Global Water Farms (GWF) is a deep tech environmental start up located in La Quinta, California. We have patented technology that we use to desalinate brackish/saline/ocean/produced water. We use renewable energy to sustainably manufacture ‘new’ water without membranes, without boiling water and with Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). Our brine management system is unique in the desalination world in that the ZLD process results in a dry salt which we monetize. The salt is hydraulically compacted to make encased salt-based construction blocks designed to replace cement cinderblocks and the carbon emissions they produce.
Serviceable Attainable Market = USA $25B; Global $200B
Founder Name: Jon Becker
Founder Phone: (970) 376-7511
Product: We will produce 'New' Water from unusable sources such as brackish/ocean/produced water with 100% renewable energy. One Water Farm will produce an acre foot (AF) of distilled water per day. One AF of ocean water contains 43 tons of salt which forms the basis of our other sustainable products - encased salt-based construction blocks.
Location: La Quinta, CA
Founded: April 2015
Company Type: DE Incorporated C-Corp
Number of employees: 3 FTE, 1 PTE
Valuation: $10m (valuation cap); $25.7m (3rd party valuation 2018) Financing sought: $8 million
Current investors: Friends & Family
Status: $4.2m raised to date from F&F; developed proven bench scale model and working prototype; own 641-acre site adjacent to Salton Sea & water delivery systems; negotiations underway for early commercial projects serving SoCal metro water districts, SoCal agricultural districts, and environmental remediation sites.
Use of funds: Build commission and test a full sized renewables-powered pilot desalination plant
Exit: M&A, Stock Buy Back
Patents Issued: Two patents issued and 5 patents pending
Management: Management & Leadership; entrepreneurial & corporate background; construction; manufacturing; international sales, logistics, and supply chain management; ESG; Stakeholder engagement; social investment/development; environmental policy development
Problem: The US Southwest is in a 1200 year dry spell with the last 22 years being the driest so far – this mega-drought is taking a toll on the people and the economies of the 7 states in the Colorado Basin and Mexico. The Colorado River has been over-allocated and the demand for water continues to increase. The key point is that without enough water, the US Southwest will fall into economic decline that could spur an eastward migration of people looking for basic services.
California alone lost $3.5B in crops because of the drought in 2022. There are knock on effects that ripple throughout the economy beyond the loss of $3.5B in agricultural revenue and the associated 14,000 farm jobs – this is only the tip of the iceberg. In Arizona, when the Tier 2a shortage was in effect, Colorado River water was cut by 21%. Tribal communities in Nevada have had to cull their cattle herds and decrease hay production due to the reduced availability and increased costs of irrigation water. Given the dependency of tribal communities on agricultural operations to feed themselves and generate income, the drought disproportionally impacts them. I could go on with many more examples. The Colorado River supports a $1.4 trillion economy that needs more water than is currently available to maintain the status quo.
More locally, here next to the Salton Sea, the mega-drought/lack of water has exposed the playa or lakebed that contains pesticides and fertilizers which then get blown into the air as dust – causing high rates of asthma in the communities near the lake. Over more than 20 years nearly $200m has been spent on feasibility studies and other research to fix the issues at the Salton Sea. It is only now that small wetland projects and dust suppression projects are being implemented – these are symptomatic fixes or ‘band-aid’ solutions that do nothing to address the underlying water problem. It is wrong to consider the water related health and environmental crisis at the Salton Sea and water supply in the US Southwest as two separate issues. The problem is one and the same – not enough water.
The US Southwest cannot continue to develop and prosper without ‘new’ water – even with the recent storms, we’d need 20 good years of rain and snowpack to begin to refill Lakes Mead and Powell. From the time the dam gates on Glen Canyon Dam closed, it took 16 years to fill Lake Powell in good water years when all the other impoundments were already full. Our whole premise is that ‘new’ water must be manufactured to mitigate the current drought and to supply water for future expansion. The last census showed a trickle of people leaving California for the first time. If the Colorado River does not recover and federally mandated cuts are implemented, a flood of people will leave to seek opportunity elsewhere.
Solution: Beyond the arguments between the 7 states on water cuts, the overwhelming response to the mega-drought has been to use available water more efficiently. Water conservation, reuse, drip irrigation, rainwater capture, storm water capture, storage, recycling are all essential tools in the management of our water resources. However, using less water and being more efficient is a defensive position in a losing battle. It is clear that no amount of conservation will generate enough water to refill the impoundments in the Colorado River system nor will conservation allow for continued economic growth and expansion in the US Southwest. There is only one real solution to the lack of water – ‘new’ water must be sustainably manufactured to make up the shortfall and assure that economic development in the US Southwest can continue apace.
