Innovation Archives - Falcon Water Free

An Interview with Ned Goldsmith: The Innovative Force Behind Falcon’s Technology

In our blog, we love to write about our exciting water conservation technologies, but we have never featured the mind whose continuous efforts has elevated our products’ functionality, reliability and ingenuity. Today, we interview Ned Goldsmith, VP Water Conservation, about his innovation process and how he ended up working for Falcon Waterfree Technologies.

When did you start working for Falcon?

In my past life, I ran an ice hockey equipment company. I had grown up playing hockey and dreamed of playing professionally as a goalie. I was a skinny kid, so to help me move faster I started making my own light weight equipment. While I failed at becoming a professional, the equipment became a hit. Once I joined Easton Sports, I did the same with the “Synergy” once piece stick technology– a worldwide hit that is still used by most elite players around the world today.

It was a great experience, but over time, I thought about using my aptitude for invention in the sustainability world. Around that time, Simon Davis joined the company and brought a new vision– Falcon would be a technology leader focused on water savings. He opened the door to me, and in late 2012, I became part of the family. Within a few months, we began in earnest to develop a new product line. The rest, as they say, is history…

What are you inspired by?

I’m inspired by people and creative problem solving. Diversity is really important to me – as it broadens the perspective. I love the moment when a group of people get together and are able to find the right puzzle piece to define a path – I guess you could call that innovation.

How does your process work?

My creative process consists of mostly just listening. There are so many technologies out there, but very few understand the true needs of the customer. The next step is to assemble the existing technologies into a new recipe that meets our customers’ needs.

What is your favorite part within that process?

I love the problem solving. It’s the most fun. Fun is critical – because if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, you are mediocre at it – and in our new world, there is always someone who will do it better than you if the passion isn’t there.

What products are you most proud of?

Tough one. I suppose the Synergy hockey stick from my past and the new Hybrid Urinal from Falcon. But, we have some stuff in the hopper right now that is even better! The next 12-18 months are going to be fun.

Are there any new technological trends catching your attention? Which ones would you like to try in the future?

The list is long – but I like products that combine technologies in some way that provides a “best of both worlds” solution – like a water saving shower that still feels great rather than feeling like you can’t get your hair wet. More on that in the future…

Chemistry 101: How to Avoid Build Up in Your Pipes

The demand for water conservation has moved the plumbing market to minimize water consumption and continually decrease the volume of urinal fixture water rates. Nowadays, strict usage regulations and the increasingly popular LEED certification has now turned the once forceful flush of 1 or 2 gallons into a trickling of a pint of water through a building’s infrastructure- most of the time resulting in unforeseen performance issues in a system built for high volume flushes.

Human urine contains 58 percent organic and 42 percent inorganic constituents and is comprised of approximately 96 percent water and 4 percent other constituents, which includes 1.8 percent urea, 1.2 percent mineral salts, 0.06 percent creatinine, 0.03 percent uric acid, and 0.91 percent additional biological constituents.

The inorganic mineral sediments found in both, water-flushing and non-water plumbing drain pipes, have been identified using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technology. Such technology has found that this tricking of a pint of water is not providing enough water to wash down urinals or fully flush out the system. As this high urine and water concentrate sits in pipes, an extremely hard, cement like sediment (that is extremely difficult to remove) called calcite accumulates and clogs plumping infrastructure pipes.

In contrast, struvite, a soft and water-soluble substance, can collect in pipes of waterfree urinals. Both of the substances can cause blockages over time if not clean properly. However, unlike calcite which inevitably builds up in pint flushes and must be removed with a drain cleaning machine, struvite can be easily avoided through following proper maintenance procedures and is easier to remove from the system.

Here, at Falcon, we have combined the best attributes of waterfree technology with the best of the flushing technology, creating the most hygienic, water-saving, high performance urinal available. In a daily use, the Hybrid Urinal functions as a waterfree technology and automatically performs a full gallon (4 liter) flush through the housing and pipe system every 72 hours, providing maximum LEED points, water savings and the best performance functionality. Our high volume flushing technology thoroughly flushes out your system, preventing both struvite and calcite build up, while providing miraculous water savings- operating on only 102 gallons of water a year.

Our Hybrid technology leverages all the benefits of our world-class Velocity Cartridge, keeping your drain lines clean and odor-free.

We invite you to try the most sustainable and high performance urinal technology, the Hybrid Urinal, the environment and your maintenance staff will thank you.

*Available to the North American through our exclusive partner, Sloan Valve Company.

