WEBVTT - Liquid Demand: Tech Solutions for Water Stress 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 This is Dana Perkins and you're listening to Switched on, 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.840 the podcast brought to you by BNF. Today, we're here 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.400 to talk about the existing and emerging technology solutions to 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:15.160 address water stress. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.960 anywhere between one point five to two point five billion 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.119 people live in areas exposed to water stress today. This 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.520 is forecasted to rise to three billion by twenty fifty, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.280 and that's only if warming is limited to two degrees 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.800 c by that point. Humans are made up of roughly 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.600 sixty percent water, so to say that its essential would 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.240 be an understatement. And we live on an increasingly thirsty planet, 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.680 not just due to population growth and demands from agriculture, 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.720 but also owing to increasing demand from industry and data centers. Yes, 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.440 the same data centers that are needed to power AI technology. 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.800 So where do we get more water? From energy intensive 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.120 desalination plants to reducing water loss, to increasing water reuse 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.720 and recycling. We'll get into the technology side of this 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.840 essential building block for life on this planet. I'm joined 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.080 today by b and EF technology and innovation analyst Stephanie Diaz, 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.800 who shares findings from her recently released research note titled 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:18.080 tech Radar Water supply use and Treatment. Bn EF clients 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.280 will be able to find this at BNOF go on 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.040 the Bloomberg terminal or at BNF dot com. All right, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:35.480 let's get to talking about water. Stephanie, thank you for 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:36.160 joining today. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:37.240 Thanks for having me, Dana. 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.640 So we're here to talk about water today, and we 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.160 know that this has so many important applications in addition 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.040 to what we drink and agriculture. But actually, as we 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.480 so often talk about in the show, the energy transition 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.480 is actually quite dependent upon water. We'll get to the 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.000 demand side part of it momentarily, but as we tend 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.240 to kick off many of these shows, let's start with 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.200 some definitions and then also as we think about the 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:07.240 fact that with climate change there is disruption to traditional 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.960 precipitation patterns, what is the definition of water stress? 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.040 Sure, but let's start by actually talking about water itself, right, 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.919 because water is really ubiquitous in everyday life. It's really 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:20.840 an amazing thing for a modern miracle that we can 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:22.480 just go to the tap and turn on our water. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.920 But really what that ends up meaning in practice is 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.520 that we use an estimated four trillion cubic meters of 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.080 water annually. And most of this is coming from things 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.880 like rainfall, snowmells, river runoff, and we collect it from 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.120 surface water and groundwater, so think lakes, rivers, and aquifers. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.120 These together account for ninety two percent of human water use, 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.600 and all of this water gets used in a couple 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.200 of different ways. About three quarters of that goes into 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.720 the agriculture sector, so think crops, livestock, aquaculture, and then 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.840 the remainder gets used for industrial or municipal purposes. So 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.040 when we talk about water stress, what we're actually talking 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:02.520 about is does the water demand outpace the supply. This 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.240 is a really localized definition because water is a really 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.040 regional thing. But what you should think about is between 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.960 the water that gets used for human purposes, the water 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.280 that needs to be there to in order to replenish rivers, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.640 in order to you know, water forests, be used by 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.960 the environment. All of that, does that water demand surpass 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.919 the amount of water that is available in that area 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.400 for things like precipitation, groundwater, all of that. We are 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.600 increasingly seeing that water stress is becoming a pertinent issue 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.400 around the world. So today about one point five to 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.160 two point five billion people live in areas exposed to 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:40.440 water scarcity, and under a two degrees celsius scenario of 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.840 global warming that's expected to rise to approximately three billion 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.880 people by twenty fifty, demand for fresh water could be 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.680 up to forty percent greater than supply by twenty thirty, 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.600 according to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.080 So now let's pivot to the demand side part of things, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.720 which has to do with this wider question of you know, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.640 water for a lot of the end uses that you know, 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.400 we do traditionally talk about here at BNF, Can you 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.360 talk about some of the sectors that maybe many we've 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.320 thought of or some that we haven't thought of, that 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.840 are really heavily dependent upon this natural resource. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.680 Yeah, I mean there are so many examples. Let's talk agriculture. 