News Blog

IBM's latest supercomputer is hooked up to the watercooler.

Big Blue has come out with a new version of its high-end supercomputer, the Power 575, which can provide five times the performance of its predecessor on 40 percent of the power. A fully stocked Power 575 rack contains 448 processing cores.

An IBM technician inserts the copper piping.

(Credit: IBM)

A substantial part of the decrease in power consumption is due to a water cooling system that brings in chilled water from the outside, runs it through copper plates located above individual processors to absorb heat, and then draws the water out so it can expel the heat outside of the computer.

By getting rid of heat in this manner, the air conditioning requirements are greatly reduced for the "hydro cluster" 575. Air conditioning can account for roughly half of the power consumed by data centers. Conversely, instead of cutting electricity consumption, IBM, or one of its customers, could squeeze in more computing power into the same room and keep the air conditioning constant.

Computer makers have employed liquid cooling in various ways over the decades. Many liquids, and particularly water, can hold far more heat than air. Similarly, architects and building owners are experimenting more with liquid cooling and heating systems as energy prices rise.

"Water is about 4,000 times as efficient as air to cool a system," said Ross Mauri, general manager of Power systems at IBM.

The effectiveness of a water cooling system, however, depends largely on two parameters: how close you can get the fluid to the hot component and how cool you can get the liquid. In general, the closer the fluid to the chip and cooler the initial temperature, the better it works.

IBM, Hewlett-Packard and others have created blade server racks with integrated chilled water tubes. Chilled water circulates through the pipes but can't get as close to the hottest components.

The company has also created liquid cooling systems that fit inside computers and sit directly above hot components. These systems, however, have consisted of self-contained liquid vessels. The fluid heats up, rises, and then sinks again, but it stays moderately warm.

With the hydro cluster, "there is always chilled water in the system," Mauri said.

IBM isn't alone in its pursuit of brining liquid close to the chip. In February, the Tyndall Institute, a government-funded lab and incubator in Ireland, showed us an silicon impeller that can bring cooled liquids in close contact with chips. The impeller measures a few millimeters across.

The computer, along with a new Power 595 Unix server, sports a 5GHz chip, a speed bump over the existing 4.7GHz versions that have been on the market.

Unix and RISC servers, IBM wants you to know, aren't dead. In 2007, industrywide Unix server revenue grew 1 percent, Mauri said, the first time the market has grown in six years.

IBM also has been aggressively taking share from competitors Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard, he added. In five years, IBM has gained 11 percent in market share, according to IDC numbers cited by Mauri, while HP and Sun have lost share.

It's a water-based molecule that repels water.

That's Hycrete's business in a nutshell, according to CEO David Rosenberg. The company has a molecule--which consists of a water molecule with a long hydrocarbon attached--that links up to metallic ions in whatever it's mixed into. In the right circumstances, the molecule behaves like an oil and pushes water away.

The company currently sells its material to concrete manufacturers and contractors who use it to replace the bound-to-fail plastic membranes employed to keep water out of building foundations and freeway pilings. With Hycrete's molecules mixed into the cement, water can't get into corrode rebars or start wicking into the foundation where it can create long-term problems.

"One of the fundamental problems with concrete is that it is a hard sponge," he said. "Through capillary action it sucks water in."

So far, contractors have mixed the substance into 53 major projects, including sound barriers on a freeway in New Jersey. In the future, the company may mix its material into drywall to prevent moisture seepage. You could also mix it into roofing material and then put a green roof--rooftop lawns are getting bigger in urban environments like Tokyo--on top of your house without worrying about trickle down.

Grandpa's invention
Hycrete is something of a family affair. Rosenberg's grandfather, Michael Rhodes, actually invented the material about twelve years ago. A serial inventor, Rhodes worked on a number of projects for NASA, including a solid rocket fuel.

With the growth of the clean tech market, concrete is suddenly hot again. (It hasn't been this way since the Roman Empire.) Building contractors are vying to green up their projects by installing environmentally friendly HVAC systems and carpets. Concrete, which invariably goes into every project, is a natural extension of that.

A couple of building supply companies already sell concrete made of fly ash, a leftover byproduct of coal-burning power plants. Putting in concrete cuts down on the pollution utilities would have to otherwise dispose.

