions of the Micron Pure technology faster to market and to be able to adapt it to different needs,” Bergida said.
Bergida said Micron Pure has entered into a long-term lease for its new headquarters at 11 Champion Drive, which is owned by Beckman Champion Properties LLC, according to Jefferson County real estate records. Micron Pure declined to disclose the cost of renovations to its new facility, but Bergida said the project will total several million dollars. Micron Pure expects to begin R&D operations at the facility later this year and to move its offices there early next year. It will Initially house about 15 employees, with Bergida saying that figure could expand to 30 to 50 within the next year or two. In addition to St. Louis, Micron Pure has some of its employees based in the Kansas City area.
