UPTICK Interview:
BioLargo's AOS Filter Delivers Abundant Clean Water Even In Drought
May 4, 2015
- (Newswire)
 |
| Water is Gold BioLargo AOS is a Disruptive Water Technology |
The
headlines are full of discussion on water shortages and drought with few
options consistently noted beyond the need to conserve and manage the precious
resource. To gain perspective on the problem and explore viable solutions
UPTICK Newswire interviewed Dennis Calvert, CEO of Biolargo, Inc, (OTCQB: BLGO), the company that developed
and owns the BioLargo AOS Filter, a brainchild of the company’s Chief Science
Officer and founder Ken Code. The AOS Filter was first conceived because Ken
and his company believe that everyone deserves affordable clean water.
Testing at the University of Alberta has repeatedly
shown that the AOS Filter can decontaminate and disinfect water far better and
faster than any known technology. Furthermore, based on its low energy
requirements, it can do the job at a cost of less than 1/20th of the
closest competing technology. Results have been proven in multiple designs,
affording the AOS Filter traction with stakeholders and capturing the attention
of researchers at the University of Alberta as well as around the globe.
With
reliable data in hand to prove its bold performance claims and patent coverage
in place, as well as some award-winning recognition for the innovation, the
company is getting busy with a number of commercial pilots expected to be
concluded by this midsummer as it lines up commercial partners. The
company has already been awarded the first of several grants to come and is now
intent on stacking up further support for its R&D lab located on the campus at the University
of Alberta.
UPTICK
Newswire
“Drought and
water related news are prominently in the headlines. Goldman Sachs is
calling water the next oil. Just how serious do you believe the water
shortage is?”
Dennis
Calvert
“We know a
few things for sure. Everyone deserves affordable clean water but there
simply is not enough. We also know that crisis often drives attention, spurs
investment and highlights the shortfall in the status quo like the drought is
doing now. We know there is a great need for equally great solutions like our
AOS Filter to come to market faster. The drought should accelerate the rate at
which we see adoption of our AOS Filter and certainly moves our company into
high-value category.”
“As far as
the drought and how bad is it? We have seen droughts before, but this time the
science community is teaching us that it is different. NASA has measured the consistent loss of
groundwater since 2003 with the GRACE satellites and theUSGS
has confirmed the loss by measuring groundwater with over
20,000 monitoring wells. It is clear from data in the 60 Minutes presentation
titled,“Depleting The Water” that as rivers,
lakes, snowpack and reservoirs continue to shrink we are depleting our
underground freshwater aquifers at rates that exceed recharge rates.”
“USGS
measurements show that in some regions where there are heavy water requirements
for agriculture, water tables have subsided over two hundred feet in only the
past few years, and these aquifers are limited
in vertical depth frequently being less than 2,000
feet. J. S. Famiglietti, a leading expert in groundwater, University
of California professor and NASA researcher claims, “Groundwater depletion the world over poses a far greater
threat to global water security than is currently acknowledged.”
“The GRACE satellites reveal how groundwater
is shrinking in several regions such as northern India,
the North China Plain, and the Middle East. It can take up
to several
decades to recharge these aquifers when rainfall and snowpack
finally do increase, but so far the global drought is not letting up and we are
still waiting. NASA is forecasting that California’s population of almost
40 million people will run out of adequate water in one year and Governor Brown recently imposed a 25%
reduction on the use of water throughout the state.”
“The drought
has been here for a long time now and is not letting up. NASA predicts this may be turn out to be the worst
drought in one thousand years. It is clear that if the drought
continues, we will have to find a way to use other water resources such as
seawater and brackish groundwater that are both plentiful and easily harvested.
We also have to treat and reuse or recycle wastewater that we typically
discharge back into the earth.”
