Solving the Global Water Crisis Moves Beyond the Technical Feasibility Stage

Its a commodity many of us take for granted. Turn on the spigot and we have an unending flow of inexpensive water. The fact is, the worldwide supply of fresh water is more than adequate for any foreseeable global population demands.

At issue is the distribution of that water, because it suffers from a chronic imbalance. Although it is virtually free in many places in the U.S., some areas, such as Southern California, do not have enough water to go around. Likewise, in the Mideast, as well as in parts of China and India, theres definitely a water shortage. As a result, a billion people cant reliably find enough potable water on any given day, which does not bode well for a future when water demands will rise.

Today, the worlds human population uses 4.5 trillion cubic meters of water a year. By 2030, that usage is expected to rise to almost 7 trillion cubic meters a day, which is 40 percent above the amount of clean water that is currently accessible, reliable, and environmentally sustainable.

? Globally, more than 70 percent of all fresh water used goes for irrigating crops. ? Another 16 percent is used by industry. ? The remaining 14 percent is put to domestic uses, such as drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing clothes.

Part of the solution will be improving the efficiency of use in these three areas. For example, new strains of crops, as well as new types of drip and soaking technology, combined with improved drainage and no-till farming, can improve the use of water in agriculture.

But greater efficiencies, although a start, by themselves will not solve the problem. Unfortunately, too many people in both business and government dont truly understand the issue and therefore think the problem is either exaggerated or unsolvable.

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For example, The World Resources Institute predicts that, "By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in water-scarce countries or regions, with alarming implications for human well-being and global security."1 For this prediction to come true, one needs to discount the promise of ingenuity. But whats more disturbing about the Institutes position is that it lays the blame of water shortage at the feet of developed nations for what they believe to be an overuse of water. Whats missing from that equation is that water has great limitations in portability, especially from continent to continent.

In a recent commentary on 24/7 Wall Street,2 Douglas McIntyre typifies the widespread ignorance about the water crisis when he concludes: "The World Resources Institute has raised a point, but it has not offered a solution to the problem. That is because there is no solution."

The type of fatalistic thinking exhibited by McIntyre and many other pundits reveals that they have accepted the view of a generation ago that a global water crisis will arise from technical limitations and population growth ? and, after accepting this mindset, theyve thrown up their hands in surrender.

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Fortunately, others are taking a serious look at the fundamental causes of water shortages and are formulating breakthrough solutions. One example is an effort by McKinsey & Company and their recently-assembled affiliate group called "The 2030 Water Resources Group." Its focus is on ways to meet the demands for increasingly scarce water resources by the year 2030.

In 2009, the group published a report titled "Charting Our Water Future: Economic Frameworks to Inform Decision Making."3 In it, they conclude, that "Even in rapidly developing, water-scarce countries, there is a set of measures ? to boost efficiency, augment supply, or lessen the water-intensity of the economy ? that, in principle, could meet human and environmental water needs at affordable cost."

"Even in rapidly developing, water-scarce countries, there is a set of measures - to voost efficiency, augment supply, or lessen the water-intensity of the economy - that, in principle, could meet human and environmental water needs at affordable cost."

"Augmenting the supply" means developing new technologies that can close the gap between supply and demand. Many safe, clean, and cost-effective technologies are rapidly emerging to deal with this problem. Just consider some of the new breakthroughs:

One key area that is attracting much attention is desalination. Since only 3 percent of the Earths water supply is usable for drinking or agriculture, the remaining 97 percent, made up of seawater and brackish groundwater, is a tantalizing source. Currently, less than 0.4 percent of the U.S. water supply comes from desalination. Strides in this area could make a significant contribution to the looming water crisis, here and elsewhere.4

The traditional method for producing fresh water from salt water is through "reverse osmosis." This process, however, requires large amounts of energy, which can run as high as 45 percent of the cost of this method. With energy costs rising, along with growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, alternatives are being researched.

