05 August 2020

From Water Scarcity to Water Abundance - Welcome To the Next Era of Renewables

Pulling a rabbit out of thin air is something we all have heard of, even witnessed. But pulling drinking water out of thin air? That too, not as a random magic act, but for real! Fascinating, right?

That’s exactly what Zero Mass Water has achieved with its unique breakthrough technology, SOURCE™ Hydropanels.

Founded with a vision of ‘perfecting water for every person, every place,’ and a mission to make drinking water an unlimited resource, the Zero Mass Water team has a three-point agenda - water access, quality, and security.

Water is essential to life, yet 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services, and 297,000 children under five years die every year from diarrhoeal diseases because of poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water. (WHO/UNICEF)

The above figures and many more such reports emphasize just how critical it is to conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have. The need to invest in technologies that will ensure a sustainable supply of potable water to the world populace as we head into the future.

We need companies like Zero Water Mass that are committed to solving pressing environmental and social issues and focus on developing advanced technologies that harness the natural resources to find viable and sustainable solutions.

We caught up with Dr. Cody Friesen, Founder, and CEO, Zero Mass Water on the company’s journey, opportunities and challenges of using water as a renewable resource, and Zero Mass Water’s role in solving the drinking water crisis in the world, especially India.

REMastertalk: Usually, when we think of renewable energy, we think of electricity. What led you to think of pulling drinkable water out of thin air? Please share the backstory with us.

Dr. Cody Friesen: I grew up in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and earned my undergraduate degree in materials science at Arizona State University and then my Ph.D. in the same field from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I’ve been focused in the renewable energy space my entire career, having run research programs as a professor of materials science at ASU since 2004, the founding of a battery company in 2007, and having served as the co-chair of the Energy subcommittee of the US Manufacturing Council. It has always been my passion to apply advanced technology to solve pressing environmental and social problems, like access to energy and clean water. That is why I started Zero Mass Water.

In my travels, I’ve spent a lot of time in water-abundant places around the world with plenty of rain but no safe water to drink. My interest in water transformed into an urgency, realizing the water was not just a problem of scarcity but also contamination, distribution, and infrastructure. This urgency transformed into a drive to make solving water my life’s work. We assembled a team of scientists and engineers to begin applying renewable energy principles to solving drinking water, looking for an approach that would be infrastructure-free, distributed, and not require any liquid water input. In 2014, I founded Zero Mass Water to make drinking water an unlimited resource with a new-to-the-world technology, SOURCE™ Hydropanels.

SOURCE Hydropanels offers a new solution for those who want an independent source of clean drinking water that does not contribute to carbon emissions, plastic pollution, or require electrical input.

The advantages of SOURCE Hydropanels are that they provide an off-grid, localized solution that solves water security, health outcomes, and sustainability.

REMastertalk: Since the device pulls water from the air, doesn't the air quality and humidity levels impact the amount and quality of water generated? If yes, how do you ensure the optimal quality and quantity of water produced?

Dr. Cody Friesen: In simplest terms, Zero Mass Water’s SOURCE Hydropanel technology creates pure water from only sunlight and air. Internally there is a set of nanostructured materials that are specially engineered to efficiently extract water vapor from the air, concentrating the water vapor by about 10,000X by volume. Solar energy is then used to respire the water vapor from the materials dynamically, and the Hydropanels do that in such a way as to increase the dew point internally. This essentially creates the conditions for energy-efficient passive condensation and results in high-quality pure water.

It's the only genuinely off-grid system that can make water in almost any environment, without plugging into an additional electric or water supply. Additionally, SOURCE can uniquely produce water in a wide range of conditions including in very arid environments where RH can drop below 10%.

SOURCE water starts pure and is made better through mineralization, unlike most water, which starts dirty and has to be cleaned. To protect SOURCE water quality, the Hydropanels filter the air before it passes through the system, and water is kept clean with ozonation inside the integrated reservoir.

Additionally, SOURCE has two steps in its water production process that keep pollution in the air from getting into your water:

1. First, the built-in air filter keeps particulates and other debris from finding their way into the Hydropanel.
2. Second, because the hygroscopic material inside the Hydropanel only attracts water molecules, the water produced is pure, similar to distilled - leaving anything else in the air behind. This pure, liquid water flows into each Hydropanel’s integrated reservoir, where it is mineralized with calcium and magnesium and kept clean.

REMastertalk: Do you have any competitors, or is it just you?
Dr. Cody Friesen: Think of it in the context of when there is a historical incumbent and a technology disruptor. For example, internal combustion vs. Tesla, fossil energy vs. solar PV, landlines vs. cell phones, etc.; in each of these cases, the paradigm shifted slowly and then suddenly. That tipping point comes when it’s clear that the emerging technology isn’t just an alternative, but rather is substantially better than the incumbent: that’s the opportunity we see for SOURCE.