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.800 It's kind of a given that water is important for agriculture, 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.400 but we often don't think about this implicit water trade 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.560 that is happening in crop production. So, just to give 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.240 an example, Fondamonte is an agriculture company and it grows 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.560 alfalfa in the US state of Arizona, and that alfalfa 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.159 is then harvested and shipped back to Saudi Arabia to 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.039 feed cattle there. The company turned to Arizona because of 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.760 water scarcity issues in Saudi Arabia and the ability to 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.040 grow you around in Arizona, but Arizona itself is a 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.720 hot desert state. Water also has implications for the energy sector. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.039 French company EDF had to reduce output of several of 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.800 its nuclear power plants in twenty twenty two as heat 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.640 waves made the river water that's usually used to cool 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.640 those nuclear power plants too warm. They had to reduce 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.880 their output as a result. It has impacts on mining 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.039 because water is used in querying and milling, and the 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.280 amount of water used for those processes can put stress 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.320 on local water supplies. In Mexico, Group of Mexicos, Buena 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.359 Vista del Cobre Mine dealt with protests in June twenty 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.200 twenty four as the company was issued permits entitling it 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.960 to more than fifty billion liters of water annually, which 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.440 is fifty seven percent of that local watershed's volume, even 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.800 though that area is experiencing a regional drought. You have 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.120 examples across you know, thermal power plants that use up 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.719 to three thousand liters of water per megawat hour for 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.440 cooling the steel industry consumes up to one hundred and 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.360 seventy five liters of water per ton of steel produce. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.359 Water ends up being used throughout so many of the 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.200 different industries that we cover here at BENF, So. 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.440 We could go in so many different directions when we're 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.560 thinking about end uses and demand side for water. But 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.719 let's focus in on one that has been incredibly buzzy lately, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.440 and that is data centers and the growth of data 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:03.760 centers in some respects to this rise in AI applications 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.960 that are really leading to a lot more demand for 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.000 electricity in order to keep these data centers cool. Can 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.760 you talk about how water is connected to this burgeoning 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:15.600 space right now? 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.320 Data centers and AI are actually surprisingly dependent on water 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.680 in two ways. So let's talk about the first one, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.160 which is cooling. So think of your laptop. When you 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.560 run it for a long period of time, it gets warm, right. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.800 Data centers do the same thing. They get warm over time, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.920 and water based cooling systems are often used in order 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.520 to take that heat away from the data centers and 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.400 keep them cool. This is a really energy efficient way 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.279 to do this, but it does mean that a lot 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.640 of water can get consumed in Virginia's Data Center Alley, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.799 which is just outside of Washington, DC. Companies like Amazon 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.760 and Microsoft used one point nine billion gallons of water 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.760 in twenty twenty three, a sixty four percent increase since 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.760 twenty nineteen. The second way in which data centers and 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.359 AI are dependent on water is through semiconductors themselves. So 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.640 the chips that go into these data centers. In order 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.479 to create these chips, you need really pure water, like 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.080 ultra pure water. This is water that is so pure 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.600 that it would actually kill us humans if we drink it. 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:11.760 But this is the kind of extremely pure water that 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.960 is necessary for the chips because they're working on the 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.960 scale of nanometers right. In order to produce these sort 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.120 of chips, you need access to really clean water, and 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.880 as a result, they end up consuming a lot of water. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.880 According to the World Economic Forum, forty percent of semiconductor 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:32.000 manufacturing facilities are in watersheds expected to face severe water 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.880 stress between twenty thirty and twenty forty. And now I 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.360 want you to add to this another twenty four to 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.120 forty percent of facilities that are currently under constructed, and 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.040 then another forty percent of facilities that are currently planned 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.119 and underway that will also be located in severe water 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.280 stress areas. So when taken altogether, you can really see 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.080 how data centers ai big technique to be thinking more 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.680 about their water usage. A great example of this is 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.200 how in Chile recently a court partially reversed approval for 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.760 a two hundred million dollars Google data center projects, citing 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.840 that the company needed to go back and reconsider its 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.240 water use. This is after the data center had already 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.040 announced that it was going to switch from water based 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.680 cooling to the less water intensive want more energy intensive 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.800 air based cooling, and we've seen companies like Microsoft and 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.680 AWS commit to being water positive and aiming to replenish 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.800 more water than they use by twenty thirty. 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.280 Now, I think a lot of people understand that water 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.080 needs to be processed before it can be used, especially 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.480 well depending upon where it came from. But can you 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.439 just actually explain what ultra pure water is and why 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:35.960 it's deadly for humans. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.640 So water needs to be processed to the level of 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.760 purity required for what people what it's being used for. 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.000 So take humans. We need to drink clean water, right, 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.360 but we actually don't need to drink perfectly pure water 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:52.360 because there's actually useful stuff in water. Water contains minerals 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:53.880 that are one of the ways we get them as 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.240 part of like a nutritional basis. If you drink ultra 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.240 pure water, it's too pure for our bodies and so 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.640 then our red blood cells end up rupturing because the 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:03.960 water wants to like even out the concentration. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.120 I know this is not related to the energy system, 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.959 but I just I had to understand that. Okay. Another 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.040 form of water, since we're using this term very colloquially, 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.880 is salt water, and desalination is a technology that has 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.360 been used in order to remove salt from water to 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.640 make it to the level of purity that we can 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.320 use it for other use cases. Can you talk about 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.760 desalination whether or not that for regions that may be 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.960 experiencing water stress, is desalination something that is becoming a 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:34.600 more popular technology. 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.800 Desalination is currently responsible for producing about two percent of 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.520 our global water global freshwater, that is, and while it's 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.120 only two percent globally, in water stress regions like the 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.320 Middle East, it is much higher than that. Saudi Arabia, 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.599 for example, relies on desalination for seventy percent of its freshwater, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.240 and Kuwait relies on it for ninety percent of its 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.880 fresh water. So desalination can play a massive rule in 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.160 specific regions based on how localized that water stress is. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.160 Desalination itself is a really mature technology. We've been doing 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.319 this for a long time now. There are currently about 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.440 fifteen thousand existing facilities globally that produce ninety five million 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.040 cubic meters of fresh water per day, but this is 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:20.040 expected to grow over time. The International Energy Agency expects 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.839 that energy demand for desalination is set to double by 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.720 twenty thirty from twenty twenty three levels, reaching nearly four 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.360 thousand Petta Rules of energy by the end of the decade. 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:32.400 Just to give a sense of scale, that's roughly the 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.280 energy consumption of Poland in twenty twenty three. So desalination 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.920 is a mature technology and it is definitely widely used 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:41.720 in some parts of the world, but not in all 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:42.240 of the world. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.480 Are there innovations being made in the desalination space or 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:46.840 is it just becoming more prevalent. 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.680 Technologies for desalination are getting better. We've seen, for example, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.280 that originally desalination was mostly done through multi stage flash 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.080 and multi effect distillation, which are both thermal methods of 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.720 removing salt fur water. Basically, the idea there is you 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.160 take water salty water, you evaporate it, and the salt 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.600 gets left behind, but the water becomes a gas. You 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.800 collect the gas and then you condense it so that 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.440 you have liquid water. Again. This is a really good 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.880 way of creating clean water, but it's also really energy intensive, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.199 and so we saw the switch from these thermal methods 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.199 to using reverse osmosis instead. Reverse osmosis accounts for more 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.120 than two thirds of desalination capacity around the world today, 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.720 and the idea behind reverse osmosis is that you have 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.760 a semi permeable membrane and all that means is that 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.160 this membrane lets water through but not salt. And so 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.120 you push the salty water against this membrane and the 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.120 water gets pushed through, but a lot of the salt 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.840 stays behind. This is the most common method used today 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.800 and partly because it requires less energy to produce that 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.800 fresh water. But there are still new methods of desalination 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:54.880 being explored, such as electrodialysis, capacitive deionization, and humidification dehumidification cycling. 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:56.959 The idea behind these newer methods is that they're all 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.720 looking for ways to lower the energy demand of desalination 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.280 and turn could lower the cost of water production. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.280 So I'm glad you brought that up. How much does 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:04.760 it cost? 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.960 Yeah, so the cheapest desalinated water you can find in 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.319 the world would be in Saudi Arabia, where you can 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.640 get it at less than fifty cents per cubic meter. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.080 Everywhere else in the world has more expensive desalinated water 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:20.480 than that, and it really depends on things like the 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.880 maturity of the industry in that area, the salinity of 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.160 the water that you're using in the first place. The 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.880 saltier your feed water is, the harder it is to 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.040 get the salt out, and therefore the more expensive it is. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.680 Things like the cost of energy and as well as 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.760 the pre and post treatment required for that water depending 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:37.560 on its use case. 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.400 So you've just described this process of desalination, which I 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.520 fully recognize is one complex into energy intensive and with 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.840 that comes costs. So it's a application that is a 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.640 you know, if you really need it and you have 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.280 access to salt water, you're going to use this. But 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.800 let's talk a bit about how people are currently getting water. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.400 And I'm thinking about parts of the world that are 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.960 currently under water stress. So the state that I grew 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.200 up in is California and produces a ton of food 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.640 and also has a lot of periods of water stress 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.520 in recent history, a lot of years that would be 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.640 classified as droughts. And I know that this is not 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:18.280 unique to California, but there's a lot of conversation about 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.800 the water that is in dams and whether or not 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.360 to release it at certain points in time. There was 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.600 some water recently released. It was being held for agriculture 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.520 for it later in the summer for August September, which 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.040 is now no longer available. So water stress is coming 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.920 to California potentially later this year. Is desalination something that's 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.959 on the cards for that part of the world or 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.600 other areas where there is water stress, or is this 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.719 really somewhat limited use cases at least at this point 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.920 in time because of how expensive and complex it is. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.280 Descalination is definitely being considered by more parts of the world. California, 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.839 for example, recently released a report on the future of 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.760 desalination plants in the state. But you have to remember 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.400 that and we're thinking about desalination, we're comparing it to 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.760 the alternative, which oftentimes is water that is really really 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.920 cheap and oftentimes free. So take for example, if you 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.520 are a farmer that depends on groundwater, you have to 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.439 pay for a well, you know, install a well that 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:17.920 goes down into the ground, and pay for the pumps, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.360 but the water itself you might not be paying for. 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:22.400 You might not be paying for water that you draw 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.360 from a lake for example. So oftentimes one of the 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:27.440 things that we talk about in desalination is we have 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.280 to lower the cost of water if we want this 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.120 technology to be more competitive, because we're competing against really 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.200 cheap access to water in lots of parts of the world. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.120 And then just let's talk about that one drawback other 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.560 than the energy intensity, which has to do with increasing 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.520 the salinity in wherever it is you're pulling the water from. 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:46.200 If you take out the fresh water but you leave 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.080 the salt, what does that do to the local ecosystem. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.800 Yeah, so reverse osmosis, which as I mentioned is the 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.360 most commonly used process today, ends up resulting into two 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.560 streams of water. Like you have the fresh water, which 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.040 is what you want to go on and use, and 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.720 then you have this thing called brine. And this is Basically, 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.240 this even saltier water that is left behind. Globally, more 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.640 than one hundred and fifty million cubic meters of brine 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.320 are produced per day from desalination, which is more than 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.840 double the amount of fresh water produced from those same facilities. Now, 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.000 this brine can have an impact on the environment. First 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.440 of all, it's saltier, which is not what the aquatic 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.560 life in oceans are used to. But you can also 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.880 have other impacts, such as the temperature being different. That's 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.000 why these facilities have to take into account things like 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.200 how they disperse this brine into the ocean in order 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.800 to try to minimize impacts. They also have to design 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.840 their systems so that you know, aquatic life isn't actually 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.720 sucked into with the desalination plant in the first place 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:43.160 when they're grabbing the ocean water. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:45.960 Okay, so there are certainly some drawbacks that one needs 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.760 to consider before we revert to wide scale use of 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.920 desalination and before we go to the measures that are 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.800 being taken to maybe reduce water consumption. So we're being 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.880 a little wiser about what it is that we're applying 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.680 it to and how we're doing it. Let's just talk 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:05.480 about one other emerging technology. So atmospheric water generation is 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.120 seen as an emerging technology. But I'm going to stop 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.200 for a minute before you get to well, when you 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.480 go to explain what it is, can you also tell 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.120 me how this technology differs from the dehumidifier that I 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.520 have sucking the water out of my clothes as I'm 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:19.680 drying them on the drying rack. 