Venus. The goddess of love. And wastewater treatment. Biokube, a Danish company, is going to bring the BioKube Venus to California. The Venus is an efficient septic system that cleans your household wastewater and sewage to such a degree that the water -- after treatment -- can be used on the lawn. Denmark is a center for water technologies. "The average American home sprays around 15,000 gallons of water a year on their lawns," said Patrick O'Regan, head of the U.S. Business Development Center for BioKube. "This will more than take care of that." The Venus effectively works by cleaning the water to a much higher degree than ordinary septic systems. In ordinary systems, solids are settled out via gravity. The remaining water then enters a tank with bacteria to clean it. After that, it gets released into a leaching field, where bacteria in the soil cleans it further. In the Venus, the water passes through several bioblocks, or membranes housing bacteria. Further purification in soil isn't needed at that point, he said. The Venus can handle around 7.5 liters every 15 minutes, he said. The tank stands around six feet tall and is around four feet in diameter. Why California? The state has and will continue to tighten up its regulations on these things. Approximately 1.2 million septic systems in the state will need to be unplugged and/or renovated to comply with modern regulations. The state is also facing more challenges with water supply and water consumption. The average American home, by the way, uses 400 gallons a day.

The Siphon Flush from Magnet hopes to put a dent in the 11 million gallons of water a day that gets lost because of faulty tank flappers. And it will let you flush 21 golf balls down a toilet, if you're in the mood. See video here. The device, being showcased this week at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas, takes a different tack on operating a toilet. Most flapper valves work by forming a seal around the pipe at the bottom of a toilet tank. The integrity of the flapper, however, is easy to destroy. Cleaner chemicals can erode the rubber, for example, and begin to let water seep down the pipe. And those slow drips add up. More than 85 percent of water leakage in residential plumbing systems comes from the toilet and a majority of toilet leaks are caused by faulty or worn flappers, the company says. The EPA has said that a silent leak in a toilet can waste 500 gallons of water a day, according to the company. In all, that results in 11 million gallons a day lost due to faulty flappers. In all, Americans flush 2.1 trillion gallons of water down toilets a year. The Siphon Flush, which was designed with prototyping software from Invention Machine, exploits how water and air displace each other instead. The opening to the hose sits atop a thing called a "float chamber" which is attached to a collapsing and expanding hose that rises and falls with the water level in the tank. Thus, when the tank is full, the expanded hose keeps the float chamber above the water line, thereby preventing leaks. When flushing, the hose collapses, the float chamber is submerged and water goes away. If Archimedes were here, he'd run through the streets naked again. Expect to see a lot of changes coming to household appliances due to rising energy and water costs. Some companies, for instance, are staring to bring things like ecological stucco (a standard in France) or toilets that use sink water rather than fresh water (like they have in Japan) to the U.S. Companies like Integrity Block are bringing out eco-friendly building materials. This is also another example of the software opportunity in greentech. Both Invention Machine and Autodesk are increasingly trying to demonstrate how their tools can help curb energy consumption.

There is a water crisis in developing nations and in some not-so-developing nations. Additionally, there is a looming water crisis for everyone else on the globe as populations rise, as pollution increases and as climate and weather patterns change. There are a “scary number� of pollutants in our water supply, said Gayle Pergamit, the CEO and founder of Agua Via. These pollutants include “natural� poisons like boron and arsenic, nitrogenous wastes from humans and farm animals, and “other goodies� like hydrocodone and estrogen disruptors. “There can be any of 500,000 different interesting and entertaining chemicals in the water supply,� she said. “Nanotechnology-based water �ltration could deliver completely pure water from any source at vastly reduced energy usage and lower total costs,� said Pergamit. This process could end the world water crisis and provide abundant pure water at costs the developing world could afford. Abundant clean water could eliminate water-borne disease, improve farming productivity and remediate polluted bodies of water. It could lower the cost of desalination into the realm of affordability, even for developing nations. Pergamit’s early-stage startup, Agua Via, is working on what she calls a “molecular toolkit� with the ability to build a “smart membrane� one atomic layer thick that is capable of both purifying water and the desalination of water (desalination today can cost up to 10 times more than water puri�cation). Agua Via’s purification system uses a membrane with nanometer-sized pores compared to the micron-sized pores in most purification systems. She compared these size ranges to the size of an ant versus the size of a whale. Ten years in development, Agua Via’s membranes are looking to achieve the “holy grail� of water filtration. In Pergamit’s words they are: “high selectivity at low cost, low complexity and low energy.� According to Pergamit, “At one molecule thick, you’re in a very low-energy regime.� Because of the pore size the filtration can be achieved at low pressures of 1 psi versus the large amount of pressure it takes “push a water molecule through a conventional membrane.� The firm looks to nature in its material design. Said Pergamit: "How does nature filter water?