Artemis Water Strategy

Water resilience for a thirsty future

May 02 2014

Emerging Leaders Series: Eric Rasmussen, CEO of Infinitum Humanitarian Systems

Eric RasmussenEric retired in 2007 after 25 years of service in the US Navy that included 18 deployments and three wars to head Google NGO, InSTEDD. He now leads Infinitum Humanitarian Systems (IHS), a profit-for-purpose social business which provides advanced technology solutions for public health and capacity building in emerging markets. Their focus is Latin America.

As a disaster medicine specialist, Eric has led teams in more than a dozen disasters over the past twenty years, including the Izmit earthquake, Katrina, Banda Aceh, Haiti, Hurricane Sandy for FEMA, and the Philippines after Supertyphoon Haiyan for the Roddenberry Foundation. In addition, he has worked in war zones in Bosnia (3x), Afghanistan (twice), and Iraq (9 months).

Why did you see the need for IHS?
During the 25 years that I was in the Navy, I didn’t see that we were doing enough to support civilians in the war zones where we deployed. Rather than just bringing fire and steel on target to win hearts and minds, I thought that we might have a more engaging influence if we stopped the diarrhea that was killing their children. Where we did it, that proved true. But because we didn’t continue to do it, we’ve lost a little ground.

Ormoc, Philippines. UNHCR distribution. Aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda
Ormoc, Philippines. UNHCR distribution. Aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda

What we have found, though, is that water is a dominant issue everywhere in the developing world, particularly in post-conflict regions, but everywhere. There is a fantastic amount of waste in supplying water, for example. The government of Baja California, in the midst of a ruinous drought, quotes a figure of 88 million gallons of fresh water lost every month to graywater runoff into the ocean. They’re professionals, taking their responsibilities seriously, and that drives them crazy. We don’t do enough to reclaim graywater from showers, or to harvest rainwater or to drip-irrigate. Such things are obvious, but beyond supplying enough drinking water in communities, I saw how vital water is for hospitals, and schools, and other civilization services. They can’t work without it.

As a medical doctor with a lot of experience in natural disasters, I have personally known what its like to run out of water. With our team in the response to Supertyphoon Haiyan during November 2013, a supply flight was delayed and we ran out of water. One of the UN teams on site gave us, a team of 14, half of their last third of a jerrycan of water. When that water ran out, we all waited about 12 hours for a water delivery, trying to work, trying to ignore the thirst. Learning experience.

What do you do?
We look at new ways to reclaim used water and purify it for drinking. When we decided on this particular quest we took advantage of my nine years at DARPA and went looking for robust, small scale, energy efficient solutions still deep in someone’s garage. We found some surprisingly good options. There’s a lot of scientific and engineering creativity out there. Some of it has made it to a NASA TRL-5 or so, ready for field testing.

Now the Roddenberry Foundation has funded us, just as a pilot, to look at how we might fill the gaps in current approaches to supplying water during disaster relief.

What is the new solution for water in disaster relief?
IHS, with multiple very cool partners, has developed an approach that replaces single-use bottled water with a long-term water treatment solution on-site. We provide a robust solution during a relief effort and a long-term solution afterward. It saves dramatic amounts of water, energy, and waste, and generates no hazardous byproducts.

Our system is airlifted into an active disaster zones within a few days of the event. Rather than delivering water, it delivers a treatment solution to use the water that’s already there. We have a process to clean almost anything in water—from biological pathogens, to fuels, pesticides and fertilizers, to heavy metals like mercury and arsenic. It’s fast, robust, resilient, simple (though very high tech internally) and runs on renewable energy.

To help understand the problem we were trying to address with a business model, the usual disaster air transport is a C-130 aircraft which carries bottled water on a standardized 463L pallet. A C-130 can carry about 7,700 half-liter bottles on every trip, very roughly a thousand gallons. On the other hand, with that same load, we could ship in six of our units in a single flight and generate at least 500 gallons a day with each one, every day, for months. All we need is a water source in the disaster area, and most disaster areas have many. So instead of bringing in more bottled water by air day after day, that same C-130 can bring in medical supplies, shelter, food, and grieving relatives. Just one of our systems saves a huge amount of fuel and carbon emissions by eliminating more than a quarter of a million pounds of air transport every month.

That one system also replaces tens of thousands of single-use water bottles that litter the landscape of every disaster site for years afterward.

As the emergency response phase moves to recovery and reconstruction, we’ve designed a method for turning over the system entirely to provide a bit of economic benefit (and public health), in the recovery. We’re working with local organizations to help women establish long-term water vending businesses in these communities.

Where do you see the next big challenges for water tech?

At IHS, our opinion is that the challenges we’re about to face are not so much water technology, as:
1) Providing the renewable power for every kind of water purification,
2) Tackling the barriers to change set by policy and legislation,
3) Overcoming cultural barriers, habit and laziness in conservation.

But to stay with just tech, in our view we need to reclaim fresh water from anywhere we can get it, so I’m really excited about some work we’re doing in Mexico. We’re looking closely at some new bio-electrochemistry around bacterial biosolid degradation and the harvesting of transmembrane potentials from the resulting biofilms. The result is the conversion of pit latrine sludge to drinking water that meets all international standards plus a bit of storable energy. As of March we’ve now found it’s scalable. I find that interesting.

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Developing World, Drinking Water, Interviews

Apr 10 2014

Water at the Operational Edge– the US looks at water as a defense imperative

Afghan Supply Line, 2010

Water emerges as the new US military imperative
The high profile successes of the US Department of Defense (DoD) Energy Operations initiative have paved the way for a second wave around water.  Delivering fuel to the front lines in Afghanistan and in Iraq cost $400 a gallon, but the cost of water changes at each location.

Saving fuel in forward operating units saves more than money, it saves lives.  170 solidiers were killed in attacks on water and fuel convoys in 2007. Another 68 casualties are attributed to water deliveries during that period.

The cost of water might be tough to quantify, but when the value of water savings can be measured in lives saved, it becomes an operational imperative.  Initially, the US DoD estimated that water comprised 20% of supplies brought to forward operating units.  However, closer examination in 2010, by the Marines found that a battalion sized FOB had, on a weekly basis, 14 trucks delivering water and 2 trucks delivering fuel.

A forward operating unit can only stay on the front lines as long as its water supply lasts.  Efficient onsite water management—applying proven leading-edge onsite water treatment and water reclaim—can help front line units stay longer to complete their missions, and save lives that might be lost in delivering water.

Resupply Casualty Factors-- Afghanistan and Iraq --FY 2007

In addition, water has been identified as a “risk multiplier” by the US Quadrennial Defense Review.  Water has driven unheaval in places like Syria and Jordan.  In areas of political unrest, US defense efforts might mean bringing water technologies to help strengthen the steady flow of water.

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Developing World, Drinking Water, On-site Water Treatment, Water Policy Innovaton

Jan 02 2014

Four Events that Changed Water in 2013

While great water tech start-up IPO stories didn’t pepper the news sites this year, four watershed events from 2013 will be shaping 2014:

Texas leads the way for toilet to tap
The West Texas hamlet of Big Spring became the first city to bring indirect potable reuse into operation earlier this year.  Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) treats sewage and blends it with drinking water supplies for immediate use.  The process treats water to higher levels of purity than other sources of drinking water, but the “yuck factor” has held off DPR for years. At present, the only the only example of a DPR system in full-scale long term operation is in Windhoek, Namibia, where is has served 250,000 people since 1968.

Watch for more towns in West Texas and throughout the US Southwest to follow.

Public sector leadership—The Water Grand Challenge for Development
The White House Science and Innovation initiative kicked off a unique program this year, the USAID Water Grand Challenge for Development.  In partnership with the Swedish Development Agencies (SIDA) and the Netherlands, the WGCD will provide $25M in seed funding for a few companies that will apply advanced solutions to tackle developing world water problems.

The WGCD is a bold step to bring innovation and entrepreneurship to water challenges.

Water has been the focus for a big chunk of foundation and development agency funding for the developing world over the last decade.  These programs focus upon funding basic water solutions or changing the way people use water.  While existing programs are important, the last decade has shown that incremental improvements in water management aren’t going to be enough.  Early successes from this program in 2014 might drive a new wave of government and NGO-funded water technology programs.

