{"id":1108,"date":"2016-03-22T12:28:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T19:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2016-06-13T09:39:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T16:39:20","slug":"%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many hotter parts of the world have plenty of humidity, but limited infrastructure for delivering clean water to citizens and businesses. Vena Water<\/a> is working to address that scarcity with a highly efficient atmospheric water generation (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Humidity + Sunlight = Clean Water<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VENA-aims-to-create-water-out-of-air.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Vena\u2019s system cleverly takes advantage of basic atmospheric science to collect water. The unit consists of a broad disk at ground level, with a thermal tower reaching up into the air from the center of it and a condensing well penetrating the earth beneath it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sunlight heats the air inside the unit. Because heat rises, that air passes up through the thermal tower, drawing cooler ambient air into the unit behind it. That ambient air is channeled into the subterranean part of the system, where the cooler earth surrounding the unit lowers the temperature further. (It works much like a heat-pump air-conditioning system.) At that stage, the cooled air is supersaturated with moisture \u2014 like fog.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the condensing chamber at the bottom of the system, Vena\u2019s specialized technology causes the moisture in the air to condense into liquid. Dry air leaves the system through the thermal tower, while the liquid water is pumped to the surface to be purified.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Need for Clean Water Delivered Off-Grid<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many of the regions that Vena is targeting need \u201ca decentralized and off-grid approach to resource management,\u201d according to John Walsh, Vena\u2019s co-founder and CEO. That need arises not only because of the difficulties of accessing and delivering the water itself, but also because of the high energy costs connected with doing so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Any AWG system can potentially address that need by delivering clean water without tapping existing infrastructures. Unfortunately, traditional AWG technologies have some serious drawbacks, including low energy efficiency and high maintenance costs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some companies have put up with those drawbacks for lack of any better choice. In regions like India, the big users of AWG have been industrial facilities such as bottling plants. But according to Walsh, the answer is \u201cto get these facilities that have unsustainable water practices off of these precious groundwater sources.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what Vena is aiming to do with its innovative AWG system, which runs on half as much energy as traditional technologies \u2014 0.2 kWh per liter instead of 0.42 kWh per liter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Broadening the Reach of AWG<\/h2>\n

\"Schematic_Design_2015_AboveGround\"
\nThe company, which has teams in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Brooklyn, initially focused on delivering an AWG solution that could be delivered to a remote location in a shipping container for temporary use during relief efforts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But as Thomas Kosbau, Vena\u2019s other co-founder and CTO, puts it, \u201cIf we\u2019re making water for people, the relief market is small.\u201d Likewise, he says, \u201c[our] original design was very limited\u201d \u2014 able to produce only 100 liters of water per day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vena wanted to have a bigger impact on water scarcity, which is why they pivoted to a new design that yields a much higher volume of water \u2014 thousands to tens of thousands of gallons per day. The new model is useful not only for aid situations, but also for applications in agriculture, industry, and municipal or regional infrastructure. As Walsh explains, this gives Vena the chance to have a much larger impact to address water scarcity as a whole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Building a Company around a Great Idea<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Walsh got interested in the problem of water scarcity and the possibilities of AWG while running GrowEnergy, a company he had founded to generate energy from algae. At GrowEnergy, he had worked with Kosbau, Tim Perry (now Vena\u2019s project engineer), and Zac Fowler (Vena\u2019s systems engineer).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As they turned their attention to the challenges of AWG, Kosbau\u2019s design company, ORE<\/a> developed the 1.0 version of Vena\u2019s product. As the project gained momentum, Walsh formed Vena Water in early 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kosbau laughs when he relates the next step in their journey: \u201cWe brought some engineers into the company, and, lo and behold, we got a much better machine.\u201d The new design opened their eyes to AWG\u2019s applications beyond the aid sector.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company was seeded with $300,000 from grants, family friends, and bootstrap investments from Walsh and Kosbau. Since then, it has also received funding and other types of support from the LACleanTech incubator<\/a>, design competitions, and the Autodesk Entrepreneur Impact Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Power of Rapid Iterative Design<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to Perry, \u201cEach of those pivots [in design] really meant starting from scratch in the CAD.\u201d Today, the Vena Team uses Fusion 360<\/a> to experiment with different configurations of existing components and with scaling. Using the software helps them with \u201cmaking sure we\u2019re all on the same page and th\"Parametricinking about the same things.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perry adds that it was often difficult to put design ideas into words during meetings, but once the team had 3D models to look at together, \u201cwe became much more productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kosbau finds Fusion 360<\/a> especially valuable because it\u2019s cloud-based and collaborative, which is important for Vena\u2019s geographically dispersed team. The software has enabled them to \u201cmake a lot of iterations quickly and prove assumptions \u2014 or disprove assumptions\u201d before creating a physical model.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The CTO is now getting the entire team fully trained on Fusion 360<\/a> so they can get even more out of it, and he\u2019s especially excited about using it with computational flow dynamics (CFD): \u201cWe think that\u2019s going to be the next level [for our design].\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bringing Durable, Inexpensive New AWG Technology to the Real World<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"V1Walsh says he\u2019s grateful for what the software does for Vena, and excited about the specific advantages of the design they\u2019ve created. Besides having dramatically lower energy costs, the Vena system is also a much more permanent solution because it\u2019s installed in the ground. The team is extending that advantage by ensuring that all of the system\u2019s parts either have a long lifespan or are easy and cheap to replace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Right now, the Vena team is a constructing a 100-gallon-per-day prototype for testing in La Jolla, California. Kosbau is sure that the team will learn all kinds of things they didn\u2019t know they would once they have a real-world model up and running.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He\u2019s eager for that testing and learning: \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to get it plugged into the ground and pulling water out of the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient atmospheric water generation (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3034,"featured_media":1165,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","tag-customer-stories","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fusion Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-22T19:28:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-13T16:39:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg?fit=400%2C220&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michelle Stone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@stoneformation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michelle Stone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation","description":"Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation","og_description":"Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/","og_site_name":"Fusion Blog","article_published_time":"2016-03-22T19:28:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-13T16:39:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":220,"url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg?fit=400%2C220&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michelle Stone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@stoneformation","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michelle Stone","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/"},"author":{"name":"Michelle Stone","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff8b4a8deab870b70267efef92600620"},"headline":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation","datePublished":"2016-03-22T19:28:42+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-13T16:39:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/"},"wordCount":1112,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg","keywords":["Customer Stories"],"articleSection":["Fusion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/","name":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-22T19:28:42+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-13T16:39:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff8b4a8deab870b70267efef92600620"},"description":"Vena Water addresses clean water scarcity by creating a highly efficient (AWG) system that draws water from the air using solar and geothermal energy.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Vena1.jpg","width":400,"height":220},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/%c2%acvena-water-seeks-transform-atmospheric-water-generation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vena Water Seeks to Transform Atmospheric Water Generation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/","name":"Fusion Blog","description":"Product updates, tips, tutorials and community news.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ff8b4a8deab870b70267efef92600620","name":"Michelle Stone","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/headshot_full-150x150.jpg4e25b72cc1cf8481b968808cfcda8329","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/headshot_full-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/headshot_full-150x150.jpg","caption":"Michelle Stone"},"description":"Michelle is a program manager for the Manufacturing Cloud Customer Success team at Autodesk.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/stoneformation"],"url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/author\/michelle-stone\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}