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.520 Oh, sometimes it doesn't actually, So the idea high atmospheric 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.360 water generation is that you are taking water vapor from 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.480 the air and condensing it, and there are actually a 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.280 couple of ways to do that. Some of it is 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.560 simple condensation, which is like the seeing technology that is 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.680 in your dehumidifier. Actually, sometimes it's instead using a process 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.120 called absorption, in which you have basically a solid that 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.040 the water then adheres to. Sometimes you have things called bognets, 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.320 which are basically inspired by spiderwebs and water drop lists 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:55.480 collect on the strings of these nets and then coalesce together, 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.880 creating more water. So atmospheric water generation is actually just 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.600 an umbrella term for a couple of different technologies, but 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.840 they all aim to collect water from the air instead. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:07.760 This makes it different from desalination, which you know requires 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.359 some sort of large body of salty water nearby. Atmospheric 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.840 water generation isn't limited by having access to a body 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.560 of water, it's instead thinking about how much humidity is 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:18.000 in the air. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.760 Okay, So now that we've talked about the technologies that 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.840 are potentially increasing supply, let's talk about water management and 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.040 what can be done to reduce the amount of demand. 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.680 You know how much of a role deletes play in pipes. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.280 You know, what are some of the main areas where 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.200 we're just losing water needlessly, and what steps are being 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:38.600 taken to ameliorate that. 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.040 In addition to being able to increase these sources of 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.520 water that we have, being able to reduce how much 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.679 water we need is also incredibly useful, and there are 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.960 a couple of ways that we can do this. Let's 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:54.080 start from the utility perspective. Water utilities are often the 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.040 way in which water gets distributed in places, and so 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.639 we have these large infrastructure networks that manage these large 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.240 water flows, covering everything from distributing drinking water to also 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:09.040 storm water management. Now, if we look at just drinking water, 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.440 we know that today over three hundred and forty five 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:16.600 million cubic meters of water are lost in distribution daily, 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:20.320 and that's money that is lost by those water utilities 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.879 because it's water that they sent out but didn't actually 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:24.639 make it to a customer, so they don't get to 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.200 charge their customers for it. But it's also water that 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.800 we would rather put to good use. We would rather 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.960 not waste that water. You also have things like making 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.960 sure that these really large infrastructure systems are operating well. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.159 We can that way, we can find these leaks quickly, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.960 we can manage the equipment well. And so as a result, 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.520 we ATF tracked thirty six different companies that are selling 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.959 their products to these utilities across those different use cases 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:52.200 around managing their equipment better, finding leaked to connection, being 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.000 able to monitor their water quality, all in an effort 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.400 to make sure that we use our water more effectively. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.119 These companies have collectively raised two hundred seventy six million 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.720 dollars since twenty sixteen, which is admittedly raising money a 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.639 little slower than most climate technologies. But that's not to 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.080 say that this isn't really useful, because we really need 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.800 to make sure that we're using our water as effectively 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:14.440 as possible. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.000 Well, and so then you know, let's talk about agriculture, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.920 which is an application that we I think all kind 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.919 of really understand in its basic sense. And you identified 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.080 earlier that in some of these use cases, you know, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.399 they are aquifers underground, they have access to them, but 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.600 that doesn't mean that it's limitless. Is that the primary 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:37.199 motivation for innovation in reducing water use in agricultural applications 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.280 and what are some of the way is that the 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.680 agriculture system is actually trying to be a little bit 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.240 more cautious about their water consumption. 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.080 Yeah. So, as I mentioned earlier, agriculture is the largest 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:53.560 user of fresh water supply, and water stress therefore really 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.159 is impactful to this industry. It's whether it's aquifers that 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.440 are being drawn down and aren't being replenished by ra water, 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:05.360 whether it's rivers that have so much water being withdrawn 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.400 upstream that by the time you a downstream farmer gets 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.919 access to the river, it's drier than it would have 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:15.520 been otherwise. Altogether, we're seeing that water stress is increasingly 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.960 a challenge that farmers and the agriculture industry have to face. 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.240 But it's also one that we it's really important that 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:23.760 we resolved. Irrigation is one of the ways you do 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.640 that right, and some nine hundred and thirty five billion 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.119 cubic meters of water we're used for irrigation purposes. In 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.159 twenty twenty one, irrigated lands account for thirty three percent 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.080 of global crop production and forty four percent of cereal 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.280