Water From Thin Air:  A New Frontier?

Water From Thin Air:  A New Frontier?

It is hard to tell whether sustainable energy or water shortages will be the biggest crisis in the future, but both are big. We have been watching for any new ideas to deal with water shortages. The standard approaches of desalination continue to be the dominant technologies—steam distillation and reverse osmosis. Both are exceptionally capital- and energy-intensive. They tie one to being close to a salty water source and create issues of disposing of hyper-salty water. And prices have been stuck at $2-3 per 1000 gallons.

Better water use efficiency is still a better option, but eventually, with all the climate change-induced droughts, creating more supplies in certain regions is going to take center stage.
One option that may approach a breakthrough is the extraction of water from the natural humidity in the air. To date, these have just been far too expensive to make sense. And there have been improvements to the 3,000 year-old schemes to collect fog droplets with various types of nets, in limited areas where fog is routine. Now some research teams have been looking at materials to absorb moisture from the air and release it with modest energy use. This too has been looked at for decades, but to date has been crazy expensive. This new research may have cracked the cost barrier. It is based on the use of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and a team at Johns Hopkins University may have come up with the best one to date.

MOFs have the highest surface area-to-volume ratio of any known material which makes them ideal for trapping moisture. If you could unfold one gram of the material, it would cover a football field. The idea is to trap the moisture in this framework and then release it with a modest amount of heat (60°C for about an hour) with the exhaust cooled down to condense the water vapor. It was an interesting idea when researchers at UC Berkeley showed that one kilogram of a MOF could yield 100 milliliters of water per day. Now the Johns Hopkins team have upped the result to 8.66 liters (2.3 gallons) of water per day per kilogram of their new MOF. (Their published article is here.) That puts the idea in the range of something that is commercially feasible.

The researchers haven’t taken it that far, but it would not require anything operating at high pressures, and the MOF would be suspended in big metal boxes with air blowing over it, and pretty simple heating tubes and condensers. The whole process of separating water vapor from seawater is left to the sun to perform naturally. The MOF is made from materials that are not that exotic—zirconium, chromium, zinc, copper, and aluminum, for example. And not all that much is needed to create beds that are 2 mm thick. Clever idea that is likely to lead to someone taking it to market.

Graphic from John Hopkins Advanced Physics Lab

Graphic from John Hopkins Advanced Physics Lab

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStart’s Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | TobinBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss AdamsPowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig

Water From Thin Air:  A New Frontier?

Is it time to focus more on water supply?

The recent suggestion by a Democratic candidate in the recall election, Kevin Pallfrath, to build a huge freshwater pipeline from the Mississippi River to California reminded me that there hasn’t been an announcement of new technologies for increasing freshwater supplies on the front page in a long time.  That’s why a recent article in a professional journal from some researchers in Korea stood out.  These researchers discovered a clever way to make a membrane to distill seawater faster and cheaper.  

Clearly, climate change is going to mess up the distribution of water supplies around the globe, especially creating extended droughts in areas that formerly had a decent water supply—like California.  That will create a push to “do something”, and building a 2000-mile pipeline is probably not the right idea.  Lots of steel, lots of pumping stations, lots of right-of-way.  Water conservation and stopping leaks  have gotten lots of attention, but that is different for actions to increase the supply.

What does make sense is to come up with better ways to desalinate seawater.  Most of the populations affected by the new severe, recurring droughts are within 100 miles of a seacoast.   Desalination costs have been improving, slowly, mostly for the high-pressure reverse osmosis technologies.  The best prices I have seen put the cost of fresh water from the sea at $2.50 to $3 per thousand gallons from the dozens of desalination plants now installed worldwide. See this article for details.  That is a far cry from the $50/acre-foot (15 cents per thousand gallons) for water from the State Water Project—when it is available.  Water from Federal projects is even cheaper when it exists.   The complications of western water law prevent the price of water from being rationalized in a market, so buyers are stuck paying wildly different prices for it and fighting bitterly over the cheap supplies.  The hope has been that desalination costs would fall below $1 per thousand gallons and narrow the differential.   

While incremental improvements continue, there has not been the dramatic ten-fold reductions in costs that have occurred with solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries.  (See this great recent “deep dive” from CleanEdge on these trends.)  Some of the lesser success might be due to lack of sustained attention, since rain begins to fall every once in a while and people quickly ignore the persistent problem.  Every year we take more from rivers and underground aquifers than can be sustained and now more frequent and severe droughts compound the problem.  Are we not spending enough on R&D?  Maybe.  Are we not providing subsidies to incentivize innovation?  Maybe.  The increasing global water shortage may force more of these kinds of actions and create some breakthroughs.  It is a field relatively wide open to creative minds, but getting much less government attention than renewable energy.  Look for that to change as the seriousness grows and look for government to throw a lot more money at this.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStart’s Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | TobinBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss AdamsPowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, Momentum,

