News & Events
Find out about upcoming presentations, media interviews and conferences.
O2 Environmental attends all of the leading water technology events worldwide.
Joule Biotech Sun-Powered Fuel – Biofuel vs Solar PV
The premise is that the technology can take solar energy and use it to convert carbon dioxide directly into fuel. A one stop-shop to soak up carbon dioxide and produce a biofuel. Having dug into it a little, the conclusion I came to is that it’s not as radical as it sounds. It is basically directed photosynthesis: same principle as oil from algae, or biofuels. The overall efficiencies are likely to be 10 times lower than that from solar PV processes, but, in terms of where biofuels are heading, it is on the right track. » See also: Scientists Force Fungus to Have Sex to Create Biofuel The press release included the following: “The SolarConverter captures the sun and is fed carbon dioxide and combine inside where a solution of brackish water and nutrients exist with photosynthetic organisms—secreting the SolarFuel,” Joule’s CEO Bill Sims said, describing the end-product as a [...]
This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 8:52 am and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Low Cost Desalination – Saltworks Breakthrough
Canadian firm, Saltworks Technologies, just came out of stealth in relation to their desalination technology, which they claim reduce the electrical energy required for desalination by over 70%. They report they can produce 1m3 of water with 1kW hour of electrical energy, compared to the 3.7kWhr per m3, which is what is currently achievable using reverse osmosis with the use of energy recovery devices. So how to they do it? Well its novel. It appears to be a new approach. And novel and new are two things scarce as hens teeth in relation to desalination technologies. They use solar heat (or waste heat) to evaporate water and concentrate salt water. They are converting solar energy into osmotic energy by doing this. They then use this osmotic energy to desalinate water. They then expose the concentrated salt water to two separate solutions of regular salt water via two different ‘bridges’, one [...]
This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 8:33 am and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Mineral & Resource Recovery from Wastewater – building a sustainable business advantage
Everywhere you look people are trying to do more with less. Reduce costs, increase efficiency, reduce energy use, recover resources. There are strong economic drivers to do all of these things, they also happen to be sustainable. Last Thursday (July 22nd 2010) I moderated the first in the BlueTech Tracker(TM) Webinar series: Mineral & Resource Recovery from Wastewater. We featured four companies with innovative technologies, and perhaps even more importantly, innovative business models. The companies were Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Calera, CASTion and Oberon. Ostara produces a slow release fertilizer product, Crystal Green(TM) from wastewater, Calera, a Khosla Ventures backed company whose technology is part of a new infrastructure designed to view carbon, not as a pollutant, but as a resource. Calera might be accused of having a Superman complex in the cleantech sector, in that their technology simultaneously contributes to solving two of the most pressing environmental issues of [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 5:49 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
A Perfect Storm for Water
‘Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030′. That is what a UK Government chief scientist told attendees at the Sustainable Development conference in London yesterday. Prof. Beddington told the group that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion. Despite this, investment in water deals represented just 1.8% of the total investment in the Clean Technology area in 2008. There are number of reasons for this and also signs that this is changing. The Venture Capital Community has been slow to invest in the water sector. Last year out of a total investment of $8.4 billion into clean technology ventures, just $148million (1.8%) is reported by the Cleantech Group by having been made into water. Why? Some companies are not convinced that there is enough activity in [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 5:43 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Peak Phosphorus – Commence Urine Recyling on Space Station Earth
First there was “Peak Oil’, then there was talk of ‘Peak Water’, but ‘Peak Phosphorus’, may trump them all as a sustainability issue without rival. Fact: Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource for which there is no substitute. Phosphorus is the currency of energy in every living cell. Our ability to provide enough food to feed the human population is dependent on the use of artificial fertilizers, which contain phosphorus. While nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere (- it just takes lots of energy to capture it!), phosphorus is mined at just a handful of locations worldwide. You can substitute renewable energy for oil and gas. But no other mineral can take the place of phosphorus. There is no substitute for water either, but the water cycle constantly provides us with ‘new’ fresh water, granted not always where we want it, when we want it and in the quantities in which [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 4:53 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Energy Versus Water
There is a growing awareness that there are two convergent crises facing the world: Energy and Water. Scientific Amercican just launced a dedicated environmental publication this month, Earth 3.0 and the cover story? … ‘Energy Vs Water’. The article explores the dichotomy between the fact that we need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy. Both resources are running out. As we are reaching Peak Oil, we also appear to approaching Peak Water. This creates a very interesting dilemma and one which will require no small amount of innovation to solve. Biofuels, cited as one option to wean us away from petroleum, can consume 20 or more times as much water for every mile traveled than the production of gasoline. Not all biofuels are created equal however, some are worse offenders than others, and the US National Research Council addresses this very well in ‘Water Implications [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 4:48 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Blue Investing – Is It Safe To Go Back Into Water?
The prospect of ‘Peak Water’ is stimulating both investment and innovation in the water sector. More and more water technology start-ups are receiving venture capital funding and at the same time, a number of investment groups are offering specific water funds. So how safe a bet is water? The magazine Inc.com just ran an excellent article called ‘Blue is the New Green’ where they feature 11 entrepeneurs who are looking to create radical change in this space. In what was one of the largest venture capital investments to date in a water start-up, one of the companies featured in the article, Water Standard, secured $250 million in March 2008 to help fund their plans to convert old tankers into floating desalination factories. They see a growing market for this as they can re-fit old single hulled tankers and mobilise to areas that need water urgently. They can do this in [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 4:46 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Market Turmoil ….. just when you thought is was safe to invest in Water!
With the recent turmoil in the markets, optimism has been a commodity in short supply and good investment opportunities as scarce as hens teeth; though this may be changing if you believe Warren Buffets ‘buy now’ call. In the midst of this, two new water based investment funds were recently launched. On September 30, 2008, the investment group Calvert launched the Calvert Global Water Fund (CFWAX). This fund is its latest Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) mutual fund, part of a new series of investment portfolios known as Calvert Solution™ Strategies. Calvert have partnered with KBC Asset Management International, Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, to sub-advise them on the management of this fund. KBC apparently ‘boasts an eight-year track record of strong performance in the global water sector’. Be that as it may, their timing for the launch probably wasn’t great given the stampede out of equities and they have dropped [...]
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 4:37 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