Hycrete allows contractors to not use plastic membranes, which in turn lets the builders earn points under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. The more LEED points you get, the greener your building is.

More importantly, though, it can cut down costs and risks. In the building world, no one likes the waterproofing contractor. The membranes often fail and the end result is legal disputes.

"A lot of people get into this big fingerpointing game with the waterproofing contractor," he said. By using Hycrete's additive, the membrane is eliminated. The company also promises to warrant its performance. Hycrete, in fact, sticks around for about 90 days after the building is complete to make sure things worked out properly.

Traditional waterproofing also takes time. One builder estimated that construction time was reduced two months by using the additive.

Altela says it has a machine that can make it rain. Really.

The Albuquerque, N.M.-based company's AltelaRain System essentially mimics the evaporation-condensation cycle that makes life on earth possible. The system takes bracken, salty water; boils it; creates steam; and the steam is cooled to become purified water. Like in nature, the water gets cleaned because the salts and other materials get separated during the evaporation process. Rain isn't salty, after all, although the droplets originally came from sea water.

The key is that Altela has come up with a way to make the process energy efficient.

"Thermal distillation has been around for a 1,000 years, but it has suffered from taking too much energy," said CEO Ned Godshall in an interview. "In essence, we're making it rain."

The company, which announced it raised $7.1 million in a Series A round of funding this week, is one of the latest and more interesting entrants into the water market. Although it doesn't get as much focus as ethanol or solar panels, water technology is a growing field. Many scientists believe that shortages of clean water will be one of the first--and most dire--effects of global warming. Water shortages will impact many emerging nations, but also places like Australia, which is already grappling with drought, and China.

Some of the more interesting companies that have emerged in the past few years include NanoH2O (efficient desalination membrane out of UCLA), Ecosphere (high-pressure desalination) and Atlantium (optical technology and UV light for purification).

Another interesting facet of Altela's system is that it is modular. An entire unit that can process 250 gallons of water a day fits into a 20-foot by 40-foot shipping container. Building an entire water treatment facility involves planting a bunch of these side by side.

The modularity helps make Altela's system cheaper than reverse osmosis systems, the most common way to turn sea water into drinking water, he said. Reverse osmosis systems are huge industrial sites staffed by engineers that take years of planning.

By contrast, Altela's systems can be put almost anywhere cheaply. Industrial customers effectively can build their own autonomous water systems, similar to how they can get off the grid with solar panels.

What makes Altela's system more energy efficient? He's not saying. It's part of their intellectual property, which grew out of experiments at Arizona State University. (The company actually licenses the basic technology from ASU.) The systems harvest energy out of the condensation process, he said. Industrial users can also use waste gas and waste heat they aren't using anyway in their own processes to drive the system.

To date, the company has mostly installed its systems at industrial sites to clean heavily polluted water. But the company is expanding. It has received approval from the Navajo Nation to clean well water. One of the advantages of the system is that it is small.

"We can provide desalinated water for the world's population," he asserted.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Society-impacting technological change will increasingly come from physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering, rather than information technologies, said Matthew Nordan, the president of nanotechnology research firm Lux Research.

Nanotech at work.

(Credit: LifeStraw.com)

Nordan on Monday provided an overview of nanotechnology at the firm's annual conference here, arguing that material sciences will fuel technological development and economic growth in the coming years in much the way that information sciences did in the last 20 years.

These hard sciences are also critical to addressing the global problems of providing fresh water to billions of people worldwide, as well as energy to growing economies.

Nanotechnology deals with very small-scale materials--a nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.

A wide range of industries are already using nanotechnology in everything from consumer skin care products to golf balls. By designing custom materials, product manufacturers can create new pharmaceuticals or surfaces that are harder, yet lighter.

Nordan pointed out a few examples where nanotechnology can play a disruptive role in the economy.

The Boeing 787 plane has 15 percent titanium in its body because the material is lighter than other metals. But the worldwide supply of titanium will not be able to meet the projected orders of Boeing's planes, Nordan said.

Instead, new materials using nanotechnology are being developed, and that has significant implications for titanium suppliers and its customers.

Nordan showed off a ping pong ball covered in a nano-nickel material engineered by Integran Defense Systems. He smashed the ball between two pieces of wood with a hammer and wasn't able to dent it.