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

New Technology Could Boost Efficiency of Power-to-Hydrogen to 95+%

New Technology Could Boost Efficiency of Power-to-Hydrogen to 95+%

Israeli company H2Pro has raised $22 million from a group of marquee investors to scale-up its radical new way to extract hydrogen from water.  It claims to have a way to produce hydrogen at high pressure (50 bar) with 95+% efficiency (compared to 70% efficient current methods) and lower capital cost, which could mean a product price under $2/kg and maybe as low as $1.  (A kilogram of hydrogen is close to the energy in a gallon of gasoline or 114,000 Btu.  At $1/kg, hydrogen is equivalent to $8.80 per million Btu.  Natural gas at the wholesale level is going for $2.66/million Btu, for comparison).  

Currently, hydrogen at dispensers at refill stations is priced well over $16 per kilogram.  “Green” hydrogen from electrolysis of water is going for a wholesale price of $2.26/kg, and “grey” hydrogen produced from natural gas is priced at $0.79/kg.  The new H2Pro technology does not address the $14/kg added by the time the hydrogen gets to the dispenser.  Those costs are created by the expense of storing hydrogen and transporting it by pressurized tanker trucks.  The H2Pro process may not then be revolutionary, but its greatest feature may be the efficiency gain, making 35% more hydrogen available from the same renewable-based kWhs.  It opens up some more possibilities for using hydrogen.

There is considerable interest in blending “green” hydrogen into the existing natural gas pipeline system, maybe along with methane produced from renewable sources, to create a lower fossil carbon fuel that can contribute to decarbonization goals, if the hydrogen can be made inexpensively.  GE has announced its latest 64+% efficient gas turbine combined cycle plants can run on blends with hydrogen from 5% to as high as 95%.  However, hydrogen has a habit of leaking out of pipelines unless those pipes are specifically built to contain it.  Expect to see more on this topic if interest grows in the “blending” strategy for decarbonization.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | TobinBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss AdamsPowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, Momentum,

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

LoanPal and AQUAOSO Join the Funding Bonanza

LoanPal and AQUAOSO Join the Funding Bonanza

We might exceed $2 billion in funds raised for our cleantech companies this year.  If so, this region would represent a significant fraction of all the money raised in cleantech deals in the US.  That would undoubtedly raise eyebrows.  

The first quarter has been great for 4 companies in raising money so far this year.  We have written about Origin getting $925 million in new investment, and Infinium raising an undisclosed but likely substantial amount.  Now Hayes Barnard and the team at LoanPal in Roseville have gotten $800+ million in private equity for their business financing of energy efficiency and solar on homes.  Hayes had created Paramount Solar in 2003 doing financing and installation.  He sold that business in 2013 to Solar City and the team stayed on for a while.  After the merger of Solar City with Tesla, the team apparently decided they had come up with a pretty good financing vehicle and recreated it in 2018 in LoanPal.  What they do is provide a platform to arrange for loans and then assemble them in packages that are sold off to investors, recycling the money back into more loans.  Over 12,000 sales professionals are using the platform so far.  Originally the focus was on clean energy loans but it looks like they are branching out into a wider range of conventional mortgage loans.  Since inception, they have provided $5.9 billion in loans to over 175,000 families nationwide, adding offices beyond their roots in Roseville.  You can read their press release here.  Also check out Mark Anderson’s article on them in the Sacramento Business Journal.

At the same time, AQUAOSO has raised a $2 million seed round.  That’s a huge proof point for Chris Peacock and his team who we profiled back in 2017.  It will likely be a springboard to much more. Like LoanPal, AQUAOSO also provides a software platform to users, in this case to assess more accurately and efficiently the water risk inherent in their businesses.  This is especially important for growers in applying for bank loans.  It is like providing the equivalent of a credit risk score for water risk.  It simplifies the loan decisions for banks, but also provides insights into how growers can reduce that risk.  With more volatility in precipitation year to year and a trend to drier conditions, it is easy to see how the AQUAOSO tool is getting attention.  Chris explains his product in a video you can watch here.

So the total disclosed from the Origin, LoanPal, and AQUAOSO financings is $1.727+ billion.  Infinium hasn’t revealed its number, but given the pace they have been on we are guessing they raised over $100 million.  It wouldn’t take that much more to bring the total over $2 billion, almost a ten-fold increase over the best year achieved previously in the region.  Just considering the first quarter alone, the known total is a really big deal.  One thing is sure now—we are on the map for investors looking for cleantech investments.  When we started CleanStart 16 years ago, this was one of the most important milestones we said would be needed to make us a recognized hub for cleantech activity in the US and the world.  Now the question is whether this pace continues.  

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | TobinBlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss AdamsPowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, Momentum,

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Congratulations Waterhound Futures and VerifiH20!

