Treat Water Like it Matters

Treat Water Like it Matters

Sep 17, 2019

Every day we take for granted that we have instant potable water at our fingertips. Maybe, we leave the water running for a shower a bit long or pour out a cup of water we couldn’t finish. We aren’t alone, many companies make small decisions that cause them to use more water.  These companies pay for the water and would want to save the cost but cannot see how. Water savings and conservation matters to people and companies, how can they treat it that way?

Recently, we talked with Anthony Jones a habitual entrepreneur around water with more than 10 years of experience to learn about what he has been up to. His experience and network connected him with an early stage water startup called Waterhound Futures, whose motto is “We treat water like it matters… it does!”

Waterhound Futures adds intelligence to water and waste treatment plants with a web-based software-as-a-service tool to help eliminate contamination of freshwater caused by untreated wastewater at source, by providing real time data collection, monitoring and predictive decision tools. Decision tools eliminate traditional methods of wastewater management. 

Water is scarce. Wastewater treatment plants don’t measure the amount of contaminants contained in water which could be harmful. Waterhound is addressing the lack of real time data on water conditions been sent out of  wastewater plants by offering a web-enabled digital tool to enable Management, plant operators,and design engineers to optimize the entire wastewater treatment processes. This will enable wastewater plants to plan for preventive maintenance and upgrades to optimize performance of the plant.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Osato Evbuomwan is a CSU Sacramento Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student who is the newest associate at CleanStart. Growing up in Nigeria with smog from backup diesel/ gasoline generators inspired Osato to work towards building a sustainable future for the world. 

CleanStart Sponsors

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BlueTech Valley, Buchalter, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Sacramento’s Sustainability Beacon

Sacramento’s Sustainability Beacon

Oct 23, 2018

        Arch Nexus is a Sacramento architecture design firm, and is California’s only certified Living Building to date. It serves as a beacon of sustainability for other building owners in the community to follow suit and accept the living building challenge. While California may be late to the party with establishing the 19th living building in the world, Arch Nexus made up for it by becoming double LEED platinum and the first reused building in the world to become living building certified. Before Arch Nexus became what it is today it was a print shop.  There is a level of difficulty that goes into designing and establishing a living building, which deters many that consider pursuing certification. One of the extremely difficult standards to which one must adhere to, is that all design materials must be purchased locally and non-red listed items while also maintaining documentation of all used materials on the building. If purchasing sustainable materials and vast documentation isn’t difficult enough, the building must also be capable of producing 105% of the energy necessary to power its entire operation.

        With all the difficult designing and engineering that goes into gaining Living Building Certification,  Arch Nexus chose not to back down from the challenge and in turn created one of the most successful and award-winning living buildings in the United States. The building itself  produces 170% of the necessary energy needed to power the entire complex. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Arch Nexus also houses a rainwater collection system, along with a filtration system to irrigate the outside edible agriculture. With the amount of surplus energy that Arch Nexus produces, a saltwater battery storage system is utilized to retain the energy for later use or to feed the surplus energy back into the grid. A very advanced toilet composting system, an EV charging station, a smart HVAC system, along with a large solar panel array can all be found at Arch Nexus and showcases how much is needed to obtain living building certification. In the country’s most progressive state, Arch Nexus has set a very high standard for others looking to follow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CleanStart has a new face supporting the region’s Entrepreneurs.  Renonedo Williams is a CSU Sacramento Mechanical Engineering Student who is the newest intern at CleanStart.   He is entering his final semester at Sac State and is looking forward to connecting with as many clean tech startups as possible and understanding each of their value propositions, to connect his enthusiasm of building things to his goal of being his own boss. Renonedo has a background in design and material selection

Helios Altas Hits New Milestones

Helios Altas Hits New Milestones

Oct 19, 2018

Remember sitting outside at EcoFitness (on one of the hottest days of the year) hearing Mike Carroll talking about his Powerball small hydro technology at our June 21 MeetUp?  remember his excitement about being close to having a microgrid going operational in the Philippines with one of his units and some solar in a hybrid configuration? Well he did it!   It is all operational now.  You can learn more about the system that has provided first power to 150 people here: https://biofriendlyplanet.com/green-alternatives/solar/installation-of-the-firsthybrid-solar-micro-hydro-grid-project-in-the-philippines-is-complete/.  Mike adds, “With this system we have changed the architecture of the Powerball’s take off system which increased the power output of each of the units from 300 watts up to over 500 watts from the same water flow. This has enabled the village to expand the power usage well beyond what was originally intended. In the next phase of this project the Hydrofarm will be expanded by adding more PowerBall™ units and the battery storage will be doubled in size. The local electric co-op is expected to purchase the system to meet some of its RE credit requirements and also as a means for extending its supply grid to far flung areas of the Philippines such as Balingasag.” Mike also got an investor commitment to proceed with his 100-times larger capacity unit.  “We plan on this being the largest size unit we will manufacture,” Mike says. “This generator is approximately 2 meters in diameter, so it can be shipped in containers standing vertically. It will be able to produce up to 30 kW of power and multiple units can be installed in the same PowerWheel™ to produce more power.” While most of his attention has been focused overseas on rural areas without access to grid power, Helios also has a commitment from the Nevada Irrigation District to purchase 10 o fhte larger units when they are ready.   The next big milestone will be in putting together the $13 million in funding he is seeking to stay on track for over $200 million in sales in the next five years.   Great stuff!
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.
Cleantech Meetup Attendees Discuss Water In California