One conventional alternative, "evaporative desalination," is getting a second look. Because it requires twice the energy per gallon of reverse osmosis, this process is considered less efficient and has not been given serious consideration. But now, this could change with plans under way for a virtually free energy source: waste heat from nuclear reactors. This heat would evaporate sea water, which would condense into pure water.5

Its now possible to generate electricity as well as 100% pure water using nothing more than naturally-occurring bacteria, river water and sea water. The process employs a so-called reverse-electro-dialysis process. It uses the ionic differences between seawater and river water to efficiently generate hydrogen fuel. Then, by running that the hydrogen through highefficiency fuel cells, electricity ? as well as fresh water ? can be produced almost anywhere.

Researchers in India envision floating nuclear power plants off-shore in the vicinity of dense coastal populations. The plants would generate cheap electricity as well as run desalination plants with their excess heat.

The idea of nuclear energy producing fresh water has gotten a boost from an unlikely source: Bill Gates.6 Gates has funded and is guiding a start-up called TerraPower, LLC. Its mission is to design a so-called "traveling-wave reactor," which, in theory, could run for decades, untouched, using spent nuclear fuel. This type of safe, small-scale nuclear plant would be ideal for low-cost, evaporative desalination.

Another approach for desalination, called "capacitive de-ionization," is more efficient than evaporative desalination and it removes two big drawbacks of reverse osmosis: the use of membranes and the need for high pressure.7 This method uses an electrical charge to dissolve ions in water, which are then absorbed on electrodes. This process was shown to be feasible and cost-effective 40 years ago, but only now are advances in electrochemical capacitors making it commercially practical.

An even more dramatic breakthrough may generate electricity as well as 100 percent pure water from nothing more than bacteria, waste-water and sea water. This emerging technology uses a microbial electrolysis cell to generate the energy. In the cells, naturally occurring bacteria convert waste-water into hydrogen and oxygen. The process employs reverse-electro-dialysis (RED) that can use the ionic differences between seawater and river water to efficiently generate hydrogen fuel.8 By running that hydrogen through high-efficiency fuel cells, electricity as well as fresh water can be produced almost anywhere. Not surprisingly, this research has been funded by the Saudi government as a way to provide abundant fresh water for the entire Arab world.

Turning to nanotechnology, we find a number of developments that could deliver far wider and cheaper access to safe and plentiful supplies of fresh water in the coming decades.

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are developing another system for desalination that improves on traditional reverse osmosis.9 Like capacitive de-ionization, it uses less energy. Even though it continues to rely on membranes, those new membranes have a much longer life than those used in reverse osmosis. Why? Because it employs a uniquely cross-linked matrix of polymers and engineered nanoparticles to form the new membranes. According to Eric Hoek, civil and environmental engineering assistant professor at UCLA, "The nanoparticles are designed to attract water and are highly porous, soaking up water like a sponge, while repelling dissolved salts and other impurities."

Meanwhile, in India, researchers are experimenting with carbon nanotubes as a replacement for conventional materials in water-purification systems.10 These nanotubes are hollow carbon fibers less than one-billionth the thickness of a human hair. They work by allowing only very small molecules, such as water, to pass through them. Large molecules, such as viruses, bacteria, toxic metal ions, and large noxious organic molecules, cannot pass through. Because the interior of these tubes is smooth and water-repellant, this approach would allow a high flow rate, which means using a much lower amount of power when compared to conventional membrane technology ? and lowering such costs will be significant in achieving widespread adoption in developing countries.

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Finally, low-cost solutions for providing purified drinking water to the developing world are emerging from some pretty unexpected areas of research. Consider just one of these possibilities: banana peels.11 Surprisingly, researchers have found that minced banana peel performs better than many other purification materials in removing potentially toxic metals, such as lead and copper from water. Methods currently used in commercial applications are expensive and, in some cases, potentially toxic. The proposed banana peel purification device doesnt have to be chemically modified in order to work, and it can be used up to 11 times while still retaining its metal-binding properties.

§§§§§§§§§§As these and dozens of other breakthroughs in the last decade indicate, the very real global water crisis well be facing in the coming decade is also very solvable. Its simply a matter of making the right choices. In light of this trend, we offer the following three forecasts for your consideration:

First, despite the depletion of rivers, the melting of glaciers, and the pumping out of aquifers, the planet is not running out of water.