What is SMURRF?

As a company, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we love to learn more from other-like minded parties and their pioneering water saving solutions to comply with California’s strict conservation measures. Thanks to Joel Cesare, Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica, we learned about Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, also known as SMURRF.

This project is the first one in the nation and perhaps the world that was designed to treat the water that originates from the streets of Santa Monica.

In Southern California, most runoff water comes from excessive irrigation (leaks and overspray), spills, construction sites, pool draining and car washing. All these wasteful activities discharge polluted water into the storm drain system. The water then flows directly to the ocean without any treatment, becoming one of the largest sources of marine pollution.

The treatment process includes 5 steps:

1. Screening trash and debris: The incoming water goes through a rotating drum screen that removes trash and debris.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R6gHwFLutY]

2. Grit Removal: The spinning action in the chamber forces small particles of rock, sediment and sand to sink down.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpU3ylUvEWk]

3.Oil and Grease Removal: The Dissolved Air Flotation or DAF Unit injects dissolved air and a coagulant to the pressurized water to remove oil and grease particles.

4. Micro filtration: In this process, the water goes through a plastic microscopic membrane that blocks all the remaining sediment impurities.

5. Disinfection: Until there are more restrictive water quality standards, this is the final treatment process. Water is exposed to ultraviolet radiation, and the completed recycled water cascades into the 250 000 gallon sub level storage.

6. Reverse Osmosis: In the future, water would be pushed through a semi-permeable Reverse Osmosis Membrane to make it drinkable.

Once treated, the water is delivered to a number of city and private customers such as the Santa Monica Freeway, City of Santa Monica parks, the Woodlawn Cemetery, RAND Corporation and public school grounds. Dual-plumbed customers include the City of Santa Monica’s Public Safety Facility and the Water Garden located at Olympic and Cloverfield.

SMURRF would not be complete without its artistic and educational components. Visitors have a complete view of all the equipment and processes to treat the urban runoff water, and in several locations, the water is exposed to the open air to allow visitors to see the water treatment process.

Santa Monica is building a more sustainable long term infrastructure plan to protect its water resources by combining revolutionary technologies with water efficient ones, such as the Hybrid and Waterfree Urinals.

Click here for more information about SMURRF

*Special thanks to Neal Shapiro, Watershed Management Program Coordinator.

The Truth About Flushing

Despite the common belief that water improves hygiene, all living things, including bacteria, depend on water for survival. What most people do not know is that bacteria are sprayed as a fine mist when urinals are flushed and can thrive far outside the urinal bowl.

The “aerosol effect” was first discovered in 1975 by Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist from the University of Arizona, who found that bacteria and viruses spraying out after flushing a toilet remain airborne long enough to settle on surfaces throughout the bathroom, and can remarkably travel as far as eight feet. In order to measure his results, Dr. Gerba placed pieces of gauze in different locations around the bathroom and measured the bacterial and viral levels present after flushing.

You can actually verify it yourself by putting a dye in the toilet/urinal, flushing, and holding a piece of paper over it. “Droplets are going all over the place – it’s like the Fourth of July,” Gerba affirms.

But Dr. Gerba is not the only one studying the “aerosol effect”. A recently published research paper has found that lid-less toilets in hospitals are a potential risk for infections, and they might be the reason why C. difficile infections are on the rise.

Since Falcon Waterfree Technologies urinals use no water for flushing, our technology actually not only creates a less fertile breeding ground for bacteria, they also eliminate the cloud of tiny droplets that travels outside the urinal with each flushed. In fact, research has demonstrated that Falcon’s urinal has five times less bacteria than the average flush or low flush urinal and as they do not spray dirty water across the restroom, our urinals also reduce the opportunity for mold and mildew to thrive.

[CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR REVOLUTIONARY, SANITARY-DRIVEN PRODUCTS]

Santa Monica’s Water Self Sufficiency Efforts: an Interview with Joel Cesare

As a B Corp, founded on the principle of ecological conservation, we at Falcon Waterfree Technologies love uniting with other like-minded parties who share our same ethical vision to improve the world we live in. With that being said, we were very excited when Joel Cesare, who is leading Santa Monica towards complete water self-sufficiency, granted us an interview to discuss his current work and his plan for the future of the city.

When did you start working as a Sustainable Building Adviser for the Office of Sustainability and Environment in the City of Santa Monica?