Cleantech Meetup Attendees Discuss Water In California

Jun 1, 2018

At the 5th Cleantech meetup of the year we moved from our usual focus on energy. About 40 attendees brought their interest in water conservation to hear from three presenters on sustainability of our water resource.

This is a bigger issue than many realize. The rights to use water in California were granted starting almost two centuries ago, and have been modified by statute and court decisions hundreds of times.  It is not treated like any other commodity. It is fought over fiercely. Because water has not been treated like a tradable commodity and priced appropriately in a market, there has been over consumption and no incentive to save.  This also is an issue for companies trying to reclaim water and sell it. Water is expensive to store and transport, so without a market price it is hard to justify reclaiming water from the brine of agricultural runoff.

Chris Peacock of AQUAOSO has dedicated his life to building the tools needed to facilitate water trading. He started his career in Arizona helping building their trading platform.  His talk detailed why California has a problem with “water scarcity, with low trust and high fragmentation.” He introduced AQUAOSO’s water platform as part of the solution, by connecting stakeholders to a water and data marketplace. It enables people to make money on excess water and reduce risk through market insight.

Peter Moritzburke’s experience in water desalination and treatment expanded on what is happening with runoff and the build up of 7 million tons of salt accumulation annually. He informed the audience on the several ways water desalination can work to reclaim runoff. Connecting the accumulation of sodium chloride and other chemicals to an annual loss up to $7 billion a year in agricultural productivity putting of 60,000 jobs at risk by 2030. Peter shared current solutions for water treatment to salt disposal.  Even highlighting that AQUAOSO’s solution is needed for justification and monetization of projects.

Attendees also got to hear from Athena-Intelligence founder David Sypinskie whose goal is to give people a better understanding of how resources are being used in agriculture and the effect it has on the whole system.  He has spent years collecting data from difficult sources to create body of knowledge that can then be accessed by AI to better understand the what effect farming practices can have on future years and crop yield.

It was an exciting event, make sure you make it to the June Meetup in Midtown Sacramento. On the 21st. We will have Eco Fitness hosting us and demoing their human powered Gym. We will be having HeliosAltas will be presenting. 

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.

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Helios Altas Hits New Milestones

Welcome Back, HeliosAltas!

May 24, 2018

After a three-year hiatus to step back to rethink its product and markets, Helios Altas is preparing to introduce a new and improved PowerBall and PowerWheel to the market. Mike Carroll, CEO, and his team have been working hard to unlock the potential for this technology and come up with several clever new designs. Helios, headquartered in Roseville, California is an early-stage CleanTech startup that builds micro hydroelectric generators for distributed power grids. The company’s flagship products, PowerBall and PowerWheel are waterwheels that drive generators to produce clean electricity. They use water flowing in canals, rivers, tides  and the base of dams day and night. No impediment is needed. During high-flow times or when a lot of deris is in the water, the unit lifts itself up to avoid being submerged or damaged. Helios is currently developing a range of PowerBall units from 100w to 4kW and PowerWheel units from 5kW to 40kW. They have a proprietary generator self contained in the water wheel allowing their wheels to generate sufficient energy in low flow areas to make them economical even in smaller units.  This adds up to Helio’s products having a comparative advantage by being 1) easy to install, 2) self-contained, 3) scalable, and 4) compact when compared to other systems. On top of all that Helios’ units generate over 3 x the energy of similarly rated wind and solar generators when the water is flowing 24/7.   They are targeting developing countries, especially rural areas far from the grid.  They see a niche market of $700 million in sales. They are not envisioning much of a market in the US.  Helio has placed its prototypes in California and the Philippines and is constantly collecting data for improvement. Mike envisions a mass deployment of their technology in the developing countries particularly concentrated in South East Asia and India.  They have a number of development agency prospects in the pipeline for situations where wind and solar are not suitable. Their model is to sell the equipment, and manufacture it in low cost the countries near where it will be installed. More information can be found here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Qidong is a CleanStart Associate who follows new technologies that can connect with his passion for sustainability, education and economic empowerment. Helping CleanStart and clean tech startups in the Sacramento Region, he is looking to help positively impact the world. He recently graduated from UC San Diego and has a B.S. in Managerial Economics. His multicultural background helps companies approach problems from new perspective.in the region.