Welcome to Sentivia

Alright, let me break down who I am and what I’m all about. My name is Nicholas Seet, and I'm the founder of Undesert Corporation. I'm not just some tech guy who stumbled into this; I've been building and selling successful tech companies for years, like my previous company Auditude, which I grew to 50 people before selling to Adobe. I had a brief retirement in Los Alamos, focusing on my family - I have four kids, which is the biggest motivator for me. But, I've always been driven to create, and now, with the climate crisis intensifying, I felt it's my duty to use my skills to fix this huge problem.

So, what is Undesert? Well, it's my attempt to tackle two major interconnected issues: water scarcity and climate change. I have a vision of how we can reforest the desert, not as a landscaping project, but as a scalable solution to draw down carbon and replenish water. I’m passionate about bringing about a paradigm shift, about seeing our vast deserts transformed into vibrant carbon sinks, not only for our sake but for future generations. It’s not just about planting a few trees, it's about creating a working forest that has a real impact on a global scale. I’m talking about reforesting one percent of the world's disturbed lands, using roughly 44 pine trees per acre. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it is completely practical and necessary to ensure a survivable future for everyone.

To do this, we needed to address the root issue: access to water. We developed a game-changing solar desalination technology. This isn't your typical desalination plant; it’s a process that’s fast, efficient, and scalable. Our device takes highly contaminated wastewater, like the produced water from oil and gas extraction, and turns it into pure, usable water, and importantly, dry salt that can be utilized for construction or other applications. We essentially reverse the principle of distillation - rather than boiling water to create steam, we gently evaporate water using heat from the sun or another energy source. The technology is developed by my co-founder, Hill Kemp, who has a background in chemistry but is a real engineer at heart. He can fix anything and build anything. His experience developing vertical gardening for the United Arab Emirates has really taught him about the need for a simple and efficient desalination process. He's a gem of a human being and really good at what he does.

What makes our approach different? Well, traditional desalination methods, like reverse osmosis, have drawbacks. They're energy-intensive, and the brine byproduct is a huge environmental concern, often dumped back into the ocean. Our technology, on the other hand, doesn't create any nasty waste products, instead giving back valuable resources to the environment. It can also handle the super high salinity and chemical contamination of produced water, something that current technologies struggle with. It really is a silver bullet for this particular problem.

I initially thought our tech would be perfect for the Navajo Nation, whose wells are becoming too salty to drink. While we hit roadblocks with COVID, that pushed us into a partnership with Shell through Mass Challenge. That's when I realized that the oil and gas industry is really a water company masquerading as an oil company, given the massive amounts of wastewater they generate. This realization helped us fine-tune our approach and make our solution directly relevant to their massive problems. We then honed our focus even more after going through the Techstars accelerator program, where we were told to focus on the financial needs of oil and gas industries rather than the broad idea of saving the planet, although that's always been my overall goal.

At heart, I'm driven by the big picture: saving the planet for my kids and everyone else’s kids. I’m part of the Xprize carbon removal, not by simply showing up and planting a tree. No. We purchased a tree farm that was set to be cut down and made it a carbon sequestering forest. We’re also part of the Arrowheads surge clean energy accelerator. We have a great group of advisors and partners that help push the mission forward. We are not just sitting around and waiting for someone to come and make the world a better place. We’re actively working towards making real change. The research I have seen regarding fire resistance and the moisture content of trees, shows that the main problem is lack of water, not the trees themselves. So my vision is that our technology can help make our forests more resistant to the devastating effects of wildfires.

My personal journey has taken me from the high-tech world of software startups to the urgent reality of our climate crisis. I've realized that tech can be a powerful tool for positive change, especially when combined with innovative thinking and scientific expertise. Ultimately, it’s about making a tangible impact, about providing a practical, scalable solution to two of the most pressing problems facing our world. It's about turning what we’ve deemed as "waste" into resources, and in doing so, revitalizing our planet. And while I'm here, I'd also love to know how water intersects with your life.