After getting my Masters in Environmental Science & Management from the Bren School at U.C. Santa Barbara, I worked in the Bay Area as a Sustainability Coordinator. The focus of my degree was towards energy efficiency, and the City of Santa Monica is well known as a leader in sustainability and achieving aggressive environmental goals. So, I deeply appreciated the fact that I have been able to expand my understanding of green building as a whole since I started working 2 years ago. I regulate and ensure the City of Santa Monica continues to demonstrate and improve its energy, water and carbon footprints.

Santa Monica has been investing in a sustainable city plan since 1994. What are the City’s strategies for water conservation in 2016?

For Residential, Santa Monica has created rebates, which cover three components: yard, parkway and harvesting rain water, which people can apply through our website http://water.smgov.net/

For Commercial and Multi-family, the City encourages the use of high-efficiency toilets, urinals (such as the Falcon Waterfree Technologies), plumbing fixtures and equipment rebates through SoCal Water Smart. We also offer free water audits. To request one, you can send us an email at savewater@smgov.net.

Two of the City’s largest sources of water usage are laundry facilities and hotels. What has been the City’s approach to reduce their water use?

We have been promoting the use of recirculating systems and water reuse. LOEWS Santa Monica Beach Hotel is one of our success stories. The hotel recently retrofitted its laundry system to use recycled water. The system also keeps the water temperature steady resulting in additional water and energy savings.

What about Stormwater and Urban Runoff solutions?

Storm water / urban runoff is considered Santa Monica’s main source of pollution in the bay. Santa Monica’s Urban Runoff Recycling Facility, known as “SMURRF”, is one of our best examples of dealing with polluted storm water/urban runoff to protect our coastal waters. The facility provides high quality water for reuse in toilet flushing and landscape irrigation. We consider moving pristine alpine water thousands of miles to flush a toilet indicative of an urban city disconnection with nature, and we want to change that.

Does Santa Monica have other initiatives in place to achieve water self-sufficiency?

Brackish & Seawater Reverse Osmosis is a customizable reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration systems that pull semi-salty water from the sand and turn it into fresh water.

Another initiative is sewage mining, which extracts suspended solids from wastewater before they become sludge, and reduces sludge formation, introducing a model for sustainable and environmentally friendly wastewater management.

Have there been any setbacks threatening the 2020 deadline?

No. In fact, we are more confident than ever. The drought regulation simply accelerated and stimulated our response to be water efficient. In fact, the city, has achieved self sufficiency several times in the past months. In December 2015, the city was self sufficient for 13 days, and was able to shut off water imports back again for 19 days in January.

Technology Spotlight: Century Park’s Groundwater Reclamation Project

Last month, Bill McDonnell from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) awarded Century Park (our customer of many years) the Water Efficiency Project of the Year for their revolutionary groundwater reclamation project. Century Park’s new water reclamation project will enable the facility to supply 100% of it is own water for irrigation, without buying a drop from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)- even during current extreme drought conditions.

In 1928, William Fox built a personal cowboy ranch for movie legend Tom Mix in the once grand and sprawling 20th Century Fox Studios. Thirty years later, the 176 acre site became Century Park, a historical landmark with two gleaming aluminum skyscrapers and a bustling metropolitan center stands where western stars – such as Tom Mix and John Wayne – once galloped into the sunset. Today, nearly a century later, one of American cinema’s golden age studios now plays a starring role in the water conservation initiatives of Los Angeles.

With California facing one of the most severe droughts on record, Century Park has resolved to find pioneering water-saving solutions to comply with strict conservation measures.

One of these solutions is the Century Park’s use of water-efficient technologies such as Falcon’s water free urinals and cartridges, leak detection and repairs which came as a direct response to the mandate to conserve water in Southern California. Although, the results have exceeded their expectations, Century Park decided that it is crucial to invest in more drought resilient initiatives.

Century Park sits on top of an aquifer containing non-potable water. The location, covered by a 14 acre combination of drought-tolerant and non-tolerant landscape, highlighted the importance of implementing an irrigation project that could help minimize their irrigation needs, which averages an astounding 6,000 to 10,000 gallons per day.

In order to become self-sustaining, Century Park will construct three, subterranean 10,000-gallon storage tanks for water reclamation. The project will utilize eight large pumps to continuously discharge ground water from the lowest level of the underground parking garage. Then, the water will be discharged into the storm drain system after being analyzed for more than 20 chemical constituents by a third party laboratory.

The groundwater reclamation project will be utilized for landscape irrigation, reducing combustion of DWP-purchase water by 100% and saving 2.9 million gallons of water a year. The recover water will lead the sustainability initatives of the area and offset expenses for project implementation.

