Duraflow's founders — Joseph Lander and William Matheson — invented their proprietary microfiltration design while partners in a previous venture: Compliance and Recycling, Inc. (CARI). CARI was, and continues to be, a highly successful supplier of chemicals, engineering, equipment, and services for wastewater discharge compliance, process materials recovery and water recycle. The company specializes in membrane microfiltration, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and ultrafiltration.

Both Lander and Matheson have long and successful careers designing, building, operating and servicing wastewater processes and equipment in the metal finishing and electronics manufacturing industries. Prior to CARI, they held senior executive positions at companies that include Romar Technologies, Memtek Corporation, Prosys, and Aqua Laboratories.

Lander holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from Boston University. Matheson holds a BS in biology with additional coursework in wastewater treatment and organic chemistry at the University of Lowell.

The seminal event in both men's careers, however, was the invention of the Duraflow crossflow microfiltration module. It is the only crossflow microfiltration offering industrial users all these advantages versus competitive designs:

• The filter does not pass solids (for better compliance and better RO recycling)
• Much longer operational lifetime (by several factors)
• Surface rejecting membrane operates far longer between cleanings
• Operational costs of the systems that use it are far lower
• Systems have far less frequent maintenance shutdowns and much shorter shutdowns

Bringing this design to the end-user industrial customer meant starting a new company with worldwide reach — Duraflow LLC. Rather than sell to end-users directly, and sell only filters, Duraflow markets its proprietary technology through third-party distributors located regionally within geographic markets. This approach allows the company to leverage its expertise in products and expertise by bringing to distributors a one-stop solution that includes the filters, the membranes, the chemistries, and the training.

The result is unmatched competitive advantage for the distributor and unmatched value for the customer. The industrial customer knows it can look to the Duraflow distributor for assured regulatory compliance at lowest cost of system ownership. There is no need to go shopping for various pieces of the solution, and less distraction from the customer's core focus — keeping production running with no worries about compliance.