TAMPA, Fla. – A Tampa-based firm is reimagining the world’s water provide, by pulling water straight from the environment.
Genesis Techniques, a neighborhood startup co-founded by Dr. David Stuckenberg, has developed expertise, they are saying, that actually makes water out of skinny air. The corporate mentioned it’s already serving to communities and hospitals throughout disasters and past.
“That is the primary time we’ve allowed the press to entry this facility,” Stuckenberg mentioned, as FOX 13 obtained an unique look inside the corporate’s lab.
Dig deeper:
For Stuckenberg, the concept started throughout his service within the U.S. Air Pressure, when he witnessed firsthand how water shortage can cripple nations.
“I used to be deployed really from MacDill Air Pressure Base to the Center East, and I watched a nation nearly run its water provide out,” he mentioned.
It paralleled an expertise from his personal childhood.
“I grew up in a really impoverished space in rural Oklahoma and skilled starvation and thirst, and it’s very actual to us.”
That have impressed him to sort out what he sees as one of many planet’s biggest challenges: a dwindling provide of contemporary water.
“We estimate worldwide that about 4.4 billion persons are at present in water shortage. That’s half of us,” Stuckenberg mentioned.
What they’re saying:
Inside an unassuming constructing in South Tampa, Stuckenberg’s group confirmed FOX 13 how their invention works.
They name them Water Cubes, gadgets that extract water molecules from the air, filter and sterilize them, and inside minutes, pour out drinkable water.
Stuckenberg says it’s “essentially the most pure water by EPA requirements.”
Throughout Hurricane Milton, Genesis Techniques deployed a Water Dice to function a backup water supply for the NICU at Johns Hopkins All Kids’s Hospital.
This month, TIME Journal named Genesis Techniques one of many Greatest Innovations of 2025.
The corporate’s expertise is already getting used throughout 5 continents, together with in Malawi, the place it supplied clear water to a hospital that beforehand relied on contaminated sources.
“There was mud coming by the water, worms and parasites,” Stuckenberg mentioned. “Now that that hospital has a freshwater provide, it’s utterly modified their operation.”
Why It Issues:
Past emergencies, Genesis Techniques is producing smaller, dwelling variations of the Water Dice.
“This may generate sufficient water for a household of 4 day by day,” mentioned Stuckenberg. The WaterCube 100 claims to supply 120 gallons a day. It prices $27,000.
Stuckenberg mentioned their imaginative and prescient is to “go wi-fi” for water, very like communication as soon as did.
“Think about once we went wi-fi with our communications, we’re going to do the identical factor for our water provide,” he mentioned. “The necessity for environmental allowing, disrupting endangered species for digging up miles of trenches and placing up pipelines, goes away as a result of we’ll be capable of entry water on the level of want.”
When requested whether or not pulling water from the environment might hurt the setting, Stuckenberg mentioned the impression is minimal.
“After we take water from the air, it’s actually put again in between eight minutes and eight days and has no environmental impression in any respect.”
Stuckenberg mentioned the corporate’s work isn’t nearly innovation, it’s about nationwide safety.
“It’s the most understated nationwide safety danger on the globe,” he mentioned. “With out water, your society stops in simply three days.”
Genesis Techniques lately entered a multi-year partnership with the U.S. Military to develop uninterruptible water provides, along with ongoing collaborations.
Stuckenberg believes the water cubes will, sooner or later, be a part of deployment kits.
What’s subsequent:
The corporate continues to broaden manufacturing, with all manufacturing at present achieved within the U.S. and plans to maintain its headquarters in Tampa.
They plan to broaden their manufacturing to different states, because the demand grows.
“What we come out with subsequent yr goes to amaze the world,” Stuckenberg teased.
When requested for a touch, he smiled:
“Water is meals, and meals is water.”
The Supply: Sources for this report embrace a tour, an indication at Genesis Techniques tech, the Time Journal Greatest Innovations Listing, UN speech, information on the world’s water provide.