SOURCE Hydropanels are unique. They are the most sustainable, regenerative, premium alternative to traditional water supplies available, making perfect drinking water from just sunlight and air. SOURCE is the only genuinely off-grid system that can make water in almost any environment, without plugging into electricity or any existing water supply. Additionally, SOURCE can uniquely produce water in a wide range of conditions including in very arid environments where relative humidity can drop below 10%.

SOURCE Hydropanels are a source for renewable water, and more importantly, they are a more holistic solution to broader endemic problems. We provide communities with the ability to have ownership over their most critical resource (water), versus what has historically been controlled by governments, and at-risk due to weather, aging infrastructure, etc. Plus, we create resiliency and sustainability in what is often an expensive and wasteful purchase of packaged water.

Each Hydropanel offsets more than 50,000 plastic bottles in its lifetime. With plastic bottled water becoming an ever-greater environmental burden, it is clear how scalable the environmental impact of providing a safe, renewable alternative to plastic bottled water is and will continue to be as we deploy increasing quantities of Hydropanels globally.

REMastertalk: Where does India figure on your road map? How many installations so far?
Dr. Cody Friesen: India is a priority market for Zero Mass Water. While India's drinking water challenges are immense, we think that there is enormous potential to utilize distributed, renewable drinking water technology to provide drinking water in rural villages and areas impacted by water scarcity. India is a leader in innovation - renewable energy and cell phone technology have dramatically increased the accessibility of power and communications in rural villages. We look to partner with local governments and industry leaders to provide the same outcomes about drinking water. Zero Mass Water has already completed SOURCE installations in multiple states - ranging from schools in Maharashtra to government buildings in Tamil Nadu, to homes in Karnataka and premium hotels in New Delhi.

REMastertalk: What business opportunities do you see in India for Zero Mass Water?
Dr. Cody Friesen: 1. Providing drinking water access to remote and rural communities

2. Reducing the use of single-use plastics in hospitality and commercial applications

3. Partnering with Government and NGOs to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal #6 / Jal Jeevan Mission

REMastertalk: Do you think Zero Mass Water could be an answer to the water crisis in India?
Dr. Cody Friesen: Absolutely. There are two unique attributes to SOURCE technology that demonstrates its role in solving the water crisis:

1. SOURCE provides a drinking water solution to isolated homes at the household level. Many people who live in low density, rural homes will never justify the cost of "the last mile" grid extension and are often resigned to spending many hours each day fetching water that is not potable. SOURCE provides immediate and long-term access to renewable drinking water at the household for a fraction of the cost of extending pipelines to isolated communities

2) SOURCE provides a resilient, renewable supply of drinking water to areas that do not have a reliable supply of running water due to drought, groundwater depletion, or failed infrastructure. All other technologies rely on water as an input. In contrast, SOURCE harnesses the abundant supply of fresh water in the atmosphere, providing reliable year-round supply even in low humidity conditions (i.e., Rajasthan).

REMastertalk: Let’s talk about price. The Hydropanels are expensive, which means the per liter cost of water will be expensive too. Won’t costing be a challenge for the Indian market?
Dr. Cody Friesen: Price is a critical point - and water from a Hydropanel is currently more expensive than say, water from a tap in Mumbai. However, the actual cost of drinking water at a household with limited access is dramatically more expensive in India - we are focused on improving community resilience and reducing the amount of single-use plastics related to drinking water. Here are three examples where our technology is the lower-cost alternative:

1. We partnered with the International Justice Mission and Swelect Energy to provide a SOURCE array to a small community in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. The community was made up of 10-15 homes and several kilometers from any existing water infrastructure. We installed a SOURCE array at a fraction of the cost of extending infrastructure. That community now has a resilient, long term supply of clean water that was otherwise not available.

2. We partnered with the Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Program and installed a SOURCE array at a school in the village near Beed, Maharashtra. When we installed it, the purpose was to provide the students with higher quality water than the non-potable water being supplied from the hand pump in the village - that is more expensive but cleaner than the alternative. Shortly after we installed, the hand pump ran dry due to the depletion of the groundwater in the area, making our SOURCE array the only clean water available in the village. That array provided water at a fraction of the cost of an alternative infrastructure solution.

3. We partnered with a premium hotel in Delhi that will install a rooftop SOURCE array and onsite circular delivery model to displace more than one million single-use PET bottled in the coming years at a significantly lower cost.

REMastertalk: What other challenges do you see, and how do you feel equipped to handle those?
Dr. Cody Friesen: The challenges we see are two-fold:

1. In today's business environment, clients may not commit capital for spending on infrastructure upgrade of adding Hydropanels. We are mitigating this challenge by offering a service-based model for blue-chip clients through our innovative Water Purchase Agreements (WPAs). ZMW will invest, own and operate the Hydropanels and supply drinking water at a fixed cost to the clients. Clients benefit from reduced drinking water costs and more water availability without spending a single rupee from their side on hardware.

2. Limited availability of space onsite. ZMW also offers an innovative off-site circulation model. ZMW can set up a sizeable Hydropanel farm on acres of cheap land just outside the cities and industrial spaces and truck the generated drinking water to the client facilities in cans/bubble top form factor or glass bottles or tanker format.