We have honed in a new messaging of our commercial vision, consisting of three stages:

1. Our beachhead is to treat challenging industrial waters by licensing to technology partners while selectively building and selling systems.

2. Next, we will license our technology for use in large-scale seawater RO plants, establishing batch RO as the state-of-the-art desalting technology.

Phase 1 will establish our capacity to build commercial systems at scale, grown steadily over time. A successful track record in Phase 2 will enable financing of containerized batch RO systems. These come together in Phase 3:

3. Our ultimate goal is to offer freshwater-as-a-service to agricultural and other decentralized applications.

We invite any advice and feedback on this vision.

Our 2026 funding round is open to investments: $1M or more via a SAFE note with a $15M valuation cap or a 10% discount. We are raising via AngelList’s Roll-Up-Vehicle. If you are interested to participate, reach out to learn more.

July developments

1. Due diligence with Decarbon8: we have advanced through three rounds of review with E8’s impact fund, which is focusing on climate resilience (grid, water, and food) this year. Due diligence will run through August 25th, with a decision expected in early September. An investment from Decarbon8 (expected to be low six figures) could be followed by additional investments directly from E8 angels and through their annual fund.

2. Licensing negotiations: we have received an initial term sheet from the MIT TLO. They are asking for a lot (royalties + equity + an acquisition fee). Thanks to some of your introductions, we have connected with several individuals with experience on both sides of the negotiating table. We will discuss with TLO in August and also plan to hire transaction counsel.

3. Commercial updates: We received a revised pilot agreement from Acwa and will discuss terms with their team. We also proposed a commercial framework to Bollfilter: a combination of technology licensing and building systems. Detlef Taprogge visited us for a day in Boston and we had quite productive conversations. We also met in-person with the leadership of Onterris who seem eager to work with us. We have asked Haig to focus on developing a repeatable sales motion involving the rest of the team.

4. California visits: in early July we visited Protec-Arisawa for a tour of their facility and gained a much better understanding of the PV manufacturing process. Christine visited Hydranautics and Kurita as well.

5. XPRIZE payment: XPRIZE came through with our Track A and B milestone payments in early July, so we are no longer in a cash crunch.

Grant updates

1. Our proposal to an Army STTR Phase I solicitation for "high recovery desalination for expeditionary water production" has been selected for negotiation and possible award. Our partners on this project include Horizon and the Warsinger Water Lab.

2. We submitted a proposal to the DoE’s Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator, Topic 3A for cheaper lithium extraction using a scaling-resistant NF process and a highly-selective ED technology. Our project partners would be Rice University, Purdue University, UConn, LLNL, and Water Tectonics.

3. NAWI has released an RFP for wastewater treatment pilots. We will submit a concept paper and would plan to submit a full proposal together with a new commercial partner.

August plans

1. We will host visitors to Gemini, our produced water pilot, from both Hydranautics and Kurita.

2. We will ship out Blackbird’s container (and various parts) to Cyprus so that it can be assembled and tested before the end of the year.

3. We will make key software improvements to the batch RO controls and get Mesquite producing water.

As always, thanks for your support and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestion, or connections. Detailed pilot updates after the jump.

-quantum

Titan - scaling kinetics study

• our first field pilot unit is now being reconfigured for the fourth time in order to run scaling kinetics experiments as directed by Ali Abdelkawi

• for the first time, our team welded the frame in-house. it is now at a powder-coater and will be reassembled in August.

• once Titan is operational, we will debug software with our new automation engineers ahead of Mesquite’s start-up.

Gemini - treating produced water in California

• despite the issues laid out below, the twin batch systems have performed without process issues (i.e. no bladder failures or membrane fouling) since system start-up in March.

• with the assistance of Bollfilter, who sent field engineers to the site twice, we have improved our ability to operate the entire treatment train continuously. Bollfilter has agreed to extend the pilot at least two months through late October.

• our early July visit yielded many interesting observations including lots of surface rust, algae growth in the permeate tank, some unexpected turbidity forming in the UF permeate tank, extruded victaulic gaskets on the RO, and superficial cracks in the RO pressure vessels. we have taken action to monitor or remedy each of these issues. we’re glad to learn of these issues now rather than later.

  

• there have been some challenges in coordinating with pilot stakeholders. for now, Active Membranes has withdrawn their on-site support. we will propose to pay them for their on-site support for the remainder of our pilot period. if they do not agree, we will hire a local technician to support.

• there were issues with a shorted out sensor causing a breaker to trip and max out all of our sensor inputs. fortunately, Martin was able to fly to the site from ICOM (San Antonio) and address this issue within a week.

• our remaining issue is an intermittent tripping of the raw feed pump’s breaker. we are on site now to debug a software change which we believe should mitigate this issue.

• we have partnered with Neuralix AI to assist with our pilot data monitoring. their data scientists are putting together some nice ways to observe the data including calculation of key performance indicators and automatic comparisons of parameters across batch cycles.

Mesquite - solar-powered groundwater desalination

• we hit a snag in commissioning when our automation engineer walked out on us. fortunately within a couple days, Ali connected us with another contractor who has been able to pick things up and get us going again

• Martin, Jason, Kwanuka, and Mika were onsite during the week of July 13th so set up the container. we plan to return in late August or early September for system start-up once the software is set-up.

• earlier today we received word from Ralph Loya, the farmer, that one solar panel fell off during an usual storm with high winds. fortunately, nobody was hurt besides a couple of melons. this is a reminder to 1) invest in the proper tools and 2) carryover our quality assurance procedures to field installation

  

• once the software for controlling Mesquite is sorted out, we will return to Texas for another trip to get the system started and producing irrigation-grade water

Searay - 1,000 tons/day low-energy seawater RO

• there is less urgency to start-up the system now that Singapore International Water Week has passed. not much progress to report this month, we expect to travel to Singapore in September for system start-up.

• we delivered five of the 16”-6M bladders to the plant after various customs issues.

• Gradiant has been moving forward with precomm checks and has loaded SWRO elements into the system

Blackbird - XPRIZE semifinals: UHPRO for 2/3 recovery of seawater

• we received quotes back from pipe welders in the US and their timelines would have prevented us from piloting in Cyprus. we connected with the Caramondani Group’s welding shop in Italy and now plan to assemble the system in Europe. this greatly helps our timeline because the pipe-welding can now take place in parallel with the shipment of the container

• we received our pressure vessels from Protec last week

• the team at Chelsea has been working to prep the container over the past week — finishing the spray-foam insulation with wall panels and also installing a metal floor