� There is a lot of bio-mimicry going in Agua Via’s technology with the firm studying aquaporin, a cellular protein that shuttles water in and out of cells and the science of kidneys. The same technology for filtering urea and other bad stuff out of water in Agua Via’s technology is used by another Pergamit company, Biophiltre, in renal or kidney science. The basic unit of the kidney, the nephron, is a small miracle moving water and salts back and forth against osmotic gradients. “We are transferring information from kidney science to water science,� said the CEO. Others working on aquaporin membranes include the industrial plumbing giant Danfoss, while Novozymes and a startup called Aquaporin are doing similar work. These companies have produced samples and hope to be in the market by 2010 or 2011. The challenge, said Aquaporin CEO Peter Jensen to Greentech Media, isn't so much in creating artificial proteins. It is making the membrane durable. Agua Via wants to build the membrane like a pharmaceutical, with incredible specificity and precision. The nature of the membrane’s construction means that they “are not stuck just playing with the size of the filtered solutes but can play with charge and electrical properties. These pores give you a whole deck of cards and different strategies to apply.� Agua Via is a product company aiming to sell large-scale water purification systems and filtration cartridges that scale to handling hundreds of thousands of gallons of pure water per day. “Smaller systems down to point-of-use size will follow. Large scale water is first,� Pergamit said. There is a sort of VC lore that “you can’t make money in water.� (This is really not true – there’s been some decent M&A in the water market). �The discouraging thing about this is that [VCs] really don't understand that we (the U.S.) are entering an era of water scarcity (as opposed to large chunks of the rest of the world who are already in the midst of water scarcity),� said Pergamit in an email. “Maybe they don't buy the concept of climate change – anthropogenic or otherwise. But it also means that they don't understand aquifer exhaustion and the fact that even if there wasn't one whit of climate change, we are still going to run out of water. There's some very basic information that hasn't sunk in yet.� Pergamit claims that the firm is soon to close a single digit million dollar Round A of funding from a U.K. investor consortium for this potentially disruptive and enabling technology. Gayle Pergamit will be speaking at the Always On Going Green event in Sausalito on Wednesday Sept 17, 2008 during the Green Nanotech & Synthetic Genomics panel. The agenda for the event is here.

Lyngby, Denmark--As long as rivers flow into the sea, we potentially can get cheap power with almost no effort. That's the view from Scandinavia, where some scientists and start-ups are turning their attention to generating power from osmotic pressure. It works as follows. Fresh water from streams and rivers comes tumbling toward a tank of sea water filled by the ocean. Before it falls into the sea, though, it must pass through a membrane. The membrane eliminates any impurities and lets only the tiny water molecules get through. When fresh water enters the tank filled with sea water, it decreases the salt concentration in the seawater and increases the overall pressure. (You can get a more full description from Rolf Aaberg from Norway's Statkraft Energi here.). The pressure can then be harnessed to run a turbine. "You have the potential of approximately 2,000 terawatt hours a year globally. Any place you have a stream going into the sea you have potential energy," says Peter Holme Jensen, a microbiologist turned CEO of a water purification company in Lyngby called Aquaporin. Aquaporin is looking at this market, but Jensen said it is in the very experimental stage. The sun, meanwhile, keeps the whole process going by evaporating seawater, which later turns to rain to fill streams. Like coal and wind, osmotic power is indirect solar energy. It is one of those zany ideas--like nuclear fusion, piezoelectrics and self-powered hydrogen plants--that is on the fringe now but could pay off massive dividends in the future. A longshot, yes, but who knows. If someone in 1944 told you that a bunch of Europeans were in the New Mexico desert building a bomb that could flatten a city, you probably would have scoffed. Others are working on different passive ocean power concepts.  John Craven in Hawaii wants to exploit sea-based heat exchangers to generate air conditioning. The heat exchanger, a tube, would fill with frigid water thousands of feet below the surface. When that cold water gets toward the surface, it radiates cool. But if osmotic power sounds easy, how come we aren't doing it now? Getting adequate pressures is difficult. It has also been tough finding a durable membrane that won't foul. That is where Aquaporin says it can play a part. The company, along with Novozymes, is devising a water purification membrane based around a protein called an aquaporin. Aquaporins sit in channels in living cells: they eject impurities but let water pass. (Read more here.). Novozymes is working on developing a synthetic aquaporin while Aquaporin the company is working on arrays and membranes. (That's an artists' rendering of an aquaporin, by the way.) The companies will first sell membranes to the semiconductor industry, which buy membranes to turn very clean water into almost absolutely pure water. Later, it will move into the mass water market and in the meantime continue to work on the energy concept. "We could have energy as long as the sun shines," Jensen said. The Scandinavian countries, by the way, are pushing cleantech hard. Denmark, Sweden and Finland are trying to commercialize their university research more and large local established companies like Danfoss and Dong Energy are concocting spin-outs. Will all of these things make it? No, but it shows that, in greentech, you are going to continue to see a lot of activity overseas. It probably won't be like the IT revolution where most of the important companies came from the U.S. or the east coast of Asia. Other interesting Danish start-ups: fabric that can replace steel from PolyPower and an LED growing system.