So how does one get ‘new’ water? In short, it’s about taking unusable water like ocean water or brackish ground water and desalinating it. Nearly two years after applying, we have been issued a Conditional Use Permit to build our first full scale pilot project on a small portion of the 642 acres we own on the east side of the Salton Sea. The East Salton Sea Basin, a brackish unusable aquifer under our property will supply the source water for the pilot project. Once our technology is proven, we can begin supplying taps in LA with ocean water desalinated at the Salton Sea.
The Salton Sea is 223 feet below sea level – using a siphon pipeline, ocean water can be transported to the Salton Sea (Reservoir) from the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez while generating hydro-electric power. Once the Salton Reservoir is full, GWF renewable-powered ZLD desalination can take the sea water coming into the lake, desalinate the water and put it into the Coachella Canal which abuts our property. Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) and Metropolitan Water District (MWD) will convey it to LA and other coastal cities via a short connector pipeline between the Coachella Canal and the Colorado River Aqueduct.
Alternatively, the water we produce could be delivered to the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and they, in turn, through water wheeling, could release a like amount of water upstream for LA and other coastal cities.
GWF will show that ocean water importation is a commercially viable and environmentally friendly way to supply freshwater to the states in the Colorado River Basin. However, this can only happen if the Salton Reservoir is full – two problems fixed by one solution.
Our brine management system is unique in the world of desalination. You may be asking what do we do with all of the salt that comes out of our system. RO systems typically pump their hypersaline waste brine back into the ocean and other systems use evaporation ponds. The Persian Gulf has more than 850 RO facilities around it and their effluent is adversely affecting the water chemistry and marine life.
Every ocean water desal unit we deploy will generate 43 tons of salt every day. We have found a green way to monetize our salt waste stream – encased salt based construction blocks. Our salt based construction blocks are designed to replace cement cinderblocks and the carbon emissions they produce. Each ton of cement cinderblocks creates one ton of carbon emissions. Creating 2m AF of freshwater a year will replace 3.44 billion cement cinderblocks a year with a green alternative. This would be equivalent to removing 86m tons of carbon emissions per year.
In short, we are a company on the cusp of bringing new disruptor technologies to market. The disruption Global Water Farms will cause will have worldwide implications. By sustainably manufacturing ‘new’ water without the power requirements and environmental damage of Reverse Osmosis and by using our salt waste stream to create a green alternative to cement cinderblocks, GWF will grow to lead the saltwater conversion industry while creating a new green construction materials industry.
Go-To-Market Strategy: 1. Close current seed raise 2. Build and commission full scale demonstration Pilot to prove our tech works at scale 3. Use the distilled water produced by the Pilot to establish a small bottling plant with ample revenue to 'bridge' to commercial phase. We have a number of early adopters ready to work with us upon successful testing of the Pilot. Full plans and financials are available in our due diligence materials.
Business Model: Global Water Farms is a Design-Build-Operate or EPC model. We identify water users' needs - let's say Buckeye, Arizona wants 5AF/day more than they have now. We would create a draft Water Purchase Agreement (WPA) that would stipulate the volumne of water to be delivered and its price over a 40 year contract. The draft WPAs will be used to secure financing from investors. The draft WPAs will establish the basis for the creation of an LLC. Up to 90% of the LLC's equity would be available to investors and GWF will always own at least 10% of such LLCs to protect our IP and to provide Operations and Maintenance (O&M) over the life of the project. This means minimal capital outlay for Buckeye - all they have to do is pay for the water they receive as per the WPA. The LLC will contract with GWF for the construction and commissioning of the water farms as well as for the O&M.
Competition-Market Positioning: The current technology used by the desalination industry is focused on Reverse Osmosis (90% of desal plants coming on line are RO). RO systems require huge amounts of energy to 'squeeze' the salt out of ocean water. This means they take in two parts ocean water, squeeze one part through membranes - leaving one part potable water and one part hypersaline watereffluent that gets flushed back into the ocean. After 20 years and $100m in engineering and permitting, the Huntington Beach desal proposal was rejected because of the two issues mentioned above. As laid out above, RO systems are wreaking havoc on the marine lifein the Persion Gulf. Our system can be 'plugged' into their (RO) effluent stream to double water output, eliminate further damage to marine life and create a new green construction materials industry. The point? The GWF system is a paradigm shift in the way water will be desalinated - once the pilot's water volume and purity is proven, there is no competion. The total available market for water is rising and RO is no longer an acceptable nor sustainable technology.
Potential Channel Partners: At this point in time we have not settled on any channel partners, but are in discussions with a green geothermal drilling and engineering services provider. We are currently signing an MOU with them. We have also reached out to potential partners in the construction industry about our salt based construction blocks. Please direct inquiries to:
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