The amount of water on Earth remains more or less constant, and most nations have enough water to meet the needs of their people, as well as enough left over to keep the environment healthy. So, for the coming decades, we do not have to believe doomsday stories about water shortages. In fact, water usage per person in the U.S. is actually going down, not up, even though Americans still use more water per capita than any other country. However, that does not mean we can become complacent about water.

Second, until business and government leaders shift their thinking to entrepreneurial solutions, little progress will be made.

Fortunately, there is time for this to happen, but the sooner, the better. Currently, there is little political interest in moving forward with the more dramatic technologies typified by traveling-wave nuclear reactors. To create momentum, promising technologies need to be encouraged through tax incentives and the easing of regulations. As McKinsey & Company points out, there are problems such as insufficient economic data, opaque management, inefficient allocation of capital, and poor investment decision making. For such an essential resource as water, the lack of sophistication in its management is appallingly haphazard. Until there is a commitment to finding solutions that include economic ingenuity and the political will to implement technologies that will shake up existing industries, the most effective and innovative solutions will continue to be delayed.

Third, by 2025, nanotechnology will usher in the age of cheap, fresh water almost anywhere.

Keep an eye on Canada for new developments.12 The government of Ontario recently decided to become the leader in entrepreneurship where water is concerned, and desalination is the hot item. A start-up company called Saltworks has developed a breakthrough technology that reduces the energy cost of desalination by 80 percent. Another Canadian company, called NanoH20, has introduced a new desalination membrane based on nanotechnology that allows a 20 percent reduction in energy use or a 70 percent increase in water production. Expect to see start-ups dotting the landscape in Canada and elsewhere as these nanotech solutions become viable. There will be a predictable shakeout as the winners emerge, but the end result will be a virtually limitless supply of fresh water, with steadily falling prices as technologies mature and proliferate.

References List :1. WRI Insights, October 26, 2011, “Seven Billion: The Real Population Scare Is Not What You think,” by Manish Bapna. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by World Resources Institute. All rights reserved. http://insights.wri.org/news/2011/10/seven-billion-real-population-scare-not-what-you-think 2. 24/7 Wall Street, October 28, 2011, “World Running Out of Water,” by Douglas A. McIntyre. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by 24/7 Wall Street. All rights reserved. http://247wallst.com/2011/10/28/world-running-out-of-water 3. To access the report “Charting Our Water Future,” visit the 2030 Water Resources Group website at: http://www.2030waterresourcesgroup.com 4. To access the report “Desalination: A National Perspective,” visit The National Academies website at: http://www.nap.edu 5. International Journal of Nuclear Desalination, 2011, Vol. 4, No. 3, “Energy Cost for Desalination Evaporation Versus Reverse Osmosis,” by M. Rognoni, M.P. Ramaswamy, and J.Justin Robert Paden. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by Inderscience Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. http://www.inderscience.com 6. The Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2011, “A Window into the Nuclear Future,” by Robert A. Guth. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. http://online.wsj.com 7. For more information about capacitive deionization, visit the IMDEA website at: http://www.energy.imdea.org 8. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 27, 2011, “Hydrogen Production from Inexhaustible Supplies of Fresh and Salt Water Using Microbial Reverse-Electrodialysis Electrolysis Cells,” by Younggy Kim and Bruce E. Logan. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. http://www.pnas.org 9. For more information about the nanotech water desalination membrane, visit the UCLA website at: http://newsroom.ucla.edu 10. International Journal of Nuclear Desalination, 2008, Vol. 3, No. 2, “Potential of Carbon Nanotubes in Water Purification: An Approach Towards the Development of an Integrated Membrane System,” by Soumitra Kar, et al. ⓒ Copyright 2008 by Inderscience Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. http://www.inderscience.com 11. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, March 16, 2011, “Banana Peel Applied to the Solid Phase Extraction of Copper and Lead from River Water: Preconcentration of Metal Ions with a Fruit Waste,” by Gustavo R. Castro, et al. ⓒ Copyright 2011 by the American Chemical Society. All rights reserved. http://pubs.acs.org 12. Greentech Media, April 6, 2010, "O Canada! Land of Water Innovation!" by Yoni Cohen. ⓒ Copyright 2010 by Greentech Media, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.greentechmedia.com