If our planet turns to Dune, how will you survive? Atmospheric water generators might help …
We’re already experiencing water crises in thousands of global cities, places like Flint Michigan, or even native reserves in Canada. How can you ensure you’ll get good, healthy, clean drinking water?
In this episode of TechFirst, we explore the critical global challenge of securing clean water, a resource essential yet scarce for over 2 billion people worldwide.
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In this episode I interview Brian Sheng, CEO and co-founder of Aquaria, a company at the forefront of developing atmospheric water generators capable of extracting clean water from the air, ranging from 24 to 2,600 gallons daily. He discusses the technology’s workings, its potential to address water scarcity effectively, especially in areas with limited access to clean water, and the company’s vision for scaling up to support communities and potentially entire cities with sustainable, clean water obtained directly from the atmosphere.
00:00 Atmospheric Water Generator
01:19 The Global Water Crisis: Challenges and Solutions
05:13 How Atmospheric Water Generators Work: Technology Explained
11:00 The Future of Water: Scaling Up and Making it Affordable
12:48 Comparing Water Solutions: Desalination and Atmospheric Water Generators
21:45 The Vision for a Sustainable Water Future
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Transcript: water from air … atmospheric water generators
Note: this is AI-generated and is unlikely to be perfect
John Koetsier: If you lived in the world of Dune, what would your most valuable resource be? Hello and welcome to TechFirst. My name is John Koetsier. I’m currently reading Earth by David Brin. He’s an award-winning science fiction author and NASA consultant who happened to edit my own science fiction novel, No Other Gods.
Brin’s Earth is widely regarded as one of the most predictive sci-fi novels of all time. One of the things he foreshadows would be very common is conflict over water.
Does that need to be the case today? We’re chatting with someone whose inventions could solve that.
They’re called atmospheric water generators. They pull anywhere from 24 to 2,600 gallons of clean water from the atmosphere in a single day. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Aquaria. His name is Brian Sheng. Welcome Brian. Thank you, John. Really excited to be here. I was thinking as I was doing that intro, have you seen Dune or have you seen the wind traps there?
Brian Sheng: I was gonna say, I haven’t seen Dune yet. It’s definitely on my radar. My co-founder Eric has already seen and raved about it. Lots of sci-fi movie references, and also Star Wars. So that’s on my list. Haven’t gotten there yet, though.
John Koetsier: Do not wait too long. It is amazing. You’ll love it. Start with the first one, of course, but you absolutely love it. But let’s talk about water. How many people struggle to get clean water today?
Brian Sheng: Yeah, so I think everyone knows that we have a global challenge with water. Actually I’m here in Cal. I’m usually based in California.
And just in California alone, we have actually a million people that don’t have access to clean water. And in the United States, up to 40 million people actually have disruptions to clean water. And clean water. As is defined by the EPA. So this is a big problem even in the United States. Yeah.
John Koetsier: Well, and it’s not just California, but that’s shocking.
Of course. ’cause the US, one of the richest nations in the world, California, one of the richer states in the United States, you also have Flint, Michigan. I. Where they still have trouble getting clean water to people that doesn’t have contaminants like lead and other things in it. I think I saw something that a global figure was somewhere on the order of 2 billion people globally do not have safe, constant access to clean water.
Yep. 2
Brian Sheng: billion people. A lot of it focused and concentrated on the global south and in developing nations. And it’s a huge problem and it’s actually getting worse. I.
John Koetsier: Talk about that getting worse. Why is it getting worse? We have situations like in the American West and Midwest where we’ve been tapping the water table for decades, for farming, for irrigation.
That’s gone, that started sinking down. And there’s all kinds of issues with that. Not the least of which is the, is the lack of water, but also land substance as the water table goes down. But you also have, obviously places in countries in the global south as you’re talking about where drought comes.
And you may not have a. A ready source of water. What’s driving all this?
Brian Sheng: Yeah. I think when we think about our water crisis happening, and what I mean by worsening. I think there, I, there are three main categories and it’s reflected actually, if you look at the WHO or un, global perennial challenges, water is always a top three problem.
and so if you look at some of the reasons, well, number one is and this is not in I guess any order of priority, but number one, a lot of people take water for granted. I. It’s not something that I think about as a resource that is replenishing in right in front of our eyes. This is especially the case in the United States.
Where we think water is a is a free public good to a certain extent that the government provides. And so water is extremely undervalued. Number two, we have climate change happening. Climate change. We talk a lot about EVs and decarbonization, but actually one of the main effects and one of the main ways we suffer from climate change is just depleting water, right?
