Green Tech

Green Earth Technologies (GET) announced Wednesday that its environmentally friendly motor oil for cars will soon be available on shelves across the U.S.

The manufacturer of the biodegradable, carbon neutral motor oil made in part from the animal fat of beef slaughter byproducts has been waiting on certification from the American Petroleum Institute before selling its G-Oil to the public.

G-Oil has received API starburst certification, a symbol put on a product's packaging to signify it meets specific standards and is recommended for use by leading vehicle manufacturers. GET's car oil was additionally granted the API service symbol donut, a seal signifying an oil product has "energy-conserving properties in a standard test in comparison to a reference oil."

Until recently, GET has only been selling a 2-cycle G-Oil and a 4-cycle 10W-30 G-Oil for use in small-motor things like lawn mowers and tractors.

Now that the API approval has come, GET, which will be showcasing new products at the AAPEX show in Las Vegas next week, says consumers will begin to see its G-Oil motor oil for cars and trucks at leading national chains. It already began selling its product at National Auto Stores, a Pennsylvania-based chain, as of October 1.

The announcement is not just good news for a company. If the majority of the general public starts buying motor oil that biodegrades rather than taints groundwater, it could have a meaningful impact on the environment. Used motor oil from a single oil change that is dumped into the ground can contaminate about 1 million gallons of fresh water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

But, of course, the motor oil has to work well with your car.

While the International Motor Sports Association's American Le Mans Series has adopted G-Oil as its official motor oil of choice, the real test will be whether or not the American driving public and car enthusiasts like how it performs in their cars.

While no formal announcement has been made, it's likely a deal is in the works with the retailers already carrying G-Oil for small motors. This would include chains like Amazon.com, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and True Value, among others.

Even as billions of dollars are being spent around the world to modernize the electricity grid, the systems to delivery fresh water are also in desperate need of a 21st century upgrade.

IBM is developing a portfolio of IT-related water management technologies, a business that it estimates can total $20 billion within five years. At a water conference next week, IBM and Intel will be forming a working group to study how information and technology can be used to improve water management, according to IBM.

The goal is to sketch out the technical architecture required to more efficiently use fresh water, only one percent of the available water on Earth.

Water systems even in developed countries like the U.S. are notoriously outdated, with faulty pipes--some of them still made of wood--result in 25 percent to 45 percent lost water. That means high-tech approaches, such as using sensors to gauge water quality, are a tough sell to cash-strapped municipalities, most of which are more concerned with maintaining the basic infrastructure.

IBM is betting, though, that fresh water will have more value attached to it from the public, governments, and corporations.

"The hard truth is that most of the countries in the developing world are outgrowing the amount of water that is available to them," said Peter Williams, the chief technology officer of IBM's Big Green Innovations program, who representing IBM at a conference organized by the Water Innovations Alliance industry association next week. "Certainly, it's the case that water is the great sleeping crisis and it is most definitely starting to wake up."

IBM launched Big Green Innovations two and a half years ago to capitalize on constraints in energy generation, carbon emissions, energy in the data center, and water. For the past 18 months, IBM has focused more of its attention on water, said Williams, who characterized the business as "incredibly nascent."

Reservoirs of data
Upgrading the water utility infrastructure is analogous to the many smart-grid technologies now being tested to make the grid run more efficiently and use more renewable energy.

Gathering and processing information on the status of delivery allows water agencies to better manage their operations. For example, if a water authority can use meters or sensors to locate problems, such as leaks or sewage overflows, they can cut their maintenance costs, Williams explained.

IBM has already had a number of water-related deals. In a partnership with the Nature Conservancy, it's gathering data on various environmental factors to measure the health of river ecosystems. In the Netherlands, IBM is involved in the design of levies to understand potential breaking points.

In these cases, IBM is building the software and networks to handle incoming data from sensors and to provide tools to let people analyze the information. It's also testing smart water meters that would provide more accurate consumption data and alert customer if there's a problem, such as a leak. It's also looking at new sensors being developed to track the level of pathogens or chemical contaminants that come from use of pharmaceuticals.

Big Blue's Maximo "asset management" software is used by many water utilities to keep track and maintain their equipment of pumps, plants, and filtration equipment.

Still, water utilities are a generally low-tech bunch when it comes to IT. Most water authority executives don't consider technology options beyond basic SCADA control systems, Williams said. "They are where (electricity) utilities were five or 10 years ago," he said.

Corporate risk
IBM is pushing into water because the trends on water point to the need for greater conservation for social and economic reasons.

