MISSION
(IM)
POSSIBLE
Why do you suppose, china, the inventor of so many concepts and devices that we still
use today is the master subcontractor that endeavors to prevail? The answer is simple:
while being the owner of the grandest armada in the world, the Ming Dynasty decided to
burn all boats, build a figurative wall between the West and itself and adopt isolationism.
Perhaps it would be the Chinese to discover the “new world” had they not burned their
ships. It is not possible to know the course of history if that had happened, however, one
thing seems to be for sure - that is – China would not be where it is today.
It is not only the geographical discoveries where these types of isolationism occurs.
Today, developed countries that generate new production models, such as the US; that is
able to convert its technological independence to power while countries that have been
technologically and economically colonized are on the other end of the sphere. The added
value generated by these countries enable better development. In light of all these, for
countries, including our own, which remain as colonies; it is inevitable to become
consumer markets.
How is Turkey to overcome this bleak fate? How is our country, which does not allocate
even 1 % of its GDP to R&D can transfer to the league of the technologically
independent when the rest of the world is so scientifically and technologically advanced?
The CEO of Brightwell Holding Alphan Manas and the owner of granted and pending
600 patents, Dr. Sadeg Faris have a pretty clear answer to that. If the two projects this
duo has been working on yield the expected results, Turkey can become one of the
revered science countries in the world. How? By obtaining drinking water from sea
water and solving the energy problem by fuel cells that use aluminum and zinc. It all
may seem a dream to you but this duo, middle and large scale companies that go into
strategic partnership with them will or have already invested millions of dollars into this
project.
These projects have come to fruition as fates of different persons collided. Alphan
Manas, one of the founding partners of Teknoloji Holding, has gone his separate way
when his company grew beyond a certain point, selling IDDAA for a pretty sum,
founding Brightwell Holding. His enthusiasm in futurism, Manas has strategically and
innovatively invested in an array of areas from environmental technologies to maritime
vessels and from payment systems to image processing systems.
Faris’ story is more dramatic compared to that of Manas’. Libyan born, orphaned at early
childhood, Faris grew up in an orphanage built during the Ottoman times. His life
changed when he was sent to a fair in England at 16. He studied at Berkeley where he
got his undergraduate, graduate and post graduate degrees. After working at IBM for
some time, he founded companies to materialize his projects and patented many studies.
It is not only his interesting story that appeals to Manas. Faris has come up with an
interesting answer to the question of Turkey can achieve scientific independence:
InvenQBation. The philosophy to this concept is pretty simple. A country needs to
allocate all its resources to global priority issues and develop revolutionary solutions,
such as finding a cure for cancer or obtaining clean water in any given location in the
world. “Think about it” says Faris, “what would be Turkey’s position in the world if it
developed a cure for cancer? Who wouldn’t give anything to get this?”
From Sea Water to Drinking Water
Backed by this philosophy, Faris and Manas’ project is bound to disappoint with vivid
imagination: Obtaining drinking water from sea water… Serious problems arise today,
especially in developing countries due to difficulties in obtaining water. Our planet may
be covered with water but only 2.4 % of it is fresh, only 0.3 % is drinkable.
The situation in Turkey may not be as dire as of now, but the difficulties for the past
couple of months seem to be the precursor to what the future may hold. According to
information from DSI, (Water establishment for the State), with 1430 cubic meters per
capita, Turkey is among countries that have a shortage of water. The Turkish Statistics
Establishment (TUIK) foresees that the population will reach 100 million in the year
2030 which places Turkey in the position to sustain its current water resources. With the
ever present global warming, it is not easy to predict how these estimates will unfold.
Obtaining drinking water from sea water has been practiced for thousands of years. The
simplest way to do that is boiling and condensing the sea water. The basis for this
method is boiling the sea water, transferring the vapor to a cold base and transforming it
into water again. As simple as this method is, it has several disadvantages, especially in
large scale operations. Energy is needed to boil the water, which has negative impact on
costs and environment. For these reasons, this method works on smaller scales.
Another method used is reverse osmosis. According to the classical osmosis theory,
movement of solvent from an area of low solute concentration, through a semi permeable
membrane, to an area of high solute concentration when no external pressure is applied
achieves osmosis. Reverse osmosis is a separation process that uses pressure to force a
solvent through a membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure
solvent to pass to the other side. This way, sea water is desalinized.
Sayfa Alti semalari:
Physics 101: How Fuel Cells Work:
Even though Manas and Faris have a metal-based system, a hydrogen-based fuel cell
works like this:
Diffusion
The system is based on anode and cathode plates and a semi permeable membrane.