Like ocean water rising. What does that do? Comes inland and creates disruptions to our clean water. When we have droughts and more natural disasters, same thing. Our clean water gets depleted. And then number three is also, it just takes a lot of time and capital For us to build new water solutions, we have to build infrastructure, we have to build pipes, we have to approve large budgets.
And so all of this is happening in ever higher frequency and severity. And so this is how I think about, our global water challenge.
John Koetsier: And not only is it expensive and hard to build those massive projects to distribute water everywhere, they’re super inefficient. Especially old systems, New York, other Eastern United States cities they estimate they lose 15% to 30% of their waters through leaks.
It’s crazy. It’s absolutely insane. Okay, let’s talk about your atmospheric water generators. What is it? How does it work? Sure.
Brian Sheng: So I. I I wonder, John, do you know how much water is in the air around us?
John Koetsier: I don’t know. I obviously, it has something to do with humidity and a hundred percent humidity.
I don’t know how much water that would be per, let’s say, cubic meter. I assume it’s a lot, but you’ll have to, you’ll have to share it with me. I don’t know.
Brian Sheng: Yeah, so I think we can think back to. High school or middle school earth science. The humidity in the air is part of the earth’s natural hydrologic cycle, and so we have roughly 37.8 million billion gallons of water in the air at any given time or for our global audience.
It’s about 13,000 cubic kilometers,
John Koetsier: 13,000 cubic kilometers of water suspended in our atmosphere at any given time. Wow.
Brian Sheng: Correct. And that gets replenished roughly every week or so. Completely recycled just through the hydrologic cycle. So that’s an incredibly large amount of water, fresh water that we can use that’s sustainable, renewable it’s about 200 times more than what human consumption actually consists of per year.
And so what our atmospheric water generators do is we’ve created a way that can capture this. Water in the air and turn it for into water that we can consume in a large scale and energy efficient way. How does it do that? How we do that, technically speaking, is from heat exchange. So I think an easy way to describe it is, on a hot summer day we take out a.
Can of cold drink from the refrigerator. When a cold surface touch a hot parcel of air, the water drips right onto the side of the can. So that’s actually heat exchange as condensation. And so what our technology does is we’ve created special materials as well as heat exchange systems where we can capture large amount of air and then squeeze out the water in the air by efficiently dissipating heat.
And then. Capturing and purifying that for consumption.
John Koetsier: Super interesting. I guess the principle there is that cold air can’t hold as much moisture as hot air,
Brian Sheng: yeah, exactly. So for every parcel of air with its temperature and humidity content, there’s going to be a colder. Temperature where the dewpoint is the water becomes liquid water from atmospheric humidity. So we’ve created a system where inside the system then we can actually efficiently cool the parcel of air through our sys through our heat exchange systems.
And then when that parcel of air cools to the dewpoint, then the water drips down into our collection and then we’re able to purify that. So, that’s exactly right.
John Koetsier: Super cool. How much power does this take?
Brian Sheng: Yeah, so I guess it depends on how much water you need and the size of the actual product itself.
But roughly speaking, right now we’re creating water somewhere in between five to 15 cents per gallon,
John Koetsier: five to 15. Wow. Okay, that’s pretty good. That’s not bad at all. Now, of course, that depends on how expensive your power is or anything like that, but at that price point in, let’s say north, the North American grid, you could easily run that off grid on solar power, correct.
Brian Sheng: Yeah, absolutely. That’s actually I think one of our main customer categories is a lot of people are looking at securing their properties, securing their ranch, their home, making sure that they have a water supply that no matter what happens to their groundwater grid. They have another air water group now, and so these customers typically also have solar and batteries and that’s a great, addition for us because then we are essentially getting energy from the sun and then water from the air.
John Koetsier: Yes. Free water. Talk about the scope here because I mentioned, I saw on your website that you’ve got atmospheric water generators that can pull 24 gallons of clean water a day. And you’ve got ones that can pull 2,600. That’s a significant difference, obviously, but it sounds like you’ve got some things that are happening on an industrial scale, not just a personal or home skill.
Is that correct?
Brian Sheng: Yeah, absolutely. For Aqua, we are a technology company and our mission is to safeguard clean water access, harvesting air. So we are imagining that in the future as we continue to improve our technology and as more people adopt our technology, that we can actually create water for entire cities and countries, all from the air.
So from the beginning, we’ve designed our product to be linkable. So that’s why, that’s why there’s such a large range from, something as small as 24 gallons, which is pretty great for the home or your school, all the way up to multi-thousand gallons. Because all we have to do is link the technology together.