In poor countries, billions of people don't have regular access to clean water. Meanwhile, high-profile droughts in Australia and the western U.S. served by the Colorado River are causing severe financial problems for different industries, notably agriculture.

The high energy cost of delivering water helps makes the economic case for better monitoring and data analysis. In the U.S., between 3 percent and 4 percent of the entire electricity output is used to pump water. In California, it's almost 20 percent. Meanwhile, low water levels in rivers and reservoirs forced the shut down of nuclear reactors in France a few years ago.

Industries that rely on water, such as semiconductors, agriculture, or beverages, are susceptible to disruptions of supply. There's also "reputational risk" when consumers perceive that businesses are profligate with water, Williams said.

"It's something like greenhouse gases. Ten years ago in this country, few people were talking about them but now they are," he said. "The same will happen with water."

WELLESLEY, Mass.--As the person who coined the term "clean tech," Nicholas Parker has been around the industry as long as anybody and he thinks people underestimate the potential of green business.

To most people, green technology means renewable electricity, fuel efficiency, and perhaps water purification technologies. But to Parker, those technologies--most of which focus on addressing climate change--are still just a sliver of the innovation needed to address the world's environmental woes.

"We are going to have to face the fact that climate change is one of several monumental environmental problems our generation will face," Parker said during a keynote talk at the Entrepreneurial Energy Expo at Babson College here on Thursday. Parker is chairman of the Cleantech Group, which provides data on green-tech investments and organizes events.

The increase in temperature from the existing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere--never mind anticipated increases in emissions--will cause disruptions in many industries in the coming years, he argued.

"If we are going to have to adapt to a temperature increase of 2 percent Celsius or more, then we are going to have to reimagine how we produce food and water," he said.

Extreme weather events will affect agriculture as well as other industries, such as shipping. Another area not fully addressed are the health problems, such as rising infertility rates and cancer, caused by everyday chemical products like plastic.

In short, Parker sees a need for technical and business solutions under the overall rubric of sustainability.

"In a way, this is a design revolution. It's not about doing things more efficiently or doing things less bad. It's about redesigning everything from scratch," he said.

His list of promising technologies includes renewable energy, efficiency, embedded controllers, energy storage, distributed water treatment, and synthetic biology.

One example of synthetic biology is algae designed specifically for biofuels. Another is finding ways to growing food in desert areas or synthetic forms of protein, he said.

Parker said that in the first quarter of this year, the level of venture capital investment in green tech has fallen to 2006 levels after growing at more than 40 percent per year the last few years.

He said that government stimulus packages around the world will help propel green-tech industries, but a "price signal" in the form of a tax or carbon-trading system is still needed.

"Other countries are being as aggressive (on clean energy) if not more aggressive as we are here," he said. "Whether we like it or not, China is coming to this space."

IBM on Friday disclosed the elements of an initiative to sell technology and services to better manage fresh water, often referred to as the "oil of the 21st century."

The company said it has technology, now being tested at the SmartBay project in Galway, Ireland, to gather and analyze data to improve water conservation. It also announced a membrane for purifying saltwater that was developed by IBM in collaboration with other researchers.

The water strategy, part of IBM's Big Green Innovations project started two years ago, is set to be officially announced at the World Water Forum, which starts Monday in Istanbul, Turkey.

Managing fresh water is increasingly becoming a concern for governments and industries around the world, with the ongoing droughts in Australia and California being prominent examples.

IBM expects that water conservation can be improved by using sensors to gather data and analyzing the data on high-end computers. It has developed a suite of water-management offerings that combine consulting services and computing, including water metering for utilities.

The SmartBay research program around Galway Bay, for example, monitors wave conditions, marine life, and pollution levels and uses IBM's "cloud" computing services to predict water conditions.

"Regardless of industry or geography, smarter water management is an issue faced by every business and government on the planet," Sharon Nunes, vice president for Big Green Innovations at IBM, said in a statement. "Without sufficient insight into near- and long-term factors affecting your water supply and usage--complex issues such as access, quality, cost and re-use--you increasingly run the risk of failure."

To date, however, there hasn't been a great deal of investment in water-related technologies. Investors and entrepreneurs have been wary of trying to sell new technology, such as purification membranes, to the cash-strapped and conservative municipalities that manage fresh water.

There is also a close tie between energy and water as pumping fresh water or purifying seawater are very energy-intensive. Twenty percent of California's energy use is said to be tied to water.

The membrane filter that IBM and collaborators designed is relatively energy efficient and resistant to degradation by chlorine, a typical problem of membrane filtration.

Desalination start-up Oasys Water is banking on the fact that water will shortly be the new oil.