Congratulations Century Park, we couldn’t be prouder of what you have accomplished. Your conservation efforts are greatly appreciated!

CLICK HERE to find out where to find out more about Falcon Waterfree Technologies, and conserve water TODAY!

Retrofit Hybrid Technology Splashes into Market

As sustainable building design has evolved, the market has moved to minimize water consumption through decreasing the volume of urinal fixture flush rates. What was once a forceful flush of 1 or 2 gallons, has now become a trickling of a pint of water through a building’s infrastructure- ultimately creating unanticipated performance issues in a system built for high volume flushes.

At Falcon, we believe that conservation should not sacrifice performance and today, we are excited to introduce the new Hybrid Retrofit Urinal to our collection of high performance technology driven water conservation products. With all the same benefits of the New Construction Hybrid Urinal, the Retrofit Hybrid – available through Sloan Valve Company – conserves nearly 100% of water and can now easily upgrade almost all existing flush urinals to high performance Hybrid technology.

By merging the best attributes of the waterfree technology (100% water savings) with the best of flushing technology (high volume flushing), we have created the most hygienic, water-saving, high performance urinal available. Revolutionary in it’s design, our Hybrid Urinals do not require water after each use and are not dependent on users to flush. Instead, our Hybrid Urinals utilize a multi-patent pending flush system that automatically performs a full gallon (4 liter) flush through the housing and pipe system every 72 hours, adding up to only 102 gallons a year total – regardless of the users. This timed large volume of water flushing through the system prevents hard scale build-up (often formed in pipes from trickling of high concentrate urine-water), while earning maximum LEED credits, guaranteeing water savings and delivering unrivaled performance and functionality.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrHxkXSRPtk&w=560&h=315]

The combination of our world-class patented Velocity cartridge, along with our self-cleaning hybrid urinal technology, will keep your drain lines clean and odor-free.

Join the water conservation revolution and try one of our Hybrid Urinals, the environment and your maintenance staff will thank you.

Unlocking the Mystery of Purple Pipes

Across the United States, utility companies in large urban areas are bringing recycled water directly to consumers’ homes and commercial sites through recently introduced “Purple Pipes”.

Color-coded pipes are used by utility companies to reduce the chances of accidental cross-connections within plumbing and piping infrastructures. Colors often have various symbolic meanings: blue pipes indicate potable water, green signifies sewers, and yellow pipes are for potentially flammable hazards such as natural gas, oil or petroleum. Other color categories serve a myriad of additional utilities: orange pipes represent telecommunications, red is for power lines and white pipes signifying the markings where excavations and new pipe routes will go. When recycled water came along, the industry needed a color to differentiate it from the other pipes already on the property.

Keith Lewingerm, an engineer suffering from extreme color-blindness, picked out the lavender-painted pipe, now known as ‘Irvine Purple’ — he thought that if he could identify it, so could others, and the rest is history.

Water is a precious resource. As water scarcity continues to strike around the country, water agencies are moving toward reclaimed water for non-drinking purposes as a sustainable long term solution. Using recycled water for applications such as landscape irrigation and toilet flushing, can save thousands of gallons of water a year and help us to conserve valuable potable resources.

The Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility is an example of a treatment plant that restores gray water from sinks, washing machines, showers and hoses to a pristine condition. The reclaimed water is subject to a series of scientifically-proven cleansing processes to ensure its quality and safe use, holding the same or even higher standards than drinking water.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myBUTsO9ny8&feature=youtu.be]

Despite its drought-resistant benefits, using recycled water is not without its challenges. Due to the high concentrations of chemicals, reclaimed water can severely damage plumbing systems with a high zinc content or yellow brass and organic rubber, potentially leading to increased maintenance requirements. As a result, the new Sloan’s new reclaimed water flushometer, the Sloan® Royal®, is a specifically designed solution that withstands reclaimed water harsh conditions with purple interior components designed to help maintenance personnel know that it is designed for reclaimed water.

CLICK HERE to find out where to find out more about the Sloan Royal and how to take advantage of the Purple Pipes program in your city!

Our Hybrid Urinal Technology, High Performance Water Conservation

As water shortages have increased and strict usage regulations have been implemented, certification and adoption of LEED has become increasingly popular. With many parts of the country suffering from debilitating drought, this drive for water conservation and demand for high efficiency plumbing products has never been more important. Now, there’s a new solution that preserves this need for efficiency and enhances the functionality of inherently sustainable waterfree design.