This material, which is cheaper than titanium, could be worth tens of billions of dollars, he said.

Taking a look at the global economy, Nordan said nanotechnologies are set to play an integral role in economic growth and environmental sustainability.

He argued that material sciences in fields such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering are increasingly the source for new technologies that fuel worker productivity and job creation.

In energy, solar photovoltaic companies are using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of solar cells. The blades on wind turbines, meanwhile, can be covered with water-resistant material to prevent ice from forming, which slows down power generation.

Because of rising energy demand, companies with expertise in materials will increasingly make energy applications, such as large-scale storage.

"No one of these energy technologies will be required--all of them will be," Nordan said.

Water is another area where nanotechnology can be brought to bear with great impact. Companies such as Nano H20 developing membranes that act as filters to clean water.

Nordan showed off the application of nanotechnology in water purification. He had a bowl of water he got from a local pond and drank it through a straw-shaped water filter. Called LifeStraw, the filter is designed for the developing world where lack of access to clean water is a huge health problem.

"Access to water and energy have sparked wars in the past. There are big implications if we don't develop alternatives," he said.

Perpetual Water started with a ban on watering lawns.

In Australia, which is suffering through years of drought, a local government agency passed a law to make it illegal to water your lawn in the city of Canberra, said Ralph Petroff, a director for the company's U.S. operations. People began to just take their old bathwater out and dump it on their lawn.

Pass water through here

(Credit: Perpetual Water)

In response, Perpetual Water essentially created devices that automated the process and cleaned the water at the same time. The water goes in, gets stripped of biologically active agents and solids, and then gets sent to the sprinkler system.

The system is now coming to the U.S. The GardenAngel, which costs $950, takes water from the washing machine and puts it on the lawn. The more expensive Perpetual Water Home ($4,500) takes water from the showers, sinks and other devices too. It can process up to 660 liters a day. That's a picture of the Perpetual Water Home at right.

The company is currently setting up a trial with the Water District of Southern California. Gray water is unprocessed water that comes from showers and relatively clean devices. It does not include water from toilets or kitchen sinks. Gray water, if processed properly, is pretty safe. A lot of the golf courses in Arizona and Dubai rely on it.

On other water fronts, WaterSaver Technologies is marketing the Aqus. It takes sink water and puts it directly into the toilet. You don't need drinking water to refill your toilet after all. The system can save 10 to 20 gallons a day, according to the company.

Fresh water is going to be one of the first casualties of global warming, according to many experts. Many countries have begun to invest more heavily in desalination sites, purification technologies, and devices that can help use water more efficiently.

DAVIS, Calif.--What kind of clean tech product will thrive over the long term?

"Something that doesn't defy laws of physics, and there are plenty of those," said Rodrigo Prudencio, a partner with Nth Power LLC. The venture capital firm helped Evergreen Solar and Imperium Renewables to get off the ground.

Nobody at the AlwaysOn Going Green conference was making bold predictions about what might become the Google of green tech, but the sector is expected to continue expanding at a rapid clip.

Clean tech companies receive the third largest amount of venture capital, a staggering increase to $2.4 billion last year from $917 million in 2005, according to research by Clean Edge. Ninety percent of venture-backed, green tech companies that made initial public offerings last year are listed on the Nasdaq market.

"There will be new ways to squeeze that last bit out of a kilowatt and new ways to create that kilowatt," said Steve Eichenlaub, managing director of Cleantech Investments at Intel Capital. He and other investment experts offered these tips:

• Don't burn out by shooting for every initial public offering. "You still have to be careful," said JonCarlo Mark, senior portfolio manager at CalPERS. "There will be money lost in certain technologies and investments, but there's a need to diversify from fossil fuels."
• Although unglamorous, technologies that improve energy efficiency, from manufacturing plants to workplaces to homes, will be in high demand as businesses and consumers seek to reduce expenses and carbon emissions. "All companies making incremental improvements in the energy economy are gonna move the needle," said Prudencio.
• Renewable sources of energy that don't lean on government subsidies or tax incentives look promising.
• Think globally, far into the future. For instance, the need for water filtration and treatment will balloon as the world's population exceeds 8 billion within the next decade, and more people migrate to coastal regions.
• "Climate change aside, anything that takes hazardous waste out of the market is gonna be a huge market for investment," said Keith Casto, a partner of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold who heads the law firm's international climate change practice. Companies that use recycled components in manufacturing can save money they might otherwise spend on a dwindling supply of raw materials.