“There are
major problems today challenging the use of seawater, brackish underground
water and wastewater, but this is where BioLargo’s AOS Filter shines and offers
immediate solutions. It also excels at solving a broad spectrum of
cost-effective water treatments that are absent today. We won’t solve all
the problems, but we can certainly tackle a few big ones and help bring much
more clean water to the world. Other technologies are also needed to help, and
of course, we simply all have to learn how to live using less water.”
UPTICK
Newswire
“Some very
dry parts of the world like the Middle East have been using desalination for
decades to get drinking water. Since 99% of the water on our planet is
ocean water, does it make sense to expand the use of desalination?”
Dennis Calvert
“Today, there are over 17,000 desalination plants
processing seawater to supply 21 billion gallons of salt-free water to over 300
million people. Unfortunately, as large as these numbers sound, they
represent less than 1% of U.S. consumption. The problem with
wider adoption is cost and an unwillingness to pay more for something that has
been so plentiful and low cost in the past. Reverse osmosis is the most
cost-effective way to desalinate water today, but given what people are willing
and able to pay, the cost is arguably still too high for broader
adoption.”
“Some
will argue that a more severe shortage of water, that seems to be more likely
than not, will cause the price to skyrocket and under those circumstances the
high cost of desalination will be more acceptable. California is already buildingtwo large
facilities in Carlsbad and Huntington Beach and is discussing
reopening a plant in Santa Barbara, but that is still not enough to meet unmet
demand. Bob Yamada, water resources manager for the San Diego County Water
Authority says the billion-dollar Carlsbad plant is expected to provide only 7%
of the water needs to local residents. Bringing the cost down
coupled with increasing demand from the drought will converge to make
desalination far more widespread.”
UPTICK
Newswire
“What about
locations that are inland and a long distance from the ocean? Wouldn’t it
be prohibitively expensive to bring in seawater or desalinated water? Wouldn’t
that require massive pipelines?”
Dennis
Calvert
“The
infrastructure cost would be a huge cost for sure. We would argue from a
fundamental perspective that there is a better solution for inland regions
rather than using seawater. The USGS has shown that huge underground aquifers
ofbrackish or salty water are almost everywhere and lie
deep beneath the freshwater aquifers. This brackish groundwater is substantially
less saline than seawater and is therefore cheaper to desalinate because it
requires far less energy to push the less saline water through the reverse
osmosis filters than seawater. Inland municipal and private water districts can
harvest brackish water from these aquifers and can use a much more
cost-effective desalination process. But the fact remains that they
will still require some level of desalination and certainly a high level of
disinfection that the AOS Filter can deliver more cost-effectively than
anything else.”
UPTICK
Newswire
“What
are the biggest challenges with desalination?”
Dennis
Calvert
“As we
talked about before, industry teaches us that cost is the biggest
problem. The second is the fact that the filters suffer from biofilm
fouling from bacteria that is present in the seawater and brackish
water. Some experts like Hiroko Kasama, Lead Consultant at
Global Water Intelligence believes biofouling is one of the most
significant challenges in seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants.Biofilm
forms colonies of bacteria on the RO filter membrane surfaces and clogs
them. The result is that the biofilm accumulation requires much greater
energy to push the water through a filter that is clogged with
biofilm. And with fouling, the already high cost of energy increases
significantly. Biofilm also increases capital cost by shortening filter
life and requiring frequent filter replacement. The industry is currently
using chemical biofilm disrupters but they appear to have limited effectiveness
and are unfriendly to the filter membranes. Often, undesirable
chemicals such as chlorine are added into the water to help control the
biofilm. Anything that can reduce biofilm accumulation will increase filter
life and decrease energy requirements.”
“There are
also high levels of subsurface bacteria commonly found in brackish underground
water. This sub-surface bacteria is anaerobic because it lives deep
underground where there is little oxygen. There haven’t been many studies
in this area, but according to our panel of expert advisors in this area,
anaerobic bacteria is a serious concern by oil companies that might look to use
this brackish water for their oil recovery operations. The fear is that
bacteria can undergo significant and potentially dangerous changes when it is
introduced to above ground where oxygen is plentiful. A cost effective
means of sterilizing the brackish underground water is necessary and, this is
another area where BioLargo’s AOS Filter shines when compared to all other
technologies.”