And so whether, John, maybe you’re telling me you want a bigger one for your ranch, okay, we can do that. Or we have a bigger project. Like for example, right now, Mexico City’s having a huge water crisis. Well, we can also do larger projects as well.
John Koetsier: Interesting. Yeah. Mexico City, I believe is also subsiding, right?
It’s essentially falling very slowly as they deplete their water table. And the whole city is sinking some centimeters or inches per year which we’re also seeing in the American, Midwest and West. Okay. How much is this? Is it super expensive?
Brian Sheng: So our smallest unit the 24 gallons that I mentioned starts at $3,000.
So you can start supplying that, starting from there.
John Koetsier: Gotcha. So what do you think is that, is
Brian Sheng: that expensive? What do you think it
John Koetsier: as? Everything. It’s relative. If you’re in Africa, in some dry, dusty interior nation, you don’t have access to water. And maybe your income is, some thousand dollars.
US equivalent a year, it’s probably pretty expensive. But in, in the West, maybe not so much.
Brian Sheng: Yeah, right now we’re mostly shipping within North America, but John, I absolutely agree with you. My goal is that in the next five years, I can sell the hydro, our smallest product and take it down at least two x so down to $1,500 and I hope to one day sell it over under a thousand dollars.
Right now we’re just getting started, but as we continue to build the company, as we continue to manufacture more of these products, then we’re definitely going to offer this for more affordable pricing.
John Koetsier: It is interesting ’cause if I think about let’s say an off grid home or a ranch or just somewhere that’s quite distant.
$3,000, assuming the technology is reliable and lasts a long time is actually not that much because what’s the cost of laying all that pipe that you need to get something in? What’s the cost of otherwise having some sort of treatment facility for groundwater or digging a well or other things like that those things can be quite expensive.
Super interesting. How does this fit into kind of the global. A scale of problems. I just saw like five days ago, financial Times had a story on desalination and how when it’s powered by solar, that’s getting actually really efficient, really cheap. I mentioned to you off the top or before our recording, the Hasian project in Dubai.
They’re thinking they’ll provide desalinated water at 37 cents per cubic meter whereas. Drinking water in London is a pound which is I guess about a buck 50, buck 25 per cubic meter. How’s that fit in? I guess that’s really massive city scale, but you’re hoping to get to that level as well, aren’t you?
I think I’m a big
Brian Sheng: fan of these validation. We have a global scale water problem, and as I actually brought up a great point, solar power desalination and also advancements, like even concentrated solar power desalination and advanced membranes. We’re bringing more supply online, especially many regions that have entire countrywide scale water problems like in the Middle East, right?
We’re not talking about city scale or state level. It’s like entire countries have problem with this. The way I think about it is that, at a global scale, we need different options. It’s not a one size fit all solution. When we think about energy, we have all kinds of energy options depending on what your particular geography holds for you.
Maybe you’re closer to the coast and you can have wind. Maybe you’re in a, on an island with great sunlight, you have solar, maybe you have geothermal or any number of options to make sure that. You’re, you have a efficient source of energy and good and well priced. But that’s the problem with water is that we don’t have those options.
We really have relatively limited options. And desalination over the past 30 years have finally gotten to a point where it is now at the pricing and the technological scale that, John, you just talked about. Aqua is aiming to get there as well. Right now we’re definitely more expensive than desalination from a liter or gallon, a gallon level, but we’re able to provide an option that is way more affordable from a total project side, and then also we can provide that water immediately.
So I see us right now complimenting desalination. We can put our machines and actually our customers do so alongside other desalination projects.
John Koetsier: It is super interesting that you mentioned different energy sources because I think I saw it just the other day. Scotland was is about 97% powered by renewable energy sources.
They have a lot of wind apparently. Really interesting. Costa Rica. Same. You look at you use what you have, right? You look at Iceland, so much geothermal there, right? It’s always been sad for me when I’ve gone to places like Bermuda or Bahamas or something like that to see how little solar they’re using when that’s such a rich resource there.
But hopefully over time that’ll come as well. It makes sense in the water. Area to have that also, right. Like you say, spin it up, scale it for one house, a few houses, a ranch, a property, that sort of thing. Instantly. I almost wonder if you’re not more cost effective than desalination. ’cause of course you have the $3,000 cost, but if that machine lasts for 10 years or something like that, you said, 15 cents a liter or something, like, that’s getting close, isn’t it?
Brian Sheng: I think it is the most affordable for people, for communities for people like us and developers of communities. We do, we are the better option as a non-country, non-utility organization. I. The cost of desal, you can’t really build desalination, so you have a large counterpart.
No. Imagine John, you said, you have a place. Let me go build a desalination plant. I’m gonna zip cost me to build a pipe spot. Right.
