The Wayfinder startup advances water filtration with nanobubble technology.
While there are myths about a coveted fountain of youth or hidden treasure on the ocean floor, one thing is certain: water, itself, really is liquid gold.
The current water system, however, is less shiny.
Southern California, in particular, transports water over great distances and puts it through a lengthy, expensive purification process. The result is an unsustainable reliance on chemical use, fresh water and energy consumption.
GreenTech California (GTC), a Wayfinder startup company based on UCI technology, has found solutions in unlikely places: wastewater and nanobubbles.
Co-founded and co-invented by Steve Slingsby, Ph.D., CEO, and James Earthman, Ph.D., in 2015, GTC applies nanobubbles to wastewater purification as a novel, environmentally conscious alternative to the current California water system.
THE PROBLEM: DRAINED RESOURCES
Because Southern California is primarily a desert environment, the region relies on water from the Colorado River, which travels across the Southwest, into an aqueduct located in San Bernardino. From there, the water goes through a filtration process known as reverse osmosis, which requires chemicals and energy. According to Slingsby, total costs for a 10-million-gallon-per-day reverse osmosis plant can be up to $500,000 in chemicals and about $100,000 to $200,000 in electricity per year. These costs are then augmented greatly by periodic maintenance and replacement of the reverse osmosis membranes when they become clogged.
Additionally, wastewater treatment relies on processes that result in sludge byproducts, which can contain pathogens, micro pollutants and heavy metals.
“A wastewater recycling facility costs a lot of money to operate,” said Eric Li, founder and CEO of BDP EnviroTech, GTC’s partner company and a tenant at the Cove @ UCI. “So, people tend not to treat and recycle the wastewater unless they’re really under huge pressure on energy consumption.”
THE SOLUTION: BUBBLES RISE TO THE OCCASION
As a UCI professor of materials science and biomedical engineering, Earthman realized nanobubbles’ purification potential when he studied their usefulness in preventing pipe corrosion in his lab in 2007.
Years later, Earthman met Slingsby, a serial entrepreneur, and they pursued nanobubbles as a water purification alternative in the form of a business venture.
According to Earthman, nanobubbles naturally occur in bodies of water in small levels. GTC’s water treatment technology, the Nanobubble Generator, attaches to part of a water purification system, like a pipe, and utilizes the movement of water to produce enough nanobubbles for filtration.
“We can produce nanobubbles without any external power other than what you need to make the water move from one place to another, which is generally already occurring in a lot of systems,” said Earthman. “Then it just becomes a matter of putting our treatment in line with that flowing water.”
Spotting a single strand of hair is difficult due to its 60,000 to 100,000 nanometer (nm) width. Seeing nanobubbles, then, is impossible – they are about 10 to 100 nm in size. Their small size makes them move in random patterns, rather than float to the surface as larger bubbles. Unlike larger bubbles, nanobubbles also have an inflexible surface similar to a taut balloon, which prevents them from breaking down or combining with one another. This, in addition to nanobubbles’ negative charge, attracts and maintains positively charged nanoparticles, otherwise known as tiny water contaminants. By using nanobubbles, which are long-lasting and stable, GTC could reduce chemical cost to $100,000 and energy to about $50,000 per year.
In 2017, Earthman and Slingsby tested their invention on three water filtration systems in India that suffered breakdowns and limited access to potable water. Over the course of their project, the Nanobubble Generator decreased the system’s shutdowns to maintain or replace the membranes, providing cleaner water without issue.
In 2018, Slingsby asked Li’s company, BDP EnviroTech, which treats wastewater in an environmentally safe way without harmful sludge byproducts, to partner with GTC.
“By linking the two companies and the technologies, we can provide a total solution,” said Li. “The technology will dominate the entire process, enabling the water utility agencies to recycle more water for reuse.”
BDP EnviroTech utilizes microorganisms to eat away wastewater contaminants – something the teams refer to as the “probiotic method.” After wastewater has gone through this process, it filters through GTC’s nanobubble treatment as the final purification step. The systems complement each other.
MAKING WAVES
Slingsby and Earthman report that the water industry is generally slow in adopting innovation. Because it handles such a valuable and necessary commodity, it is often cautious about major transitions.
“Even with the credibility that comes with research, it’s still slow because there’s so much risk aversion,” said Earthman. “People just don’t like to change in this industry.”
Despite this challenge, GTC has still managed to make waves.
When they joined UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s Wayfinder program in 2018, the team took advantage of experts such as licensing officers. They especially value Applied Innovation’s collaborative culture as well as its respect for disruptive technologies.
“Having built two companies previously without incubators and accelerators, I appreciate the culture of an incubator and an accelerator,” said Slingsby.
So far, the company’s local and international reach has been its greatest accomplishment.
The California State Water Resources Control Board awarded GTC and BDP EnviroTech $370,000 to demonstrate the benefits of recycled water to local and state governments.
GTC has also been in contact with the global water company SUEZ and BDP EnviroTech works with the major infrastructure firm Vinci globally. The team hopes to work with them to build a global presence.
In the future, GTC wants to find more grant and funding opportunities and work on research and development while at the university.
*Main Graphic: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation