THE INNOVATORS An air bubble created by Pulsed Burst Systems’ MegaBubble device.
A Burst of Innovation: Charles Otis of Pulsed Burst Systems
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ulsed Burst Systems is a Milwaukee-based startup that has developed a simple yet effective device called the MegaBubble that creates large air bubbles that can be used to mix large quantities of water or even pump water through a pipe. With help from The Water Council in Milwaukee and its BREW business accelerator program, Pulsed Burst is finding potential clients across the country, including wastewater treatment plants and municipal water districts. Charles Otis, chief operating officer of Pulsed Burst Systems, spoke with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about his background in the water industry, his company, and what the U.S. water industry could do to boost innovation. Joshua Dill: Please tell us about yourself, your background, and how you ended up in your current work.
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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLES OTIS.
Charles Otis: I went to the University of Minnesota and got a degree in child psychology. The field wasn’t a good fit for me, and after working a stint as a loan officer, I moved home to Madison and got a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, focusing on wastewater from the beginning. My dad was prominent in wastewater treatment, so I was familiar with the field. I got my degree at the depths of the recession, making figuring out my next step difficult, until in 2011 I got an opportunity to move to Norway to pursue a master’s degree in environmental technology.
I moved over there at the beginning of 2012 and started school. The education was quite good, and free, and I got to be involved with several different companies. I worked with Salsnes Filter for my master’s on a project called Slam til Energi (which translates to sludge to energy). I then worked for a consulting firm called Aquateam, which is now Aquateam COWI. Through Aquateam, I worked for several different companies on all sorts of different projects. My job ended up being to set up pilot systems designed to test out different theories and independently test out technology; I was building a lot of things with PVC and plastic, with data collection, controls, and automation. I also consulted with a company called Biowater, which makes moving bed bioreactors (MBBRs). One of our projects, which was called continuous flow, intermittent cleaning, involved cleaning MBBR biomedia by using air to bump off the biomasses that had collected on them. It was difficult to do effectively because of the nature of the experiments: There was a very high fill percentage of this plastic media. We had to fluidize the bed in order to let the air get enough momentum to move the media and clean it. That stayed in the back of my mind. I’d do it differently now. At the end of 2015, I moved back to Wisconsin for family reasons; I chose Milwaukee specifically because of The Water Council and because it was close to home in Madison. I ended up working for a bacillus manufacturer just south of Milwaukee where I did research on a couple
