It's time to hold a 1977 promise! In 2021, 2 billion people lacked access to safely managed drinking water. But how can it be when you know that, in march 1977, the United Nations held a conference in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and they pledged to bring water to all? And that wasn't a one-off. The entire eighties were named the water decade. And then again, the millennium development goals set the target to bring water to all by 2015, and here we are in 2021, with 26% of humanity still left aside. To be fair, over that period, 2.8 billion people gained access to drinking water. But the World's population also grew by - guess how much - 2.8 billion people. The new horizon now is 2030. And promised, swore, spat, this time we'll make it!  And still, we're running at a quarter of the speed we should... Does it mean, it's impossible? Well, providing every human with safe drinking water requires a 43.1 billion dollars investment every year between now and 2030.  That's about one-tenth of the subsidies the World provides to the fossil fuel industry.  So honestly, I think it's time to hold a 1977 promise! Wanna dive deeper into the topic, check out my conversation with David Lloyd Owen, the author of Global Water Funding. (https://dww.show/3-paths-to-reach-sdg-6-by-2050-all-our-hopes-are-on-3/)  You'll also find everything you'd like to know about SDG6 (https://dww.show/6-decisive-things-you-should-know-about-the-un-sdg-6/)  right here. 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

Ceramic Membranes may take over the market by storm. When membranes became mainstream in the late nineties, ceramic players already existed in niches such as Oil & Gas. But no one would have ever thought of applying the technology in water applications.  At ten thousand dollars per square meter, ceramic membranes were not only prohibitively costly but also fifty to five hundred times more expensive than polymerics. To worsen the picture, plant designs were done in copy-paste from polymerics to ceramics, which did not leverage the advantages of the technology.  Because indeed, ceramic membranes have perks! They are said to be more robust, can handle higher solids loading, withstand more aggressive cleanings and higher temperatures while guaranteeing a longer lifetime with fewer membrane failures.  So, when manufacturing progress divided their cost by four over a decade, early adopters gave it a try.  And the more early adopters there were, the bigger the scale effects, which in turn kept dragging the costs down and feeding the virtuous circle.  Today, ceramics still represent only 2% of the market, but with tumbling prices... Ceramic membranes may take over the market by storm! Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out: S4E10 with Sebastian Andreassen, CCO, and Co-Founder of Cembrane (https://dww.show/how-to-use-a-costly-material-to-bring-membrane-treatment-costs-down/)  S2E2 with Haris Kadrispahic, Head of Innovation at Liqtech (https://dww.show/behind-the-scenes-of-the-hardest-human-made-material/)  🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

Bacteria can update your calendar! As a wastewater operator, you have no control over what comes into your system. So regularly, a sudden gap in wastewater's content causes your bacteria to be upset, resulting at best in some drops in treatment efficiency.  And at worst, in long-lasting issues, until they recover... Indeed, it would incredibly ease up plant operation if bacteria could talk!  Well, if you use the right technology, they actually can. In a microbial fuel cell, bacteria live on the anode where they break down organic pollution. As a result of this process, they breathe electricity that travels to the cathode. So, if you monitor this electrical current closely, you have a 24/7 precise monitoring of your bacteria, turning them into a biosensor. That's how they can tell you about effluent changes, upsets, and even predictive maintenance of your hardware. And if you equip them with the right piece of software, as MICROrganic Technologies (https://dww.show/what-if-your-microbial-fuel-cells-could-reach-out-on-twitter/)  does, they can even reach out to you in unexpected places. Indeed, that's how bacteria can update your calendar! 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

Deep Ocean can desalinate water. To push seawater through a reverse osmosis system, you need to pump it up to a pressure of about 60 bars.  That's roughly 20 times more than the pressure we get at the tap, and of course, it gobbles a lot of energy. But energy is not the only source of expenses when you operate a desalination system. You also have to cope with the membrane's degradation over time and its clogging under the effect of biofouling. That phenomenon is caused by the micro-organisms, which are quite present in the coastal areas where desalination plants place their water intake. Now there's a place where you naturally find the 60 bars of pressure you're looking for: that's 600 meters under sea level. And, welcome side-effect, down there, water is of much better quality with much fewer micro-organisms. So if you sink your desalination skid at these depths like what Waterise does, you actually kill two birds with one stone.  Hence, the Norwegian company expects to reduce desalination's energy requirements by 50% while also reducing the footprint needed on-shore. And that's how, indeed, deep ocean can desalinate water! 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

We burn far too much wastewater! The industry represents roughly 20% of the World's water abstractions.  And sometimes, that water gets exposed to a wide array of complex pollutants, hence transforming into wastewater that's hard to treat. What would you do if you were an industrial whose core business and competencies have nothing to do with the treatment of those substances? Well, you'd go for the path of least resistance which is, believe it or not, to burn these complex wastewaters.  Now, you don't find incinerators for that purpose in every city, so sometimes, on top of burning water which is incredibly inefficient, that water travels distances and takes boats and trucks on the way. The thing is that every wastewater has its treatment like Cinderella has her glass slipper! You just need dedicated experts for that. That's how companies like Inopsys or Axine turn that treatment into a service, take over the liabilities, make it in a much more sustainable fashion, and often even for cheaper. Once you know that, don't you think that we burn too much wastewater? Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Here are two interesting follow-ons listens: S4E12 with Steven De Laet (the CEO of InOpSys) (https://dww.show/could-we-please-stop-burning-industrial-wastewater-this-is-much-better/)  S4E16 with Jonathan Rhone (the former CEO of Axine) (https://dww.show/the-best-industrial-wastewater-treatment-system-is-the-one-you-forget/)  🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