UPTICK Newswire
“Can you
give us an idea of how the AOS Filter compares to the more common disinfection
treatment of chlorine for example?”
Dennis
Calvert
“The AOS
Filter was validated by researchers at the University of Alberta last year and
Dr. Lynn McMullen said, “The test results demonstrated AOS’s unprecedented
effectiveness in destroying highly concentrated contaminants in sample water,
including Listeria and Salmonella.” Test results at the University
of Alberta demonstrated that the AOS Filter killed 10,000,000 salmonella cells
in 2 minutes compared to the industry standard chlorine dioxide that killed
100,000 cells in 60 minutes. In this example, that makes the AOS Filter
100 times more powerful and 30 times faster than chlorine. The AOS
Filter has also been found to decontaminate toxic produced water from oil
recovery operations in seconds versus hours and at only a very small fraction
of the cost of the closest competing technology.” It is estimated that 80% of
disease is caused by water infected with dangerous pathogens and the AOS Filter
is so highly oxidative that we believe no living organism can survive its
potent killing power.
UPTICK
Newswire
“Can you
tell us what uses you see for the AOS Filter, how you will commercialize it,
and how long will it take?
Dennis
Calvert
“We believe
the AOS Filter will impact every segment of the $360 billion water treatment industry. Plans
are already underway to use it experimentally in Suncor’s huge Firebag project
in Canada to clean up toxic produced water and eventually, when the
stakeholders can figure out a way to pay for it, to clean up the massive
tailings ponds that make up almost 200 square kilometers in Canada.”
“The AOS
Filter will be a great solution to clean up flowback water from fracking
operations. It can clean up wastewater from mining operations. It can
clean up and recapture nitrates and eliminate pesticides from agriculture run
off water. The AOS Filter can disinfect drinking water making it safe,
including the removal of pharmaceutical by-products as well as make filters
longer lasting.”
“We believe
that the AOS Filter is so cost effective that it will have a big role to play
in developing nations as a portable and disposable system. It can
decontaminate dangerous pathogens such as 1, 4 dioxane that are classified as
hazardous and are of great concern when found in drinking water. It
dismantles highly toxic napthenic acids found in produced water from oil
recovery operations. It can dismantle or manage sulphates and aromatics like
benzene and much more. And very importantly to address the drought, we
believe it can dramatically expand the use of recycled water and enhance
desalination systems by offering unrivaled disinfection and by greatly reducing
biofilm accumulation that can reduce energy costs and extend the useful life of
the membranes.”
“The CDC, the UN and several other leading organizations tell us
that 80% of all illness is caused by infection from water. That
alone tells us that there is a very big need for the AOS Filter because it
disinfects water far more cost-effectively than any other method.”
“We plan to
license our technology to various large industry users rather than go directly
to market ourselves. The AOS Filter is a scalable device that is
straightforward and quick to build. The engineering is the most difficult
part in order to get desired results for specific uses, especially in high
volume applications, but it is readily available and is not an obstacle. In
order to accelerate industry awareness and licensing efforts, BioLargo is
showcasing the AOS Filter to several industry leaders at the University of
Alberta this August.
“The
shortage of water and the threat of it growing worse is a very serious and
long-term problem that will require a host of changes. We are proud of our
progress at BioLargo and know that the AOS Filter can help deliver affordable
clean water to a world in great need. We are grateful and thankful
to our shareholders who help us make it happen and we look forward to sharing
our success with them.”
UPTICK Newswire
“Thank you
very much for your time today. Our readers will appreciate the abundant
information you shared and the solutions you presented in dealing with the
water shortage crisis.”
For further
questions regarding BLGO visit their website at: http://biolargo.com/ or contact:
UPTICK
Newswire
Everett
Jolly, CEO
602-441-3474
info@upticknewswire.com
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