Flagship Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson seem to agree as the three invested a total of $10 million in Series A funding, according to a Wednesday announcement from Oasys Water.

Oasys (Osmotic Application Systems) Water, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company formed from a Yale University research project and seed money from GreatPoint Ventures, employs patented water treatment technology called Engineered Osmosis (EO).

The system was developed by Rob McGinnis, Oasys chief technology officer, while he was under Menachem Elimelech, the director of the environmental engineering program at Yale. EO is an osmosis system requiring 90 percent less fuel than the typical high-pressure Reverse Osmosis (RO) system employed by many desalination systems today, according to company statistics

Reducing the electricity needed for desalination osmosis systems, it's no jump to conclude, brings down the overall cost of producing potable water from seawater and waste water.

Aaron Mandell, Oasys president and CEO, issued a statement pointing to the drought in California and its exorbitant use of the state's electricity to produce water, as proof that water shortages are not just a developing nation issue.

Ocean Power Technologies announced Thursday that it will be installing a water-power buoy system to tie into Hawaii's Oahu Island power grid.

The New Jersey-based company makes ocean buoys that harness the energy of ocean waves to generate electricity that is then sent back to shore via underwater cable.

Through a partnership with the U.S. Navy, Ocean Power has been developing technology that could supplement electricity needs for the military in Hawaii .

"We are pleased to be a part of the Navy's effort to develop and commercialize new technologies to reduce the Navy's dependence on fuel shipments for power generation facilities, and to meet its strategic goals and other sustainability initiatives," George W. Taylor, Ocean Power's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The company's PowerBuoy, which on the surface resembles an ordinary ocean buoy, is about 12 feet wide and 55 feet long. As the buoy is jostled by naturally occurring offshore waves, it moves a piston-like device located at its core up and down. The electricity generated by the system, which is typically placed in about 100 to 150 feet of water, is then sent back to shore via a standard submarine transmission cable along the ocean floor.

The water-power buoy is loaded with onboard sensors and communications tools that allow it to be monitored and instructed from Ocean Power's headquarters in New Jersey. But the device can autonomously adjust the way it pumps to accommodate changes in ocean waves and maximize its effect.

The U.S. Navy contributed $300,000 to funding this particular installation. But Ocean Power announced in early November that it has won a $3 million contract with the Navy to develop its PowerBuoy for use in conjunction with data gathering and communications.

Ocean Power also has the support of the U.S. Marine Corps. This latest PowerBuoy system will be placed about one mile off the coast of Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) at Kaneohe Bay and will be connected to Oahu's power grid.

This is the third PowerBuoy that Ocean Power has installed within the last two months.

The Navy and Marine support is a coup for Ocean Power, which struggled with its IPO, and perhaps even for the ocean energy industry as a whole.

Ocean energy proponents have been swimming against a current of lackluster interest because of logistical issues like infrastructure costs, and the unpredictable nature of the energy source.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--The West Coast Green 2008 building show kicked off on Thursday, for the first time in this city with one of the nation's most ambitious "greening" plans.

During our sneak peek at some of the 400 exhibits, products that caught our attention included a device that seemed to make water out of thin air, a solar-powered table, home energy automation systems, and better concrete blocks. Check out the video below for more.

Element Four
Element Four claims to extract water from the air. Its Watermill appliance is supposed to supply enough water daily to quench the needs of a six-person family. It costs around 35 cents to produce more than 3 gallons of drinking water each day, according to the British Columbia-based company. The Watermill is set to become available next February for around $1,300.

CEO Rick Howard said he'd like to create different versions of the 300-watt Watermill, perhaps powered by the sun or wind. He sees the technology as ideal for household use during emergencies, as well as for people in the developing world. It could even customize flavored water, Howard added.

As air enters the Watermill, humidity condenses on a patented coil, and passes into a reservoir. Water passes through a carbon filter and past a germ-killing UV light. The product could be hooked up to a kitchen faucet.

Most drinking water technologies, by contrast, take dirty or salty water, or even sludge, then purify it.

... Read more

With all due respector to inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen, the notion of his "Slingshot" distillation system--which makes drinkable water from any type of liquid, including bodily fluids--has been met with more than a few squeamish responses. For those seeking a more palatable solution, the "Base 1 AirWater Machine" taps into a very different source: the air.

Its manufacturer, a Greek company called Klimatic, claims that the system can extract 5 gallons of water every 24 hours, according to Dvice, which adds: "It cleans the extracted water with an active carbon filter, runs it through an ultraviolet light chamber to kill bacteria, and then serves it up to you hot or chilled."

