Accidental Enzyme

In April 2018, scientists announced a near miracle  -  the discovery of an micro that eats a common plastic used in bottles.  The public has been chattering ever since.  The microbe could potentially help solve the nagging environmental problem of plastics pollution.  Plastics take hundreds of years to degrade, leaving a stream of toxic ocean flotsam and poisonous landfill scum.     

A series began here with the post ”Plastic Contagion” on April 13, 2018, discussed the downside of plastics and existing remedies to reduce plastics contamination.  There are few investment options in part because there are few options to deal with plastic  -  other than making more of it.  Thus the prospect of investing in plastic eating microbes is tantalizing.  Even then, the most patient investor may be disappointed.  There is lengthy research and development still ahead before the technology is perfected and can be translated into a commercial product or service.

Prize Money and Innovation

The last post “Less Obvious Sources:  Prizes and Water” on October 23, 2018, focused on the Skywater Alliance and its innovative system to generate potable water.  As part of an effort to help solve the growth problem of inadequate water supplies around the world, architect David Hertz and his partners have developed a system to snatch water right out of the air.  The Skywater system creates rainstorms in a container by heating wood chips to the right temperature to cause condensation of moisture in the air and the organic fuel.  As the condensation is collected ozone is pumped through the water to purify the water before storage. 

Prize Money

Hertz’s group sought financial support from an unusual source.  The group entered the Xprize for Water Abundance competition, edging out over 90 other inventors for $1.5 million in prize money.  The XPrize Foundation awards seventeen different prizes in nine categories aimed at bringing about a safer, healthier and more sustainable world.  Since inception in 1994, Xprize has awarded over $140 million in prize money. 

Less Obvious Sources: Prize Money and Water

Bokehlie on DeviantArt

“Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink.”

Samual Taylor Coleridge

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In writing the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge probably thought little of how often his words might be quoted.  For those who live in regions where water is scarce, the lamentation for lack of drinking water by Coleridge’s mariner is an everyday occurrence.  The United Nations estimates about 1.2 billion people or about a fifth of the world’s population live without adequate water supplies.  Another 500 million currently have enough water, but appear at risk of losing some or all of their potable water supplies.

Truly there is water everywhere, but little is suitable for drinking.  The salty seas take up about 97% of the earth’s water supplies.  That leaves only about 3% of all water in a fresh state suitable to drinking.   Even much of that is beyond our reach in glaciers and icebergs.  That leaves precious little fresh water below ground, in lakes and rivers and the atmosphere  -  some in not easily accessible places. 

Stake in Nuclear Power Innovation

NuScale Power Exposition

After toiling away for almost two decades, perfecting its nuclear power reactor design, NuScale Power is on the cusp of commercial stage with its innovative Small Modular Reactor (SMR).  The company has applied for certification by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and expects to approval by 2021.  In a departure from conventional construction methods NuScale’s SMR is to be manufactured in a factory setting and assembled on site.  NuScale has also lined up a first customer, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), which is planning to build a nuclear power plant with twelve of NuScale’s 50-gigawatt SMRs.  UAMPS expects its project to be completed by 2026.

Yet privately-held NuScale leaves investors with few options to get a stake in what promises to be a seminal moment in the nuclear power industry.  As alternatives to a direct investment in NuScale, investors can consider the company’s partners.

New Scale in Nuclear

NuScale Power is about to bring a new nuclear reactor to the commercial power market.  In September 2018, the nuclear power technology developer announced the selection of BWX Technologies, Inc. as the manufacturer of NuScale’s innovative Small Modular Reactor (SMR).  The announcement was first of its kind in the nuclear power industry that is accustomed to construction in place for nuclear reactors.  NuScale’s factory-built reactor could bring sweeping change to the nuclear power industry.

Nemaska Bargain in Lithium Sector

Nemaska Lithium (NMKEF:  OTC/QB, NMX:  TO) is a newcomer to the lithium industry.  The company recently came to the market with battery-grade lithium from spodumene rock carved out of its Whabouchi mine in northern Quebec, Canada and converted in a proprietary electrochemical process to battery-grade lithium material at an in-house facility in Shawinigan to the south.  The company filled its first orders in Summer 2018.

