Alex Rappaport: Transforming Industrial Waste Into Clean Water

Industries worldwide generate billions of gallons of process water daily, rich with organic materials from food production, manufacturing, and countless operations. For companies seeking to recover and reuse this water, one obstacle stood in the way: organic materials like fats, oils, and greases that quickly overwhelm traditional treatment systems.

The opportunity was clear: develop technology that could help industries transform their process water into a reusable resource, creating both environmental and economic value.

Alex Rappaport entered Tufts with a vision to create positive change. After completing the Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies (ELS) minor as an undergraduate, he joined the MS in Innovation & Management program (MSIM). As Alex later reflected, program director Kevin Oye had described MSIM as an opportunity to “take a bet on yourself and your career journey.”

The program’s experiential approach opened unexpected doors. Through MSIM, Alex connected with Dr. Ayse Asatekin, a chemical engineering professor whose lab had developed a revolutionary zwitterionic polymer. The program gave Alex both the technical understanding to recognize the polymer’s potential and the business skillset to secure an exclusive license from Tufts, transforming laboratory innovation into ZwitterCo.

The lessons continue to drive the company today. “When we pursue rapid customer discovery for new product commercial experiments at ZwitterCo, it’s modeled off of what we did in the MSIM sprint projects,” Alex explains. The program’s applied business education created lasting foundations: “MSIM taught me how to read and manage financial statements and gave me my first taste of best practices in negotiations, both of which are instrumental to my current work.”

The $100k New Ventures Competition became a turning point. Faculty mentors helped review and refine numerous presentation iterations while guiding the team through early business model questions. The prize money funded a crucial trip to the Produced Water Society conference in Texas, providing exposure to industry experts who validated the problem they were solving.

ZwitterCo’s breakthrough membranes harness zwitterionic chemistry to maintain consistent performance even with organic-rich water streams. The technology enables years of reliable operation in applications that challenge other approaches.

Today, the company offers three specialized membrane families:

• Evolution membranes help food and dairy processors reduce cleaning time by over an hour and cut water use by 50%
• Elevation membranes deliver up to 80% fewer cleanings with 90% lower chemical costs
• Expedition membranes provide robust solutions for the most complex industrial applications with extended warranties

Each membrane creates new possibilities for water recovery and reuse across industries including food and dairy processing, bioprocessing, landfill leachate treatment, and brewery and distillery operations.

By the Numbers:

• 70+ customers worldwide across 20+ countries
• 60 employees and growing
• $125M+ raised to scale solutions
• 4 million gallons per day of wastewater treatment capacity
• 50% reduction in operating costs for early adopters

The Human Side:

“We founded ZwitterCo to address the global water crisis by making safe and commercially viable industrial water treatment a reality,” says Alex. This vision now touches industries from dairy processing to biotech, creating pathways to growth while reducing freshwater consumption.

Brown County Organics, implementing the world’s largest manure biogas project, chose ZwitterCo membranes for their reliability. Food processors expand operations while conserving water. Landfills transform leachate into manageable streams. Each installation strengthens water security for communities and industries alike.

ZwitterCo’s recent expansion to three product families enables customized solutions for diverse industrial needs. The company’s new 30,000-square-foot innovation center accelerates development of next-generation solutions. Recognition on the 2025 Global Cleantech 100 and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies validates their growing impact.

As CEO, Alex embraces the opportunity ahead: “Water touches every industry and ensuring that our manufacturing economy has access to clean water and can grow sustainably is one of the defining challenges of our time.”

For Alex, the journey exemplifies MSIM’s transformative power: “I definitely did not believe anything like ZwitterCo was possible for me until we got several chapters into the story.” Those chapters—completing MSIM, winning competitions, building the team—created today’s reality: technology that helps industries worldwide transform process water into valuable resources for sustainable growth.

Learn More: zwitterco.com
Program Information: MS in Innovation & Management