The market
The global market for drinking water production was estimated at $400 billion in 2007 and is projected to reach $533 billion by 2013. Forecasts for the global market for drinking water disinfection using ultraviolet light and ozone indicate an increase of $4.6 billion to $10 billion over the same period. However, the cost to society is not limited to the production and treatment of drinking water; it also requires the infrastructure necessary to collect and distribute it. The United States has laid over 700,000 miles of water pipes, four times the length of all its national highways. The cost of expansion and improvement has been estimated at $250 billion over the next decade. The United States is not alone; the Chinese government has announced a budget of $128 billion for water distribution, particularly in urban areas. Global drinking water consumption has increased sixfold over the past century. Water production has barely kept pace, leading to alarming figures showing that 1.2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation. The water supply crisis is compounded by increasing contamination of both water and soil. Our production systems, particularly in agriculture, are major water consumers. A hamburger requires 2,400 liters of water (one kilogram of beef requires 15 cubic meters); a pair of shoes requires 8,000 liters, and a cotton T-shirt (even organic) consumes 4,000 liters. While 70% of the planet is covered in water, only 2.5% is freshwater, and the majority is trapped in ice caps. One of the least exploited resources is the 12,900 cubic kilometers of water vapor suspended in the atmosphere. One cubic kilometer of clouds could contain up to 3,000 m³ of water. This highly distributed water source, easily accessible across more than 70% of the territory, represents a unique opportunity to meet the dramatic increase in demand.
Innovation
The cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation is known as the water cycle. It is a natural system that has been extensively described and studied. Several inventors have focused on capturing vapors by controlling the dew point. In fact, water-based air-cooling devices use refrigeration techniques to condense vapors from the air. This system operates at ambient temperatures between 21 and 32 degrees Celsius with a relative humidity of 40 to 100%. Atmospheric Water Technologies (USA) licensed this technology to the Katgara Group in India, which installed the first system guaranteeing a continuous supply of drinking water to 350 villagers in Jalimundi, a small village near Rajahmundry (East Godavari). However, the biggest challenge remains the cost of energy for refrigeration. Most places that lack water also lack electricity, and the enormous demand for electricity makes them unsuitable for any practical application of solar power. Curt Hallberg, the naval marine engineer who later founded WATRECO in Malmö, Sweden, with his colleagues, recognized that one of the main potential applications of vortex technology (see Case 1) is the production of clean water. While he was already working on filtration systems, pressing impurities out of the water, which then exits through a nozzle, making the clean water ready for consumption, he was aware that the main challenge was not just purification, but rather producing water in the first place. Air/water systems rely on lowering the temperature to control the dew point. He saw an opportunity to use another key physical parameter: increasing pressure. When air is drawn into a tube, creating a vortex, the pressure increases. Thanks to the swirling motion, the water is "pressed" out of the air. The energy required to draw the humid air through the vortex generator is a fraction of the energy needed to reduce the temperature of the cooling agents.
The first cash flow
Curt has already successfully demonstrated that he can extract air from and press air into water to critical saturation using the swirling forces of the vortex. His knowledge has already led to a portfolio of a dozen potential business applications, three of which have already reached the commercialization phase. These include ice making, descaling, and irrigation improvement. Now, he is ready to use the same logic, but instead of changing the air content of the water, he is changing the water content of the air. After all, the same principles apply, and instead of pressurizing water through high energy costs, he is looking at producing water with very low energy requirements. It has been estimated that the motor of a vacuum cleaner would be sufficient to power the water-capturing device, which could be powered by small solar units—a feat that would not work for refrigeration.
The opportunity
The logic applied by Curt is not very different from the revolutionary ideas James Dyson used to make vacuum cleaners more efficient. Dyson achieved 45% better suction by adding smaller cyclones using smaller diameter tubes that generated greater centrifugal forces. Combining established technologies from Sweden and the UK could provide an economical and sustainable solution for producing water from air, at a fraction of the energy required by current market standards.