Artemis is proud to serve as an advisor to USAID for this project.

A new engine for proving water tech innovation—LIFT
Water industry associations, the US EPA and over 100 major municipal and industrial water facilities launched a collaborative effort to streamline validation of new water technologies and approaches, the Leaders Innovation Forum for Technology. Read more..

Water defines a new investment community
The drought of venture investment has driven the best water tech growth companies to reach out to investors that go beyond classic early-stage investors in technology.  In order to survive, water tech growth companies have been developing an investor community more diverse and more valuable than venture.  The Cleantech Group estimates that $219 M of venture capital was invested in water tech deals in 2013, more than a 40% drop since 2012.  At the same time, the number of investment deals rose to 82, meaning water tech investment deals were only $2.7 M each on average.  Considering the number of $10M- $15M investments, these numbers would indicate a lot of small investments, very small investments.  The hundreds of companies that have broken out with new projects this year found their capital outside of venture investors–the best of them are tapping into impact investors and government grant programs.  Artemis will be focusing its efforts on this nascent investor community in 2014.

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Developing World, Direct Potable Reuse, Drinking Water, Impact Investing, Validation

Jul 23 2011

Shale Gas Boom Creates Market Opportunity To Clean Fracking Water

The following appeared in Forbes

As U.S. shale gas resources and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have entered the national consciousness, protests from nearby residents, then regulation, have followed. Yet rather than being bad for business, this regulation is actually spurring a new market in water technologies, according to a comprehensive report by  Artemis Water Strategy, a specialist consulting practice.

In particular, author Purabi Thakre and editor Laura Shenkar believe the rich Marcellus “play” — the gas industry term for large deposits — and its location under heavily populated New York and Pennsylvania are creating a vast market opportunity. “The Marcellus Effect: Building Momentum for Advanced Water Technology Solutions” says, “Experts estimate that shale gas drilling will grow sevenfold over the next 10 years in the Marcellus Shale…. The resulting market for wastewater disposal and treatment in this region alone will exceed $3 billion per year, according to the banking firm Boennings & Scattergood. In addition, Shenkar expects that water technology innovations created for shale plays will find markets in other industries.

An expert on corporate water strategy and water technologies, Shenkar founded  Artemis Water Strategy, a consulting firm that advises corporations on water strategy and supports technological innovation in water management. Each year the Artemis Project sponsors the Top 50 Water Companies Competition to identify emerging technologies and investment opportunities in the water sector. This year, 10 of the 50 companies were innovating new technologies to clean up fracking wastewater.

Fracking has been around for decades, but new technology innovations and a higher price for natural gas have recently made it economic to employ it more widely. But Congress, pushed by Vice President Dick Cheney, exempted gas drilling from EPA Clean Water Act regulations in 2005. So as fracking has ramped up, particularly close to where people live, environmental concerns about water quality have emerged. Perhaps the image that best captures people’s concerns is video footage of a man setting his tap water on fire in the documentary film Gasland.

Since that film debuted last year, a scientific report has linked fracking to methane contamination in nearby aquifers. Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy more than $1 million for contaminating the water supply in Bradford County. New York recommended a ban on drilling in the watersheds for New York City and Syracuse. In June Texas became the first state to require disclosure of fracking chemicals, which were previously considered to be intellectual property. Just this month, a federal panel recommended greater disclosure and monitoring of fracking’s environmental effects.

Fracking is a water-intensive process. According to “The Marcellus Effect,” a typical frack well uses about 4 million gallons of fresh water over its lifetime. The fracking process dirties the water both with the proprietary chemicals used and by its exposure to elements deep in the earth that are not found in surface waters. The industry calls its wastewater “produced water.”

According to the report:

“Produced water is often high in naturally occurring total dissolved solids, chloride, sulfate, and metals (such as iron)…. Produced water may also contain naturally occurring radioactive material or petroleum compounds (such as benzene, toluene, and xylene). The produced water might also contain remnants of the fracturing fluids [which contain secret recipes of chemicals]…. An individual well in the Marcellus Shale is estimated to create approximately 15,000 gallons of produced water per year.”

