HALOSOURCE INC.

Location: Bothell

Website: www.halosource.com

Founded: 2002 (as a merger between Vanson Co. and HaloSource, a previous incarnation of the company)

Key Innovation: HaloSource's principal products are used to purify drinking and recreational water on a local level. A halogenbased filter kills bacteria and viruses without leaving residual chemicals in the water. The HaloPure product allows water to be poured through a bed of beads that filter out sediment and other chemicals, as well as killing biological contaminants. The devices are priced low ($8-$40) so they can be deployed in developing nations, although another version is used aboard the new Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet.

Key People: CEO John Kaestle spent 20 years with the Weyerhaeuser Co. and ran the forest products business at Borden Chemical for three years. Chief Technology Officer Jeff Williams co-founded the original HaloSource and was a professor of microbiology at Michigan State University. Executive Vice President of Operations Eric Robinson was also at Borden Chemical with Kaestle.

Measure of Success: The company is partnering with Eureka Forbes in rolling out the product in India. HaloSource just closed a $6 million round of venture capital financing, its third, led by Unilever Technologies, the British consumer product giant.

Employees: 76

What's Next: China. In addition to a product rollout, HaloSource plans to eventually locate manufacturing operations in China, close to its market. The company already has operations in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

XEXTEX CORP.

Location: Issaquah and Tacoma

Website: www.xextex.com Founded: 2000

Key Innovation: The company's primary product is X-Tex, a synthetic fabric made from recycled polyester, nylon, boron, rayon and acrylic that are byproducts of manufacturing processes. X-Tex is used to filter oils from water. The pliable fabric can be adapted to work regardless of the pollutant, the ambient temperature, or the size of the opening the water is being filtered through.

Key People: CEO Jerry Brownstein has a career in textiles. He was running The Junk Store, a Los Angeles clothing and wardrobe company for the movie business, when Mike Alesko of Seattle-based Britannia Jeans hired him in 1979 to create the process called stonewashing. After closing The Junk Store, he moved to Seattle in 1989. Xextex's Brent Hepner, vice president of research and development, is an environmental chemist.

Measure of Success: The company's customers range in size from a truck stop operated by Washington County, Ore., where an X-Tex filter is used to filter oil from the water used to wash the county fleet, to Fort Lewis, where the material is used in a football field-size oilwater separator before water is discharged into Puget Sound.

Employees: Five

What's Next: The company is focusing on design, leaving the wholesaling and retailing to distributor companies such as Eco-Tec Inc. of Vaughn, Wash. Xextex just filed a patent on a new product that removes rust and particulates from storm and waste water. Work has also begun on a new multistage filter using X-Tex and another proprietary textile that can be used in a variety of configurations.

PANELTECH INTERNATIONAL LLC

Location: Hoquiam

Website: www.paneltech.biz

Founded: 1996

Key Innovation: PaperStone is a very strong composite material similar to wood that can be worked with carbide-tip tools. It's made from 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper, provided by neighboring Grays Harbor Paper Co., and a proprietary resin made from a variety of ingredients, including cashew nut shells. The result is a solid surface with the look and feel of soapstone, used for countertops and other internal fixtures in homes and offices.

Key People: CEO Roy Nott founded the firm after working for years in the timber and paper products industry, including stints at Weyerhaeuser and International Paper Co. The company's technical director is Krishan Sudan, an expert in resin chemistry. In 2004, the company acquired KlipTech, headed by Joel Klippert, which had created the Paper- Stone material. Klippert remains with the company, heading its biocomposites business.