The question, however, is what kind of power source is needed to make the system both energy- and cost-effective. If you need something sooner--as in, an emergency--don't forget about the "LifeStraw" and the "Lifesaver" bottle.

SPICEWOOD SPRINGS, Texas--When Joe Wheeler built his new house here in 2001, he was told that it would cost $10,000 to drill a well, and that he wouldn't be able to drink or bathe in the water. Undaunted, he turned to the old-fashioned idea of rainwater collection to solve his water problem.

Wheeler talked to people who had experience with rainwater collection, and eventually installed what was available on the market at that time, so-called first-flush technology. The first-flush system he had installed sent the first, dirty batch of water from the roof into a diverter tube, and collected the rest in a tank. But he soon started questioning the efficiency.

"I don't think it's a valid idea to take 10 percent of the water off your roof and then assume that the rest of the water is fine. Just think about how long it takes to clean up your windscreen from whatever the birds leave on it," Wheeler continued.

Wheeler browsed around on the Internet and found WISY, a German rainwater filter manufacturer. Apart from buying a set himself, he became the company's first U.S. distributor.

How WISY works
Under the WISY system, which Wheeler distributes under the name Rainfilters of Texas, the gross filter first gets rid of the initial batch of water and all larger particles in it.

Then, the water flows to a calming inlet in the storage tank. In the third step, water is pumped back from the tank through a floating suction filter, avoiding sucking up the bottom tank water where bacteria accumulates. Last but not least, a surface-skimming tube on the tank gets rid of particles floating on top.

Once pumped up from the storage tank, Wheeler's water runs through two filters (the blue ones in the photo) and finally the last germs are eliminated with UV light (the metallic cylinder in the photo). This makes the water safe enough to drink.

Wheeler's sewage water goes through two barrels. In the first one, all the feces is collected and is broken down by bacteria. After passing another barrel, the residual water flows into a low-pressure-dose septic tank, which is buried in the ground and never needs to be emptied. Most of the water evaporates from the tank, Wheeler said.

The cost of WISY's rainwater collection system depends on the size of the tank, but it can range from $4,000 to $10,000 or more, plus labor. Filters cost around $300, a pump $500 to $800, and the UV light sterilization $1,200 to $2,000. The tank cost around $1,000.

Maintaining the system costs about $250 a year for new UV bulbs and filter cartridges, Wheeler said.

Cost-savings
There is money to saved here: the fee to hook up a new house to the community water grid can be as much, or more, as buying a rain harvesting system. In California, for example, it costs $4,000 to $20,000 to get connected to the grid, according to Jim English, client services manager at Black and Veatch, an engineering firm that conducts water-rate studies. The monthly fees differ between water agencies and range between about $12 and $70, but are generally $25 to $35, or $300 to $420 annually.

Wheeler's company is not the only one in this space. Stark Environmental, a small Columbia, Pa.-based company, is also importing German rainwater filter solutions from a manufacturer called 3P Technik. Stark Environmental's solutions are similar to WISY's, but the filters are made out of polyethylene rather than stainless steel. The price tag of a 3P Technik 1,700-gallon filter system excluding a UV light sterilizer, is in the range of $5,000 to $7,000.

Rainwater collection may get a boost from new storm water guidelines mandated by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. The so-called MS4 program (Municipal Separate Storm Sewage System) addresses the earth disturbance caused by construction projects. When a new warehouse is built, for example, the amount of soil able to absorb large water masses in the area decreases. In order to diminish the erosion and transfer of sediment that heavy rainfall may cause, MS4 guidelines require municipalities to arrange systems for dealing with the water.

The man behind Stark Environmental, Michael Stark, noted that lately municipalities' focus has changed from simply getting rid of the water to reusing it. With climate change and increasing water shortages, rainwater is an excellent source for irrigation, toilet flushing, and clothes washing, he said. In the case of irrigation, it is even preferable to chlorinated tap water.

"The chlorine kills the bacteria. But in soil there is both good and bad bacteria, and to kill the good bacteria will not help in landscaping," said Stark. Both he and Wheeler believe it is a waste of energy to treat all water up to drinking standards.

"Compare it to how people are hooked on bottled water. How many of them would buy bottled water in the store, just to flush it down the toilet?" Stark asked.

The U.S. is not the only country where rainwater harvesting is heading toward a renaissance. Indian farmers, for instance in the northern state of Punjab, used to be good at rainwater harvesting until they were given free pumps and electricity by populist politicians. Now, with the ground water level sinking--thereby increasing the levels of arsenic in the water--and temperatures rising, non-governmental organizaitons like SIDA, the Swedish International Development Agency, are running programs to encourage farmers to resume their old water collecting habits.