DAVIS, Calif.--Here's a novel business plan. Prairie Village, Kansas-based Nowa Technology has come up with a wastewater treatment plant that sucks out materials from wastewater and some of these removed products can be consumed as a diesel additive. It depends on what's in your wastewater, but Nowa CEO Richard Nelson says you find the fuel there quite a bit.

You can mix it 50-50 with diesel and get about the same amount of energy as pure diesel, according to Nelson. (I ran into him in the hallway at the GoingGreen conference taking place here.) This is different than what Israel's BioPetrol is trying to accomplish. That company is applying the coal-to-petrol process on human sewage.

The unit costs $7 million and pays for itself in a few years, he added.

Water remains one of the growth areas in clean tech, but it doesn't nearly get as much focus as biofuels and solar power. One of the fears about the water market is that the main customers are slow-moving municipalities.

That's a misperception, asserted Jeff Green, CEO of NanoH2O, a desalination company that grew out of research at UCLA; 70 percent of the water that gets used goes to agriculture while 20 percent goes to businesses. Many of these companies have their own private purification systems.

"We are trying to make desalination competitive," Green said. In urban centers, water sells for around 25 to 50 cents a cubic meter. Water run through standard desalination processes sells for 50 cents to $1 per cubic meter. Nanotechnology and new membranes will bring the price down, he said.

Another interesting water company at the show is WaterLink Systems, which studies weather patterns and conditions and releases irrigation to farmers accordingly. One of the company's systems, bought by industrial water uses and agribusiness, can save up to a million gallons annually, according to CEO David Chacon.

The company actually grew out of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, said Chacon. After that debacle in 1978, two scientists tried to come up with a system that would use meteorological data to help rescue crews get people out of dangerous areas.

Big customers weren't interested until after the Bhopal disaster in 1984. DuPont then bought the company. The same two people then went on to create Waterlink.

Clear Water Compliance Services has raised $25 million from hedge fund Plainview Asset Management, according to VentureWire. It's the latest deal in the growing market for water technology.

The company specializes in equipment that can take impurities out of water spilling out of construction sites, ports and other places. This dirty water can infect municipal water supplies. Meeting regulations isn't always cheap either, so services like this can help builders avoid cleanup costs.

As an added bonus, the company's Web site sports a video of Bill Nye the Science Guy holding some crabs and lecturing on water.

Water has been the undercurrent of the clean technology market. General Electric and Siemens began to snap up water companies in the early part of the decade. Israel has begun to incubate a bunch of start-ups working on wastewater treatment to technology for purifying drinking water.

Here in the States, there are companies like HaloSource (drinking water purification), NanoH2O (desalination membrane--it's a spin-off out of UCLA) and EcoSphere (high-powered hose that cuts down groundwater pollution). Oh, and Novazone (purifying water with ozone).

Half the hospital beds in the world are filled with people with water-borne diseases. Australia is suffering severe droughts. Jeff Fulgham, chief marketing officer for water tech at General Electric, is one of the scariest guys you can interview in clean tech these days. And U.S. and European regulators are calling for tighter purity restrictions. So expect to hear more.

Clear Water Compliance Services has gotten a $25 million investment from hedge fund company Plainfield Asset Management, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

The Seattle-area company has a system for purifying water used on construction and industrial sites that uses crab shells among other materials. Water is typically pumped into a pool, treated and then sent into rivers and streams.

The investment, which will give Plainfield Asset Management a majority stake in the company, will be used for expansion, according to the report.

Even though there has been a huge influx of investment in clean technologies, water-related companies have received only a fraction compared with their solar power and biofuel counterparts.

Part of the problem is that municipalities that provide drinking water are heavily regulated and are generally more concerned with upgrading the basic distribution infrastructure, according to people in the field.

On a global basis, providing fresh water--either for drinking, or to meet environmental regulations as Clear Water Compliance Services does--represents a huge potential market, say water industry executives.

"Over the next decade, companies positioned with good technology for sustainable water supply are going to get a lot of business," said Jeff Green, CEO of NanoH2O, which makes nanomaterial-based membranes for reverse-osmosis seawater filtration.