Congratulations Waterhound Futures and VerifiH20!

Congratulations to Waterhound Futures and Verifi H2O, who both took the top prizes at The Water Council’s Tech Challenge.  Both completed CleanStart’s CEO Crash Course last fall.

Both got recognized for being leaders innovating water technology claiming the top prize money.  The recognition is well deserved.   

 

Full Press Release:

A. O. SMITH CORPORATION, BADGER METER AND ZURN INDUSTRIES SELECT TWO OUTSTANDING WATER TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS AMONG 22 APPLICATIONS FROM NINE COUNTRIES

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (January 27, 2020) – The Water Council, with its supporting corporate sponsors, has announced the winners for the second round of the Tech Challenge. This round focused on Innovative solutions for inline sensors that detect water quality parameters and artificial intelligence for pipe networks and systems. 

The Tech Challenge program augments corporate open innovation channels and identifies emerging freshwater technologies and ideas with a high potential for commercialization. Throughout the year, several topics of interest are identified by corporate sponsors, which are then posted as open Tech Challenges and promoted globally. Selected finalists have an opportunity to meet in-person with sponsors for a chance to win prize money, gain access to corporate R&D resources and potentially partner with a corporate sponsor on the development of the technology or idea. 

“This round attracted 22 applications from nine countries, of which 80 percent weren’t already on the radar for our sponsor companies,” said Karen Frost, vice president of economic development at The Water Council. “That is exactly what the Tech Challenge is designed to do for our sponsors – build pipeline.” The innovations chosen as Tech Challenge winners are: 

Verifi H2O – An innovative water-monitoring platform delivering real-time water quality surveillance systems based on proprietary, advanced material technologies that rapidly detect pathogens and other contaminants, while providing customers with reliable information to make time-sensitive decisions. 

Waterhound Futures – A predictive modelling and analytics solution, which simulates water and wastewater treatment plants to provide actionable insight to operators, engineers and management. 

Commenting on the value of the program, “Badger Meter owes its success to a long history of water technology innovation,” noted Dan Fellers, manager, research & development at Badger Meter. “We are confident the quality and diversity of ideas that flow from the Tech Challenge will help fuel the solutions of tomorrow.” 

The Tech Challenge is designed to build additional pathways for corporate R&D teams beyond conventional channels. Rebecca Tallon, engineering director – water treatment at A. O. Smith Corporation, adds, “Our participation in the program widens our access to innovators who have ideas but haven’t explored marketing their solutions through traditional channels yet, so it’s been a valuable way to extend our R&D efforts for innovations that would have taken much longer to find on our own.” 

In addition to augmenting R&D pathways, the Tech Challenge program also drives deal flow opportunities in targeted topics of interest. “AI is an emerging topic, so we’re interested in innovations in that specific area as part of our connected products strategy,” said Glen Trickle, director of engineering at Zurn. “This Challenge, we were pleasantly surprised by the volume of qualified AI applications, along with other solutions that we’re continuing to explore.” 

Tech Challenge applications were accepted from Sept. 6 – Nov. 3, 2019. The next round of Tech Challenge topics will be announced March 2020. 

About A. O. Smith
A. O. Smith Corporation, with headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., is a global leader applying innovative technology and energy-efficient solutions to products manufactured and marketed worldwide. The company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of residential and commercial water heating equipment and boilers, as well as a leading manufacturer of water treatment products.

About Badger Meter
Badger Meter is a leading innovator, manufacturer and marketer of flow measurement and control products, serving water and gas utilities, municipalities and industrial customers worldwide. Measuring a variety of liquids — from water to oil and lubricants in commercial processes — products from Badger Meter are known for accuracy, durability and the ability to provide valuable and timely measurement information. For more information, visit www.badgermeter.com.

About Zurn Industries
Zurn Industries, LLC, a Rexnord company, is a recognized leader in commercial, municipal, healthcare and industrial markets. Zurn offers the largest breadth of engineered water solutions, including a wide spectrum of sustainable plumbing products. Zurn delivers total building solutions for new construction and retrofit applications that enhance any building’s environment. For more information, visit Zurn.com or RexnordCorp.com.

About The Water Council
Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA next to the world’s largest freshwater system and home to one of the most influential freshwater technology hubs in the world, The Water Council (TWC) is recognized as a global center for advancing water technologies and stewardship. At its heart, TWC is a non-profit, membership organization that connects, convenes and showcases the hub comprised of more than 238 water technology businesses and the diverse water leadership network of 200 members it is linked to from around the world. While TWC’s mission is centered on driving economic development, attracting and connecting world-class talent and supporting water-focused technology innovation, its larger goal is to help secure freshwater resources for the world by driving solutions to the numerous industries that need and use a large amount of water. Learn more by visiting www.thewatercouncil.com.