The water is in the air.
The energy is in your waste heat.

Every data center and factory throws away low-temperature heat. We are developing a hygroscopic sorbent that captures water vapour from the air and releases it using that heat, at the temperatures a liquid-cooling loop already runs at.

See how it works Talk to our team
3rd place · TEF Ignition 2026 (100+ teams)
Kluz PeaceTech Recognition
2nd place & Axel Carbon Capital Prize · DigithON 2026
Featured in La Stampa · October 2026 ↗

Most of the world's waste heat is below 100 °C. Until now, it was worth almost nothing.

Data centers are where both collide. They produce enormous quantities of low-grade waste heat — and they consume, and are increasingly denied, the water they need to stay cool. RBV converts one into the other.

560B
litres of water used by data centers worldwide every year — about 224,000 Olympic pools. The IEA projects up to 1,200 billion by 2030.
IEA, Energy and AI, 2025
25
US data center projects cancelled in 2025 after local opposition — up from 6 in 2024. Water is the most cited concern, raised in over 40% of contested projects.
Heatmap Pro, 2026 · Uptime Institute, Feb 2026
$156B
in US data center projects blocked or delayed in 2025 by local opposition, moratoria and litigation.
Data Center Watch, Q3–Q4 2025 report
Data centers by country Bar length on log scale · Source: Data Center Map via Visual Capitalist, 2026
United States
3,960
United Kingdom
498
Germany
470
China
365
France
335
Canada
285
India
275
Australia
268
Japan
249
Italy
206
Brazil
198
Spain
189
Netherlands
186
Indonesia
184
Ireland
128
US leads with 3,960 facilities — more than the next 14 countries combined

If freshwater access is a risk for your next site, let's talk.

We are currently engaging data center operators about pilot programs in Europe and North America.

"Currently, we have a community backlash issue on the amount of water that we use." — Data center director, Stack Infrastructure, Virginia · RBV customer interview, reported in La Stampa
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45–50 °C. That temperature is the entire thesis.

It is the range at which heat already leaves a liquid-cooling circuit. Our sorbent captures water vapour from ambient air and releases it as vapour when that heat passes through; a condenser turns it into liquid water. No fuel, no vacuum, no boiler: the heat is what you already discard, and electricity only runs fans and pumps.

01
Capture vapor from air
The sorbent film draws water vapour from ambient air, starting from 35% relative humidity.
02
Regenerate with waste heat
Warm water from the cooling loop — heat that is already being thrown away — releases the captured water at 45 °C.
03
Condense into liquid water
The released vapour is condensed into liquid water. Modules alternate between capture and release.
04
Feed the cooling loop
The water goes into your existing cooling circuit as make-up water, replacing part of what you draw from the grid.
Patent application in progress
Lab-tested at Politecnico di Milano · 2026
Joint scientific publication in preparation
AIR RBV SORBENT MODULE WATER DATA CENTER direct-to-chip liquid cooling WASTE HEAT · 45 °C

Why 45 °C matters.

The fuel is already there.
Direct-to-chip cooling loops typically return water at 40–55 °C. In the lab, RBV's sorbent released its water fully at 45 °C. The heat your facility already discards drives water production; electricity only runs fans and pumps.
Built to plug into the loop you have.
RBV is designed to draw heat from the warm return line and deliver make-up water back to the facility. Cold plates and CDUs stay as they are; what changes is where part of your water comes from — the air above the site instead of the municipal grid.
European, by design.
The EU Energy Efficiency Directive already requires data centers above 500 kW to report their water use every year. Water is becoming a permit question, not just a utility bill. RBV is built in Europe for that moment.
Data centers open the door.
The same process can run on low-temperature waste heat in chemicals, pharma, food, mining and green hydrogen — wherever heat is discarded and water is scarce or expensive. Data center pilots write the playbook for what comes next.

The team

Raffaella Binetti
Raffaella Binetti
Co-founder & CEO
Inventor of RBV's sorbent. Chemist & Nuclear Engineer, Politecnico di Milano. IAEA Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and Mensa Italy member. International speaker on science, energy and peace.
LinkedIn
Riccardo Valeretto
Riccardo Valeretto
Co-founder & CTO
Leads heat-recovery architecture and system integration. Energy Engineer, Politecnico di Milano. MSc research on industrial waste-heat recovery and thermal system design.
LinkedIn
Francesco Dell'Endice
Francesco Dell'Endice, PhD
Advisory Board
Aerospace Engineer, Politecnico di Milano & University of Zurich. Founded and exited QualySense AG. Advises deeptech startups on how to scale their business globally — from securing first industrial pilots to building international investor and partner networks.
LinkedIn
Andrea Alberti
Andrea Alberti, PhD
Advisory Board
Co-founder of Micos Engineering, exited in 2020. Former manager of ESA BIC Padova and SpaceFounders.eu. Business angel in four startups and advisor to five. MSc and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano; Executive MBA, EPFL.

Request a conversation.

We are engaging data center operators and infrastructure developers for our first pilot programs in Europe and North America. If you are building or operating a facility and wish to explore reducing freshwater dependency, please reach out and we will respond within two business days.

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Thank you — we will be in touch within two business days.