Hydrogen fuel is channeled through field flow plates to the anode on one side of the fuel
cell, while oxidant is channeled to the cathode on the other side of the cell.
Fusion
The membrane allows only the positively charged ions to pass through it to the cathode.
The negatively charged electrons must travel along an external circuit to the cathode,
creating an electrical current.
Fuel Cell
At the cathode, the electrons and positively charged hydrogen ions combine with oxygen
to form water, which flows out of the cell. Tens of systems can be gathered to prolong the
process to increase the amount of electricity to be obtained.
Which Technology?
This method is used widely in purification of sea water but also has disadvantages. On
large scale application, the equipment required to generate reverse osmosis are many,
causing the facilities to be large and in great need of energy resources. According to
studies conducted by a company called PCA, huge facilities require the use if 7 KWh
energy per liter of water, an average company used 30-40 KWh (an average household
used 300-400 KWh of electricity per month). Water also loses some minerals while
passing through the membrane, thus requiring more processing to make it drinkable. This
method can only be afforded by countries that are rich in energy resources. The two
thirds of all purified water is processed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and North Africa. Israel
has recently acquired facilities that can process 87 million gallons of water per day. Some
states, such as Texas in the US, have initialized similar projects. The situation of the
countries that are poor in energy resources remains a question mark.
The investment Faris and Manas made promises a solution beyond all other alternatives.
The main philosophy to Faris’ system is electrolysis, i.e. inducing a chemical reaction by
electrical current. In this method, sea water is placed with anode (+) and cathode (+)
electrodes which causes the water to be electrolyzed due to an electrical current. As a
result of this electrolysis, + sodium (NA), the main component of salt is directed to (-)
Chloride and remains there. Only pure water remains.
This method is certainly not new and there are problems associated with it, such as the
necessity of a cleaning method called flushing used against sodium and chloride ions
coating plates. This is where Faris and Manas difference comes into play. Thanks to a
material patented to Faris, this process can be applied momentarily (average of 0.1 sec).
This way the system can self-clean and continuity is achieved.
This compact device’s prototype is ready. It can be offered to single family use or
connected through groups of hundreds, consequently to city use. Manas says that it is
energy efficient and that it can provide a large city with drinking water easily.
Of course it is not the main goal of Faris and Manas to develop this system to make
Turkey a superpower or to help underdeveloped countries. The duo approaches this
project with the philosophy to serve and profit as the water market is not small time.
According to a study conducted by Water Intelligence, the desalinization of sea water
industry will grow by 140%. The investment into the market is expected to reach USD 25
B. by the year 2010, USD 56 B by 2015.
Chemistry 101: How to Purify Sea Water via Electrodialysis
The secret to desalinize sea water lies in the ionization of salt (NaCI) molecules
System:
The system is based on a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode and
a permeable membrane mechanism. This mechanism works on the principle of ionizing
molecules supported by electricity current.
Diffusion:
Electric current migrates dissolved salt ions, through an electrodialysis stack consisting of
alternating layers of cationic and anionic ion exchange membranes.
Clean Water:
While NA gravitates towards cathode, CI to anode, the solvent goes through a membrane
that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side
Energy in Cells
If water hasn’t done it for you, take a look at the energy issue. It is needless to point out
the importance of energy as far as the future of the world is concerned. The fact that
energy consumption causes environmental damage hand in hand with the global
warming, the equation gets more intricate.
One of the latest solutions offered lately is the fuel cells. Among all alternatives
regarding fuel cells, the hydrogen-based type is the main one.
Manas and Faris claim that they will present a more efficient fuel cell solution by using
the energy potential of metal. This is a solar-powered system. Faris says that the same
composition is also valid for metals, especially those such as zinc and aluminum which
are oxidized. Faris believes that this principle will produce effective and lower heat
generating fuel cells. This self-proclaimed global citizen materialized one of his fuel cell
projects and even went down into the Guinness Book of Records. He says: “ in the early
1900’s a motor vehicle journey was taken from Beijing to Paris that was the occasion for
the gas engine to prove itself and become the predominant engine. We have done so with
the fuel cell technology.”
Even though this system is now alive, Manas and Faris do not have an easy path to take
as there are other companies with similar applications with regard to fuel cell
technologies. A company called Power Air signed on with a US based company called
Autobotics to manufacture the first interior zinc fuel cell generator. Another company,
Metallic Power, is about to partner with Italian giant Marconi, which plans on using zinc
based fuel cell technologies in the manufacture of the telecommunications equipment. In
short, Manas and Faris are up against fierce challenge.