We need to give our pee a second life! By 2030, we will miss 40% of the water we need to reach an equilibrium.  This means we whether accept our fate and dry out or try to find that missing water in the next decade. You don't want to dry out? Me neither, so what can we do? Suppose we solve the problem the conventional way. In that case, it will cost the World about two thousand billion dollars to refurbish existing infrastructure and another four thousand billion dollars to build new ones. That makes for a six thousand billion dollar bill or about twenty-four Elon Musks. To reduce the bill, it's about time to become creative and efficient. In our wastewater treatment plants, we clean water up to high environmental standards. And then what do we do? We flush it away! With just one more polishing step, that water could be perfectly fit for a wide variety of purposes, from industrial applications to irrigation. Used right, wastewater reuse could cover 10% of the World's water needs, which would already solve a significant portion of the problem! See, we need to give our pee a second life! Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out my live show with Vincent Caillaud, CEO of Veolia Water Technologies, and Reinhard Hübner, CEO of SKion Water! (https://youtu.be/hmRjj4DxYzM)  🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

I'll kill them all Wait, don't worry, that's good news! What we call wastewater sludge is, in fact, a concentration of microbial cell mass.  To picture it, imagine a herd of micro-organisms, tired of having eaten a lot of organic matter and resting together in a mud-like aggregate. Now, that mud can be valorized and turned both into biosolids you'll transform into fertilizer and biogas that can be used as a one-to-one replacement to fossil methane. The problem in both cases is that these micro-organisms don't really want to cooperate spontaneously with you.  My Precious! As a result, your biogas production yield can be pretty low, and your output matter is still very watery, which involves more hassle to transport it out.  That's where thermal hydrolysis jumps in for the save! It takes the sludge through a 3-step process where you heat it, then pressurize it and suddenly depressurize it. Our rebellious micro-organisms don't appreciate that effort, and as a result, they tend to explode.  This frees the carbon and water they held back, increasing the biogas production yield by up to 50% while halving the biosolids volume at the outlet of the sludge digester. More energy, better waste, a win-win that will make you say: I'll kill them all! Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out my full conversation with Eirik Fadnes, the CEO of Cambi - the World Leader in Thermal Hydrolysis Processes (https://dww.show/how-to-save-over-1-million-tons-of-co2-every-year-with-thermal-hydrolysis/)  🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

Waves can desalinate water! About one out of five people living in the Mediterranean area suffer from constant water stress. That's representative of the challenge remote and decentralized places face in the new realm of water scarcity. At the same time, the World is urbanizing fast. By 2050, two-thirds of humanity will live in cities, and we will build the equivalent of New York City every month until then to cope with that revolution. As a consequence, remote areas will become even less of a priority when it comes to water production and management. So to help these communities, you need to solve the following equation. Find a way to desalinate water without large-scale investment and with as little energy impact as possible.  Impossible? Not if you leverage nature! Addressed right, waves can act as a fuel to pump water through a reverse osmosis process, whether directly or through an energy converter. And if several companies develop different variations of this concept, they all have two significant benefits in common.  They avoid the carbon emissions a diesel-powered alternative would have generated. And they reduce these remote areas' water stress. As you see, waves can desalinate water! 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

It's time to refurbish your basement! When a water or wastewater network pipe is laid, it is supposed to last a couple of centuries.  When you think of it, two centuries ago, only two cities in the world exceeded one million inhabitants: London and Beijing.  Fast forward to 2022: 512 cities exceed the million mark. Surprise, surprise, we outgrew our water networks. So what shall we do? Open all our roads and start over again with twice bigger pipes? I'm pretty sure no one wants that. When you think of it, those central networks are somewhat weird. They deliver drinking water, that we then use at 99% for other appliances than drinking it. That's given by design: water fit for purpose is not affordable at a large scale, but on the scale of a building, the picture fully flips. We could give water 4, 5, or 10 lives by running it in clever circles where we drink it only once but use it to flush, wash, rinse or irrigate several times more, thanks to a wastewater reuse unit cleverly placed in the cellar.  See, it's time to refurbish your basement! Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out my discussion with Aaron Tartakovsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Epic Cleantec (https://dww.show/central-water-management-networks-wont-handle-2050-time-for-an-epic-move-onsite-water-reuse/). 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast

A crazily expensive 1-step unit is the future of wastewater treatment. In the early eighties, Andrew Benedek had a vision. One day, the World would need to reuse its wastewater and have the right tools to do so. And what better than a membrane could guarantee a safe and constant outcome for the treatment he aimed to develop?  Andrew was convinced of it: membrane bioreactors would become a go-to. Yet, at that time, membranes were so costly that no one wanted to use them, not even for drinking water applications. So before implementing them to sort our pee and poo, there was a long way to go... Yet, in the middle of the nineties, several bacterial outbreaks turned the use of membranes into an unavoidable luxury.  As a result, because of scale effects, membrane prices tumbled, and they became mainstream. In turn, rid of their main drawback, membrane bioreactors established themselves as the reference solution. After a two-decade journey through the desert, Zenon, Andrew's company, became the hottest prospect in the Water Industry. And everyone acknowledged that nothing is more powerful than an Idea whose time has come! Andrew Benedek was right: Wanna dive deeper into the story? Check out my full interview with Andrew (https://dww.show/how-to-be-alone-early-crazy-but-actually-right-the-history-of-zenon/) Benedek right here. 🎙️ PODCAST 🎙️ Website: https://dww.show/podcast/ Smartlink: https://smartlink.ausha.co/dont-waste-water 👋  SOCIAL MEDIA  👋  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwwpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoineWalter7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DontWasteWaterPodcast