John Koetsier: Who do I have to talk to enable that? What?
Brian Sheng: I think that’s what, we’re able to bring about is that we are the fastest and most affordable option where you can build your own water security and supply yourself.
And the scope and size of what we can provide is within the amount of water necessary. For well, for the size of the needs of communities.
John Koetsier: It is actually interesting to me to remember that even in areas that have a lot of water. It’s not necessarily the right kind of water.
So for instance, I live in British Columbia, Canada. And it’s about three years ago that we had one of those atmospheric rivers that I think San Diego had last year, and it just rained in incessantly and hard for three to five days, something like that. We had tons of flooding water coming over the border from the states as well, from Sumas, Washington State and everything like that.
The reality was we were had. Insane amounts of water, but because of the amount and it got into the farms and manure and other pla industrial places, it was not clean water. It was not potable water. In fact, there were concerns that it was going to render some of the farmland damaged because of what it might’ve picked up in various areas, right?
So even if you have lots of water, it may not be the water that you could drink or easily drink, at least.
Brian Sheng: Absolutely. John, did you see the recent atmospheric water in Dubai? It drowned the whole city. I saw
John Koetsier: that on Reddit. I’m in a natural disasters subreddit or something like that, and it was the weirdest thing.
In fact, not just Dubai. Several places around the Middle East, you saw these, just all of a sudden flash floods and huge amounts of water flowing over the desert and into the cities. It’s crazy.
Brian Sheng: Clean drinking water I think is super important as we think about different. Sources and use cases.
Actually drinking water, clean drinking water, I think is one of the best use cases of atmospheric water generators. Simply from the fact that one, while the air also has pollution, the air carries way less pollution. It’s way easier to purify then. Bodies of water. Like when you have a body of water, anything could be in there.
You like, you have to figure it out, what’s in there and the carrying capacity of that. Right. But for the air, we can purify it and make sure that it’s the highest quality drinking water, W-H-O-E-P-A compliant and then offer to you immediately again. So drinking water is, I think, one of the best use cases for atmospheric water.
You mentioned like Bermuda, Bahamas, Costa Rica. Actually all of these areas, countries, any islands, any coastal areas, they all have clean drinking water problems. They all have salt water contamination problems. But you know what? They do have hot and humid air. Yes.
John Koetsier: A lot of it. Yes. And a lot of sun.
Absolutely. A lot of sun. Huh. I was gonna ask, because you mentioned Dubai and that brought to mind like places like in the states that are often very dry atmospherically, dry, like Nevada that sort of thing. What’s the efficiency of your units? Let’s say you have one of Pacific Northwest, let’s say coastal Oregon, right?
High humidity air, and then you’ve got one, let’s say Las Vegas or something like that. Nevada somewhere maybe. Close down the border to Mexico. There’s gotta be less water in the air there. Correct? Yeah.
Brian Sheng: There’s less water in the desert for sure.
John Koetsier: How does your unit function then?
Does that make it slower at producing water? Does it take more energy?
Brian Sheng: That’s exactly right. Is that slower in production? I think the. Best way to think about it is like creating solar energy on a cloudy day. So instead of maybe 24 gallons, we might only produce 10 gallons of water or seven gallons of water, in a 20, 30% humidity area.
Typically. The way we like to think about it is that. We would love for you to have at least 30% humidity for us to make you. A, very meaningful amount of water. We still work under 30%, but it’s going to be the same as creating solar energy on a cloudy day, and so we’ll be much slower in making that water.
John Koetsier: Okay. Very cool. So if I ever build an off-grid home I know where to go. I know where to get some water. That’s very cool. Talk about the future. You’ve talked a little bit about what you’re doing today. You talked about maybe going to city scale. What’s that look like? What are you dreaming about five years from now for the products that you might be releasing?
Brian Sheng: I dream of a future where we can provide an water alternative without pipes or infrastructure. And we are already bringing that into play today by demonstrating that we can build entire communities without water from the ground. So Aqua last year we built the first homes in the world where the entire water supply for the homes actually just come from air solar powered batteries.
And so we’ve already showcased that, and actually right now we’ve already signed a contract and we’re starting to build communities in Hawaii where the entire community would be water powered from the air. Wow. So the way we I think about it is I need to. Continually scale up the projects that we can showcase to the public that, hey look, this technology is here today and we are building larger and larger communities or cities or projects.
And over the next five years, my goal is to showcase that we can actually build out entire city infrastructure with water from the air starting from, one community at a time today.
John Koetsier: Very cool. Thank you so much for your time, Brian.
Brian Sheng: Thank you so much, John.
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