Historically the industry has disposed of produced water by injecting it underground in “disposal wells.” But the Marcellus region’s geology does not permit construction of disposal wells, and its undulating terrain makes it difficult to pipe water long distances. In the Marcellus area, some companies have been recycling wastewater to use again but sell the byproduct, a salty, contaminated sludge, to communities for de-icing roads or suppressing dust. Companies have also paid to haul wastewater to sewage plants, which aren’t designed to adequately treat it. Tainted water is then dumped into rivers, a particularly pernicious problem in Pennsylvania, where the Department of Environmental Protection is beginning to impose more stringent regulations.

All this attention has been uncomfortable for the gas companies, but it is forcing them to deal with their wastewater in a more substantial way. In particular, energy companies are interested in onsite water treatment options.

“We predict that the integrated wastewater appliances that emerge in Marcellus will replace off-site disposal as a predominant practice in shale gas drilling,” says the Artemis report.

Water technology companies smell opportunity, and several big companies that have historically handled wastewater disposal in central treatment locations are working on new strategies. They are naturally well positioned to exploit this opportunity as they have standing relationships with the oil and gas companies. However, emerging companies have a unique opportunity right now, says the report:

“There is an urgent need for a reliable water management solution, which has created a game-changing vacuum…. The unique situation in Marcellus has opened a window of opportunity where technology and innovation trump the positions held by established companies, allowing these emerging companies to gain access to end customers. Until the bigger players that are the gatekeepers “crack the code” and establish strong onsite water treatment solutions for shale gas drilling, promising young technology solutions companies have a chance to commercialize their solutions and attain sustainable profitability by deploying quickly.”

The report also says that several emerging companies have received interest, funding, and support for product testing and validation from gas companies.

Shenkar told me she expects to see turnkey solutions, the equivalent of a PC or other end-user product. “These products offer a company operating in a remote location a portable solution that will give them the ability to precisely execute the several processes required to clean the water and to validate the results by testing it afterward,” she said. “We believe Marcellus will demand that, and technology can do that better than humans.”

In particular, Shenkar believes companies may be motivated by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which set new accountability standards for public companies in the United States.

“Under the act, a CEO could theoretically be thrown in jail for failing to clean up the water to accepted standards,” she said. “The validation component of these turnkey solutions, in particular, is likely to be in demand as industry standards come into focus.”

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Drinking Water

Sep 28 2010

The Gatekeepers of Water Tech

Water SanitizationUtility managers like Eric Rosenblum and Ron Zegers are part of a small cadre of experienced leaders within the water utility who have been facilitating new water management approaches for decades.  They have ensured that, with very few exceptions, there is a steady supply of healthy and safe drinking water.Like other water utility managers, these men play a quiet but essential role in our world. Our water infrastructure is not only the hard bound pipes and pumps that treat water and deliver it to us – it’s the lakes, streams and rivers that are our source of freshwater.  Protecting these sources has become an essential part of the role of water utilities.Control Panel

We want innovative video games and haircuts, but we want the same old water.

We want innovative video games and haircuts, but we want the same old water.  It is the responsibility of water utilities to avoid any unnecessary risks to water quality, and this makes them among the most risk adverse customers for new technology.Copy CatThey demand that new approaches be well-proven in other utilities before they’re considered. As explained by Andrew Salveson of Carollo Engineers, “One of the major hurdles we face is the municipal copy-cat market, and this presents a hurdle to innovation.”Promising technologies spend $500,000 to $1M just to prove their technology works full-scale at a single utility.  Many of the seemingly most promising companies over the past few years have not been able to survive the long and expensive process of proving their solutions in the municipal market.  As a result, the benefits of these solutions are often never seen by the general population.Scarcity and infrastructure decay require new solutions for water resources management.  The process for bringing water technology to market requires money, but more importantly it requires leadership.  The few companies that make it through this arduous process are applying innovation to how they bring to their technology to market.

Written by Laura Shenkar · Categorized: Drinking Water, Ground Water, Investments, Technology, Trends, Water Utilities, Webinar

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