Viewing posts tagged "Water"

Abbott Cuts Water Use by 1B Gallons a Year

At the end of September, we wrote about how medical supply giant Abbott cut oil and gas consumption by 35 percent compared to a 2006 baseline though, in part, waste heat technologies.

Now, the company says it is saving one billion gallons of water a year, a key milestone considering that some of its facilities are in water-starved Singapore. The company set out to get to 40 percent below its water consumption of 2004 by 2011 but it's already there. Water consumed in manufacturing processes is down 37 percent.

How did the company accomplish it? Through a variety of technologies like installing more water-efficient scrubbers for controlling dust in a Michigan facility or by installing tighter-fitting pipes in other facilities. An Arizona plant implemented leak tags to ensure that leaks are detected and fixed at a more rapid rate.

Conserving water saves energy too – around 5 percent of California's power revolves around transporting water. (The figure climbs to 19 percent if you add heating.) IBM is working on a number of water projects these days as well. Carbon, water and energy are all interrelated, according to IBM.

IBM in the Water: Monitoring Its Quality in Ireland

To help solve the world's water problems, we're going to need data first.

As part of its water initiative IBM has created a portal with An Taisce, the national trust of Ireland, to monitor water quality, pollution levels, tides, weather and other factors at 130 beaches and lakes. The plan is to then roll this out to other regions and nations. The portal, called Splash, is open to the public.

While Ireland is obligated to collect the data under EU directives, the goal of the program is not just to obtain localized information. Ultimately, IBM hopes to mine the data to see if it can discern trends in storm water runoff, pollution percolation and other issues.

"It is more of a predictive tool," said Cameron Brooks, director of Big Green Innovations at IBM.

While IBM has begun to conduct research and assume projects in smart grid and solar, expect to see Big Blue increasingly identified with water. Water represents one of those sprawling, under-researched problems that will take time, government grants, logistical know-how and scientific expertise to fix. Thus, it's ideally suited for conglomerates like IBM, General Electric and Siemens.

The projects and issues vary widely. In the Netherlands, IBM is engaged on flood control projects, which involve creating computerized simulations for various levee and storm water scenarios for Rotterdam and other cities. In Malta, IBM is trying to figure out if there are ways to increase water use efficiency and reduce the power associated with delivering water: Malta now heavily relies on desalination. In Dubuque, Iowa, it is working on a system that can more accurately predict leaks in the delivery system.

"Thirty percent of the water that is treated [on average in the world] does not make it to the tap," he said.

Another project in Northern China revolves around pollution analytics. IBM is also experimenting in the labs with materials to see if anything it has devised for semiconductors can be used for desalination or producing power through osmotic pressure.

Scary fun facts: The earth pretty much has the same amount of water – 1.4 billion cubic kilometers – as it did a few billion years ago. Only about 0.75 percent of that, however, consists of readily accessible groundwater or freshwater, according to the World Water Council. The rest is frozen (2.25 percent) or salty (97 percent.).

If You’re Selling a Company, Call Siemens

Siemens is the company that just can't resist.

The German industrial giant is considering purchasing solar cell maker Q-Cells, according to Reuters (via Forbes here.).

Earlier this month, Siemens bought solar thermal vendor Solel for $418 million. Earlier, it has bought an number of water companies and ramped up its investments in smart grid.

In a list of the top ten acquirers in greentech, we picked Siemens as number two, right behind General Electric.

This is a pattern you should get used to. Small, innovative startups often have tremendous technology, but they lack the capital, distribution networks and relationships to bring their ideas to fruition. Large conglomerates often fail to capitalize on the interesting stuff in their labs, but they do know how to buy stuff that seems to work and take it commercial. Thus, greentech will be a barbell market – a lot of small companies and a few large companies with not a lot of things in between.

As acquisitions spread, you can start to think of Silicon Valley as a farm system for conglomerates. That doesn't sit well with some: Didn't Silicon Valley win out over old-style conglomerates like Digital and IBM? Yes, but it doesn't mean it happens in every situation. Green startups are born to be bought.

And if Siemens isn't interested, start talking to Philips (two lighting acquisitions this year), Toshiba, TSMC, and Cisco Systems.

