Works in Deserts and even better in humid areas.
A2WH (Air to Water Harvest) technology extracts the humidity in air and converts it into liquid water. A2WH is a new generation of atmospheric water generator device AWG) which are also known as water maker devices (WM) and Water Air Extraction Devices (WAED). A2WH uses a revolutionary patent pending design and provides special characteristics that make it ideal for large scale deployment in situations where historic designs would be prohibitively expensive.Water, Water everywhere but not a bit to drink. This has been the age old problem faced by people on the go for thousands of years. The problem is that water is heavy so we tend to only carry as much as we have to so we need more every day. And if we don’t get it in 3 days then people start dying.
Water scarcity is complicated by the fact much of the water available is not safe for human consumption because of biological contamination that would make us sick and we end up loosing more water than we drank as a result. In other instances there may be water all around such as ocean water but we simply can’t drink it and if we do it makes matters worse.
There are some landscapes where a person can walk for days without seeing any water let alone any drinkable water.
The XDOBS answer is to use the readily available desert Heat and turn it into an energy source that allows us to extract water out of the air which produces water that is cleaner and safer than any water that same soldier could buy back in the US
Man has been producing air from water for thousands of years. Every time we set a cold glass out on a hot day water will bead up on the exterior and ultimately runs off and makes wet ring on the table. What is really happening is the cold glass lowers the temperature of the air it is touching causing that air to cool sufficiently that it reaches it’s dew point which allows the water in the air to condense onto the glass. The same process has been at work when a sheet of water has condensed on the windshield of a car after a cool evening or with the morning dew.
It is possible to scale this process up to produce quite a bit of water for use by humans but the historical problem is that it produced relatively little water for the energy required. The other problem is that producing a ready source of cold has been expensive and not very mobile.
XDOBS uses techniques invented in the 1800’s by Robert Sterling that allow us to run small motors based on a temperature difference. These motors can run on large differences such as 3000F of degrees when concentrated or a much smaller difference such as the difference between the warmth of my hand and the air surrounding it. XDOBS has produced our own design for which we have 6 patents pending but they still use the same underlying physics principles. These motors arecombined to power special miniature and silent pumps that allow us to cool the air enough to reach the dew point. The difference is that we can cool enough air to produce a substantial amount of water using only thermal energy.
There are a number of areas such as Las Vegas where people have been forced to allow their nice lawns and expensive landscaping die as a result of drought imposed water restrictions. In other areas people have been unable to add pools or even grow a small garden because of water usage limitations.
With a single acre of land the XDOBS A2WH units can produce in the range 4,350 gallons per day of water without having any impact on the local water company or drawing any power from the local utility company. This provides enough water to water a decent sized lawn, drip irrigate a fair sized garden or to fill a pool conditions but assume the 4,350 gallons per day per acre. The actual production may be 400% higher per acre depending on region and conditions.
Water produced by A2WH is more expensive than water from the Colorado or water drawn from ground water wells but in some areas people can not obtain approval for new ground water wells and they either do not have access to SNWA city water or watering restrictions prevent them from having enough water to meet their needs. In these circumstances the XDOBS solution provides an option for obtaining additional water.
The size of this market but it will be limited to those land owners who have sufficient space to install the solar concentrators which will eliminate most people with smaller lots.
When I drive across Nevada, parts of Utah, Arizona, parts of Texas and parts of California I see millions of acres of land that appears to be viable for farming but which is sitting fallow due to lack of agriculture water. The same condition holds true in much of the Middle East
The XDOBS units provide a unique option of producing the water needed for agriculture directly on the land it self which could ultimately allow millions of acres to be moved in to viable production status.
The XDOBS A2WH units do not have any impact on the local ground water and they are using a resource that is completely renewable so there is no risk of running out in the future.
The water produced in this way is much less expensive that previous water to air strategies that used immense amounts of electricity to produce limited amounts of water but due to the initial capital requirements it is still much more expensive that ground water or river water when those are available.
At the current time adding water for agriculture use in this fashion is too expensive for most areas however in warmer areas where high value crops like citrus and almonds can be grown the solution can be viable.
The optimal use for this technology is for use in drought induced famine areas where people are dying from lack of food. In that instance these units could be installed sized for family level gardens large enough to keep them alive and healthy until the famine ends.
