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Aqua Membranes makes splash with 3-
Craig Beckman
Chief Executive Officer
Aqua Membranes
Contact:
Craig Beckman
952-
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – November 11, 2019
CEOCFO: Mr. Beckman, what is the concept behind Aqua Membranes?
Mr. Beckman: Aqua Membranes is technology used in the manufacturing of reverse osmosis membrane elements. Our patented technology is used to purify water in a variety of different applications. For example, many consumers use water treatment in their homes with an under their sink unit that utilizes reverse osmosis technology. RO is also used to desalt seawater in the Middle East to make drinking water, and big industrial customers like Intel and Pfizer use reverse osmosis to make semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. It is the most common technology for high-
CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the standard way and the Aqua Membranes method?
Mr. Beckman: Reverse Osmosis elements were developed in conjunction with the US Government about fifty years ago. The process utilizes a thin film membrane very similar to the natural process of osmosis that sucks water into things— but here you are using pressure to push water through a membrane and the water passes but the salt does not —hence the name reverse osmosis. The actual element that does the separation has been designed the same way since its founding fifty years ago. Traditional element construction uses a spacer or material laid between the layers of membranes and the whole thing is rolled up somewhat like a roll of paper towels. That is then put in a pressure vessel, it puts pressure on the membrane and the water goes through and salt does not.
It is important to note that we do not make the actual reverse osmosis membrane; we are using standard membrane sheet that is available in the market today. What we are changing is one part of the construction that involves the area where the water flows. Instead of a standard mesh material between the layers of membrane material, we use a 3-
CEOCFO: Why?
Mr. Beckman: We can make the spacer thinner, which directly affects how much active surface area you can get in each membrane element. For example, in today’s market if you are buying a reverse osmosis standard unit for your home it will have a mesh material that is 28 mils or 28 thousands of an inch thick, and that actually dictates how much water flow you can produce from under your sink. We make the same RO element, but our spacer is thinner. We can go all the way down to six mils from 28 mils, which dramatically increases the packing density of the actual membrane during the filtration, equaling savings of space and money. Saving space means if you have a system under your sink that produces 200 gallons a day of water, with our element in that same size housing we could produce anywhere from 600-
On the industrial side, it is the same thing; if Intel requires a 100x100 sq. ft. room for their water treatment plant because of the efficiency in the packing density of the current systems, if we increase that by 50%, their water room decreases by 50%. It is less square footage in the building, less land, less housings, and less piping etc. which creates financial savings for them on their whole water treatment system. That is one benefit we bring to the market with a 3-
A second interesting option we have with our 3-
Additionally, we have just begun our extended lifecycle testing. We think we can get perhaps 50% more life out of an element before they need to throw it away because our spacer pattern is better at preventing scaling.
CEOCFO: Are people in the various segments you serve looking for something better or is it more that they are excited to find out it exists?
Mr. Beckman: It is probably a little bit of both. Reverse osmosis technology has always been considered the premiere choice, but the expensive choice. A number of customers and consumers might choose a traditional carbon filter for example because the carbon filter was cheaper, smaller, easier to install, and they did not want to go all the way up to reverse osmosis because it was expensive and they had to keep buying the expensive replacement elements every year. By improving the process and increasing its life, we are bringing that technology within reach for more consumers.
It is the same thing on the industrial front; if you are in the city of Omaha, you might be looking at reverse osmosis as technology for your city water treatment, but maybe it was too expensive or too inefficient so you chose a different technology that maybe wasn’t as good. As we are now learning, the water supply in the US varies dramatically and can contain trace amounts of harmful materials that we do not know about. If we have the ability to move both consumers, cities and industries to higher quality technology at a lower price point, that will provide a huge advantage.
In general, everybody wants reverse osmosis because they know it is the best, but they’re limited by cost. Our technology allows them to consider it, which is exciting for both consumers or industrial customers that are already using the process. Often the process is cost prohibitive because the membrane elements have a finite life and are very expensive to replace. For example, a beverage company or a semiconductor company where the membranes last a couple of years in those applications can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace at the plant level. If we extend the membrane replacement time span by even a year it lowers their total cost to produce the water to make their products.
CEOCFO: With so much opportunity, where do you focus your efforts?