On the other hand, this technology is not free from skepticism. Some scientists think that
the zinc based systems are not fuel cells but improved battery technologies. The director
of The United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) International
Center for Hydrogen Energy Technologies, Engin Ture says: “metals cannot be used as
fuel. Even if this system generates energy, it may be very limited” and underlines
hydrogen as the indisputable fuel source.
This technology invested in by Manas and Faris may find respectable use in notebook
computers, mobile phones, and consumer electronics but faces shortcomings when it
comes to high energy requirement fields. “Can these batteries fly a plane?” asks Ture.
Philosophy 101: think differently to become different
Manas and Faris care as much for the philosophical aspect of their work as they do for
the commercial aspect
InventQBation:
The primary philosophy of Dr. Sadeg Fares can be summed as such: A company has to
provide solutions to the problems of the mankind. In order for this to happen; an
environment where innovation and developing technologies must be nurtured.
Partnerships must be enforced and products must be developed and improved.
Serve to Deserve:
All companies bare responsibility to their communities and the world in general,
therefore, companies must act in awareness of their responsibilities, focus on the
problems of humanity, create global solutions and benefit from these solutions’
commercial proceeds.
Thinking Differently:
Avoiding clichés and taking the road less traveled have been the characteristics of both
Manas and Faris’ careers. Using metal for fuel cells against the general hydrogen use, and
using electrodialysis in water purification where everyone else uses reverse osmosis are
testaments to these characteristics.
Doubts and Conspiracies
Doubts are not limited to the application of these technologies. When Sadeg Faris is
“googled”, some blogs and websites such as Malaysia Today come up with claims that
Faris is on the Interpol list due to unlawfully transferring some of the USD 98 M.
allocated to the InventQJaya project by the Malaysian government to his company
accounts. Has Faris indeed been involved in such corruption?
The root of this story goes back to the InventQJaya project initiated by the Malaysian
government en route to bring Malaysia technological independence. The Malaysian
government went into partnership with Faris’ company Reveo, procuring a $200 M. fund
to build a facility to produce innovative technologies. Faris had gathered world’s leading
scientists and demonstrated progress when this story broke out.
Faris states that this is a fabrication and a conspiracy. He continues to say that he travels
to a different country every week and it would be impossible for him to travel freely if he
were indeed on an Interpol watch list. His side of the story goes to tell that a similar
project was initiated in Malaysia some time before his and this some billion dollar
investment yielded no results. He continues that when his project came into fruition, a
conspiracy campaign was initiated by some Malaysian authorities to acquit themselves of
failure. Faris says: “we handled everything professionally. We did not bribe at
purchasing where bribing is common; this bothered some people and they came up with
fabrications about me.”
About Investors
Time will tell Faris’ rightfulness regarding this story but there are other aspects of
skepticism directed at this inventor. In developed economies such as the US, the number
of inventors that promise more than they can deliver to the investors is not that small. An
expert in risk capital says that the investors sometimes get too enthusiastic and face
disappointment.
On the other hand, question marks arise as to the investments of Alphan Manas. After he
parted ways with Teknoloji Holding, this futurist invested in innovative projects and film
making but later backed out. But the fields Manas invests in yield results in time. The
Apex water jet system he invested in has already become a product. The boat has already
been lowered to sea and primary phase test runs have been concluded. Manas is the
owner of 4 patents.
According to information from Manas, neither he nor Faris will be party to either of the
projects. The realization of these projects require a $ 25 M. investment and the duo has
decided to go to a big corporation. Due to the fact that the said corporation is public,
Manas does not want to name it. “We have completed preliminary preparations and made
our application” says Manas and adds that they have made headway with a Turkish
company regarding metal fuel cells.
But doesn’t technology run the risk of imitation or replication and lose value? Manas
thinks those chances are slim as both projects have revolutionary dimensions and
revolutionary dimensions dissimilar to evolutionary dimensions, can yield long term
advantages. The US for instance, keeps its position as the center of the automotive
industry even 100 years after Henry Ford left Cadillac to start his own company. Faris
says their projects are different in the details and those cannot be imitated easily.
Call it dreaming or promising, Alphan Manas and Sadeg Faris seem determined to go
down this path accompanied by big time investors. We will all see how the process goes–
will it help Turkey break away from the technology colonies ad bring technological
independence? Time will tell.