Waterfree Urinal technologies represent the highest amount (100%) of water savings available. Since the introduction of waterfree technologies, these high-efficiency urinals have helped saved millions of gallons of fresh water every year, totalling over 50 billion gallons from Falcon’s waterfree units alone. When properly maintained, these fixtures provide efficient removal of liquid waste with no odor or clogs. The challenge is, however, that improper or infrequent maintenance can lead to the buildup of struvite in the drain lines, occasionally resulting in reduced flow and more-difficult maintenance procedures.

On the other end of the spectrum, wash down urinal treads have steadily decreased flush volume, now at 0.125 gpf. Although this has helped to save significant amounts of water, the marginal flush volume does not provide enough water to fully flush out the system- results can include excessive odor and calcite clogged trapways and drain lines. This calcite build up is extremely hard, almost rock like, and is very difficult to remove. With waterfree urinals, urine forms a soft, water-soluble substance known as ‘struvite’ that collects in pipes and can also cause blockages over time. Unlike calcite, though, struvite is easy to remove, only needing water and a brush to be removed.

By taking the best attributes of waterfree technology and combining them with the best of flushing technology, we have created the most hygienic, water-saving, high performance urinal available, the Hybrid Urinal. Our revolutionary, multi-patent pending technology functions as a waterfree technology in daily use and automatically performs a full gallon (4 liter) flush through the housing and pipe system every 72 hours, rather than trickling small volume of water with each use. This technology allows for maximum LEED points, water savings and performance functionality.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrHxkXSRPtk&w=560&h=315]

This timed power-washing provides a large supplemental flow of water, which helps clean out any sediment build up from your housing and pipes, ensuring continued optimal flow and eliminating the need for bucket dumps & bottle brush cleaning.

Our patent pending self-cleaning waterless urinal leverages all the benefits of our new, patent pending Velocity Cartridge in a unique and revolutionary flush system that cleans the housing and flushes out pipes on a regular timed basis. The Hybrid delivers the world’s best and most sustainable urinal technology, and it’s truly the best of both ends of the urinal spectrum!

*Available to the North American through our exclusive partner, Sloan Valve Company.

Technology Evolution Guide: Our Cartridges History

Since the invention of our waterfree urinal technology, we have taken pride in listening to our customer demands and innovating water conservation solutions that do not sacrifice product functionality. This is a guide to our continuous efforts to offer the highest performance technology-driven restroom water conservation products.

Our story began in 1999, when a German engineer fervently believed that flushing a urinal was a waste of water. Urine is already a generally sterile liquid, and gravity could drain it completely without a flush. A year later, the C1M1 made its debut in the restroom market.

The water-free urinal not only saved water. It also reduced the carbon footprint, since a fifth of California’s electrical output is consumed by processing and pumping water. The original design was well received by the public. However, the implementation of this new technology brought to our attention troubling gaps between our R&D and the inherent value of our technology, overcoming these challenges became our primary focus.

With additional research and development, Falcon released the C1M2 in 2005. It included a diverter shield to help retain sealant, a diverter to reduce splash and it was easier to remove. The military tested the urinals at Fort Huachucha, a base in southern Arizona. Our “flushless” urinals shorten water consumption by millions of gallons. As a result, the US Army Corp of Engineers mandated in 2006 to install only waterless urinals from 2010 onward.

After carefully reviewing the C1M2 latest design features, Falcon decided to include an additional splash-reducing shape, better odor reducing technology and internal mechanisms to improve the cartridge’s sealant retention. Six years later, the C1M2+ was introduced in the market. This time around, large-scale facilities across the country such as Rose Bowl Stadium and Las Vegas Motor Speedway switched to water free urinals.

Last and certainly not least, the Velocity cartridge debuted on the market in 2014. It includes 6 new patent pending features that help: keep facilities pipes and housing cleaner, retain sealant better, visually cue a cartridge change and reduce environmental footprint. After installing 300+ Falcon urinals over the past few years, Staples Center has not only reduced maintenance costs, but has also saved huge quantities of water- 57 million gallons in fact. An incredible fact given Staple’s Center location in drought-stricken Los Angeles.

Our urinal cartridge technology is a result of our ongoing efforts to provide the highest quality products for our customers, directly derived from advanced market research and technology development. The revolutionary technology of our new cartridge design ensures top quality performance that is both easy to maintain and helps keep your restroom odor-free.