Mr. Beckman: We are a relatively new company. We have been developing the technology for about five years now and just in the last six months introduced our first commercial product targeted towards the food and beverage industry. Most consumers probably don’t know it but almost every packaged drink they consume has likely been treated with reverse osmosis. Beverages like Mountain Dew, Diet Coke, or a bottle of purified water, most often use water treated with reverse osmosis. Additionally, Starbucks use reverse osmosis to make the water for their drinks. RO technology impacts consumers everyday even if they don’t know it. We will focus on the food and beverage space first, including packaged products like Nestle water and Coca Cola, and also Starbucks and Caribou who use onsite water treatment for products consumed at the site, not bottled and put into a package.
Second, we have a partnership with a company in Minneapolis called Pentair, which is a publicly traded company and who has already made an investment in our company, which is on public record. We are partnering with them in one of their segments to integrate one of our technologies into one of their products. Not only will Aqua Membranes have its own product in the market, but we also have decided to partner to try to increase our penetration more quickly with a big global player like Pentair.
CEOCFO: How do you standout, at a conference like WEFTEC, where there are so many ideas related to your industry?
Mr. Beckman: It’s challenging. We are a small player in a big market. We estimated the annual spend on this type of technology to be between $3 and $4 billion, so it’s hard to compete, but we are at the WEFTEC show trying to be creative with our booth.
We offer some unique solutions, like an application that works better for cold water sites. A lot of industrial customers that run surface water into their plant have a problem with keeping up in the winter months. So we found a solution and then we created an iceberg like one you’d see in a play or production for our booth to try to attract attention to our unique solution for these customers. That along with newsletters, advertisements before the show and giveaways at WEFTEC brought great traffic to the booth, which allowed us to make a bigger splash in a large segment of the industry.
CEOCFO: How is 3-
Mr. Beckman: Yes, a lot of people talk about 3-
Like many other examples, 3-
In the mesh material we are replacing the process is limited by the geometries, thickness, speed, and materials you can use because it has to go through an extruder to be made. We do not have that problem. We can literally put drops of polymer in any location, at any thickness, and any height or geometry because we are putting tiny drops down and extruding the liquid material through a die. The 3-
CEOCFO: You have been CEO at Aqua Membranes for two years; what surprised you as the company has grown and evolved to where it is today?
Mr. Beckman: I would say the challenge to overcome problems that we didn’t expect. We are putting our technology into another finished product and what we found is that even though we can effectively put the resin and polymer down in the membrane, the membrane element still has to be constructed and then that element has to be put in a system.
Downstream we have had to change and solve some problems that have nothing to do with 3-
CEOCFO: You mentioned some investment from Pentair; are you seeking additional funding or partnerships as you move forward?
Mr. Beckman: We are a small company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a very big global market and this product is used all over the world in hundreds of different applications. We understand we are not going to be able to apply all of those directly. Therefore, partnerships are needed, whether it is home systems in China or wastewater reuse systems in Eastern Europe, we are interested in companies that are already connected with customers. We are also looking to industrial facilities or consumer companies that are producing a product today who would look to our technology as a means to differentiate their product, in which case we both win. Those types of partnerships would allow us to grow faster and get the technology into the consumer and industrial markets quicker.
CEOCFO: Why is Aqua Membranes an important company?
Mr. Beckman: Aqua Membranes offers several benefits. First, we are opening up the highest quality water treatment to more industries and consumers while reducing the waste associated with membrane life because our elements last longer. Ultimately, this means less plastic going in the landfills and more efficient water use globally. Additionally, our technology enables purified water production with significantly less water wasted down the drain. And for potential corporate partners the differentiation we offer in a highly competitive industry is unparalleled.
Aqua Membranes, 3D Printed Spacers , Cold Water RO Membranes, Craig Beckman, Aqua Membranes makes splash with 3-
“Aqua Membranes offers several benefits. First, we are opening up the highest quality water treatment to more industries and consumers while reducing the waste associated with membrane life because our elements last longer. Ultimately, this means less plastic going in the landfills and more efficient water use globally. Additionally, our technology enables purified water production with significantly less water wasted down the drain. And for potential corporate partners the differentiation we offer in a highly competitive industry is unparalleled.”-
“Aqua Membranes offers several benefits. First, we are opening up the highest quality water treatment to more industries and consumers while reducing the waste associated with membrane life because our elements last longer. Ultimately, this means less plastic going in the landfills and more efficient water use globally. Additionally, our technology enables purified water production with significantly less water wasted down the drain. And for potential corporate partners the differentiation we offer in a highly competitive industry is unparalleled.”-