The company expected to produce over 200,000 metric tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate from its Whabouchi mine with an average 6.25% lithium oxide content.  The mine is expected to remain productive for over three decades at that extraction rate.  The processing plant in Shawinigan has the capacity to produce 23,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide and 11,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate.

Nemaska's Recipe for Lithium Success

Thank Elon Musk with his Tesla gigafactory for sparking a global obsession with lithium-ion batteries and the materials need to turn them out.  Claimed by Musk to be the largest building in the world, the factory was planned to reach capacity in stages.  By the time the factory is fully completed in 2020, production capacity is expected to be 150 gigawatt hours of battery packs. 

Ever since construction of Musk’s gigafactory began in 2014, investors around the world have been fretting over the adequacy of lithium supplies in particular.  The gigafactory concept appeared to trigger a whole slew of ‘me too’ factories with at least a dozen now in construction and commissioning stages in the North America, Europe, China and Southeast Asia.  According to Roskill, a London-based consulting firm, lithium demand from battery cell makers is expected to double by 2027, to one million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.   

Hydrogenics: Ready to Throw a Party

The hydrogen technology developer Hydrogenics Corporation (HYGS:  Nasdaq) is taking on wind energy.  The company’s fuel cell power systems for stand-by and site power sources, hydrogen generators for industrial situations, and energy storage and fuel solutions for fleet owners.  Hydrogen has gained in popularity because it is a zero-emission fuel source when burned with oxygen.  The energy efficiency of hydrogen as a transportation fuel is also enticing.  An electric motor powered by hydrogen fuel cell is two to three times more efficient than an internal combustion engine running on gasoline.

Hydrogen is not without its critics.  One of the criticisms is that hydrogen is not entirely a carbon-neutral fuel source.  The majority of hydrogen in the United States is produced in a steam reforming process using natural gas.  However, the argument is short-sighted given that hydrogen can be produced from water through electrolysis.  Combined with a renewable energy source such as wind or solar to trigger the electrolytic process, hydrogen can be low-carbon as well as zero-emissions.

Adial: Promising Relief for Addiction

PRIME SERIES

References to abuse and dependence on alcohol trace back to the earliest Egyptian and Babylonian writings.  Yet the idea that excessive alcohol use causes problems had mixed acceptance.  The adverse effects of habitual alcohol abuse did not gain widespread recognition until the mid-19^th century when ‘alcoholism’ finally appeared in the lexicon. 

It has not been until the last few decades that any significant progress has been made in understanding the effects of alcohol on the human body.  It warrants a new name  -  alcohol use disorder (AUD)  -  to fully encompass the many paths to dependence on alcohol and the understanding of it as a chronic relapsing brain disease. 

Even as scientists have gained insight into alcohol’s ravages on mind and body, effective treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD) have remained limited.  Early stage biotech Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ADIL:  Nasdaq) is trying to change that with development of a therapeutic compound based on ondansetron, a well known selective antagonist of the serotonin.  Adial is building on earlier work using ondansetron as a treatment of severe nausea and vomiting.  The company is about to begin a clinical trial targeting binge drinkers  -  the only Phase III clinical trial in the world set to begin in 2019  -  that could bring relief to a disorder that causes pain and loss to millions.

An Underserved Market

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) completed in 2015, an estimated 15.1 million people in the United States over the age of 18 years suffered from AUD.  The survey found the group is tilted toward men  -  9.8 million men versus 5.3 million women.  

Adial management believes the situation is even more dire than suggested by the NSDUH.  They point to the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol Related Conditions (NESARC) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2015, that used a more recent, broader definition of the disease.  This survey found 30 million people over the age of 18 years had AUD in 2013.  For perspective that was 13.9% of the U.S. population in 2015  -  17.6% of adult men and 10.4% of adult women.  

Tragically, at the time those surveys were completed, only about 7% of the adults who were thought to have AUD received treatment.