UV Microbe Killer Now in U.S. to Help Your Yogurt

Atlantium Technologies has obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration to bring its device for killing the microbes in water to the U.S.

In Atlantium's system, water passes through a tube containing a quartz insert and two UV lights. The light passes through the water, disinfecting it, and then it reflects off the quartz, allowing it to pass through the water again and again for more rounds of disinfecting. By controlling the angle and direction of the light, the quartz insert effectively creates curtains of UV light that the water must pass through. In essence, it's like a big fiber optic cable that you pass liquids through. I visited their offices back in 2006, but they made me promise not to publish the pictures. Too bad – it's very space age.

The company has sold the system to soda bottlers in Israel but also dairies, which have to add water to certain products. It doesn't directly work on milk because milk isn't clear. In Yogurt, dairies won't use it to kill beneficial strains in the dairy matter itself but in any inserted water. UV water purification, ideally, consumes less power than traditional forms of water purification and pasteurization.

How Much Does Desalination Cost?

Are desalination plants worth it?

In many jurisdictions, the answer is no. But if you're in Australia's Victoria state where the agricultural industry is withering away from drought and cities have to impose water rationing, it's a bargain.

Even if you're not in some of the hardest hit areas of the globe, the economic argument for desalination will likely improve over the next few years. Right now, desalinated water from state-of-the-art facilities in Israel or Singapore costs about 56 cents a cubic meter, said Mark Shannon, Director of the NSF STC WaterCAMPWS at the University of Illinois. (Shannon will speak at the Water Innovations Alliance in Chicago next week.) Meanwhile, new technologies – such as forward osmosis, gravity, capacitors or carbon nanotube membranes – will likely bring the price down.

"I am confident that we will hit 25 cents a cubic meter," he said.

Currently, delivering water to U.S. consumers costs about 50 cents a cubic meter, he said. In cities like New York and Chicago, it can run $1.45 a cubic meter.

"London is the highest in the world," he said.

At the conference, Shannon will discuss his plans for an anaerobic digester (the same sort of bacteria-filled box some are using to convert manure into methane) to convert sewage into recycled water, methane and saleable minerals. Read more here.

A Technology Contest for Water Experts

Imagine H2O will start accepting applications for a contest to find new, commercially practical ideas for alleviating some of the world's water problem.

The non-profit will give away awards of up to $70,000 in cash, prizes and services, but more importantly it will help incubate companies from the ideas. The organizations members include executives from General Electric, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., Trinity Ventures, CMEA, Catamount Ventures and other places. One of the chief obstacles facing water entrepreneurs remains getting noticed, so these connections will help.

Water, according to many, is the perhaps the first major crisis that will emerge from climate change. Regions of Australia and China already suffer from prolonged droughts and crop failures. Approximately four in 10 people in the world are affected by water scarcity. And it's not just overseas. Many southern states are facing increased levels of natural arsenic in the groundwater. Water also consumes a significant amount of power: approximately 19 percent of California's electricity gets used to move, purify and heat water (the figure drops to close to 5 percent if you just count pumping and moving.)

In the middle of the 20th century, there was about 4,000 cubic meters of fresh water per person per year, DHI Water Group told me last year. Now we're close, globally, to 1,000 cubic meters per person per year. One thousand cubic meters per person per year is defined as water scarcity, he said. Water stress is defined as having 1,700 cubic meters per person per year. No matter how you cut it – water has to be consumed and purified more efficiently than in the past.

The demand has prompted GE and Siemens to snap up water companies and IBM to develop technology for desalination and generating power from the interaction between fresh and sea water.

But is the world bursting with startups? Hardly. One problem is the customer base. Municipal water districts constitute one of the largest customer segments, and even among utilities, a naturally conservative lot, water agencies are considered stodgy. Many new companies have instead focused their energies on oil refiners, dairies and others with large daily water requirements. A few companies have gained momentum – Energy Recovery (a desalination expert that IPOed last year), Miox, Oasys, Hydropoint Data Systems – but the number of water companies getting funding pales in comparison to those in solar.

The water also suffers to some degree from not being as cool as electric cars or space elevators. Still, we are going to need to need technology so we don't have to resort to more traditional tools (i.e., guns, bribery) to resolve water disputes.

Would-be entrants have until November 16 to file their entry. Winners will be announced early next year.