A special adapter for this unit is available which allows the units to utilize moisture sources such as salt water and contaminated well water to multiply the output by several times.
In some parts of Africa extended droughts have created famines of unprecedented levels. Because when people don’t even have enough water to drink they also don’t have enough for their garden.
During severe droughts it could be possible to purify sea water using XDOBS propriatary heat diffusion evaporation technology. I areas too far away from the ocean and when land is so dry that there is no source of moisture then A2WH can still work by processing the moisture in the air and converting it into liquid water.
The most powerful relief agencies such as USAID are beginning to look for ways to improve household level resilience to climatic, economic, and health shocks resulting in humanitarian crises. and "further reduce vulnerability to food insecurity by addressing its root causes
During severe droughts one of the first things impacted is the availability of clean drinking water even wells that where previously safe can become unsafe as the water table drops. This is caused by a lower hydrostatic resistance allowing new water to flow in to the aquifer through cracks where it would normally be held out as a result the water does not’t receive it’s normal filtering and all the wells drawing on it are at risk. The second thing that happens is the increased demand on the wells removes so much water that they either dry up all together or do not produce enough for even the smallest garden.
The fastest and easiest thing to do is use our thermal distillers to ensure that they can continue to safely use any water source even if it is contaminated. In some instances it gets so dry that there is no source water available so we needed a solution for this problem.
The XDOBS solution is a larger version of the Air to Water extractor that we originally designed for military use. In this instance though we need quite a bit more water. We need enough to give every family member a couple gallons and enough left over that they have in the range of 5 gallons per day per person to use on their personal garden. This is offset by the fact that this unit can be heavier and does not’t require quite as high a quality air filtration.
We chose 5 gallons per day because there some heat tolerant cabbage plants that are quite nutritious, grow enough every day for a bit of salad and which should grow fine on 2 cups of water if carefully dispensed. That means we can allow the family to grow at least a minimal amount of survival food during the worst of the drought. It will not take the issue away but it will improve their ability to survive without intervention.
Growing if they have a baseline amount of water beyond what is required for direct consumption You can keep a single Tomato plant alive on less than 1 cup per day so 15 to 30 gallons can go a long way if it is carefully hand dispensed. There are forms of cabbage that are heat tolerant and grow a considerable amount per day so they would provide at least some food to eat daily.
In countries like Ethiopia that are fairly humid and have a lot of sun a larger version of our Air to water unit could produce from 10 to 20 gallons a day at a cost close to $600 in 15,000 unit quantities these will be made cheaper than the military units by eliminating some of the filters, making them quite a bit larger and making the units out of less expensive but heavier materials.
The assumption is that the family has to stay near their garden so while the unit should be movable it does not’t necessarily need to be man portable.
The biggest difference between these units and the military version is that this unit utilizes a set solar concentrators that allow us to concentrate the heat up to over 300F which gives us quite a bit more power from our thermal motors which gives us increased production.
No matter what the cost these units can be incredibly valuable when there is simply no water vapor source available it can keep people from dying. When the people can access a water source such as the ocean we can produce 50% more water at a lower cost. These units would have a 10 year life with minimal maintenance and if we are able to produce them in quantifies over 5 million the lifetime cost per gallon could drop as as low as 1.5 cents per gallon.
Total world wide market for these units is over 200 million but a large portion of the viable user base does not have the direct financial capability to pay for the units so adoption is limited by availability of funds from charity organizations and governments.
XDOBS finds this application exciting due to its ability to alleviate an incredible amount of human suffering but unfortunately there does not seem to be a clear way for those people who need it the worse to pay for it. We are hoping the major relief agencies will find this unit exciting. And will buy a bunch at least for those people in the hardest hit areas.
If a way is found to deploy these units even in quantities as low as 5 million unit quantities it will be an incredible humanitarian victory.
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This discussion contains forward looking statements which are based on current expectations and differences can be expected. All statements and expressions are the opinion of management of XDOBS and are not meant to be either investment advice or a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold securities. Many of these statements are based on sound economic reasoning, however actual response of the economy is heavily influenced by politics and large business and so the outcome could end up substantially different.