British consumers may soon feel the pinch of higher water rates. Between 2010 and 2015, British water utilities claim they will need to make £27 billion in infrastructure investments to comply with the EU-wide Water Framework Directive, which requires water utilities to comply with new water conservation and pollution standards aimed at adapting to climate change-related water shortages. Ofwat, the UK's water regulator, received the proposals Monday amid criticism from British consumer groups who claim ratepayers are having trouble coping with similar rate increases for gas and electricity service. British Gas, for example, raised its service rate 44 percent this month. The rate increase will go to pay for efficiency improvements aimed at driving individual use down from 150 liters per day to 130 liters per day. The highest rate applications have come from Bristol Water and Southern Water, which collectively serve seven million customers. Bristol Water has proposed an infrastructure improvement plan that will raise average annual rates from £149 to £187 next year, representing a 26 percent increase over inflation. Southern Water's 23 percent rate increase will raise annual bills to £426 by 2015 to pay for investments worth £2.6 billion. United Utilities, another large water provider, has asked for a 2.7 percent annual increase over five years to fund a £4 billion investment plan aimed at creating annual efficiency gains of around 1.5 percent. All companies have said the rate increases are necessary to comply with the new EU conservation and pollution standards. While the rate increases understandably create distress for consumers, they represent an interesting opportunity for water-focused greentech companies and investors. The efficiency-focused infrastructure improvements will require water technology far more advanced that what is currently deployed. While some of this technology is deployed already in places like the water-conscious United Arab Emirates, much of it has yet to move from the prototype phase. Nothing will help that more than £27 billion worth of RFPs, especially when the issuers' other choice is to face a hefty EU fine. While Ofwater will probably accept rate increases smaller than those proposed, driving down the amount of total investments, the work required to meet this demand will drive further innovation in water technologies. As far I'm aware, the improvements to be made in Britain between now and 2015 represent the largest concerted effort to rebuild a water industry anywhere in the world. If done correctly, as with all things greentech, the high initial capital expenditures will result in long-term cost savings as resource efficiencies drive down operating costs and service rates. Greentech VCs would do well to get some of their water companies in front of the British utilities. This brings up a related point. Electricity and gas rates have increased in recent years as a result of constrained power supplies, demand levels rising above forecasts, and structural shifts in the natural gas industry. The proposed increase in water rates also stems from use and resource constraint issues. In the power, heat, and water supply industries, however, increasing rates have played a large role in moving green technologies further into the mainstream. But just who should bear the cost of this? Passing costs onto consumers is a common practice in regulated industries. Companies in these sectors are required to negotiate tariffs, and rates of return are strictly supervised by regulatory authorities. This helps (sometimes) to keep rates down and preventing utilities from taking advantage of their natural monopoly status. However, as markets move, utilities are forced to renegotiate, often with undesirable consequences for consumers. But if utilities were unregulated and rates were set to monopoly pricing, wouldn't this drive down demand (or drive up efficiency and conservation)? So maybe regulators should pay. After all, they're the ones who force utilities to keep costs down, though often with limited success. They also force utilities to keep the water on for people who can't or won't pay their bills. And the utilities themselves? Faced with a set of perverse regulation-based incentives, utilities do their best to keep investments and improvements at a minimum. Anything else would raise the ire of shareholders. The answer is a combination of all three. The EU follows the polluter pays principle, which means utilities should bear a considerable portion of the investment burden. Regulators, however, in sticking with their mission of public service should view the infrastructure improvements as a investment in future conservation and insurance against water shortages and drought. Consumers increasingly need to come to grips with their legacy of overuse. When water is in short supply, demand becomes relatively inelastic. Hang out in the desert for a bit with a box of Fiji Waters and you'll see what I mean. Or just ask the Gulf Arabs, who must desalinate more than 95 percent of their drinking water and still face a potentially devastating shortage. GE has found one of their biggest growth opportunities in that market. The UK's water situation represents a similarly significant opportunity for companies developing even newer, more innovative technologies. Perhaps the British Government will use this opportunity to build their own water tech industry. The demand is certainly there.