About Nona
Recovering water AI wastes with MIT-patented technology.
We develop durable, efficient systems to reduce water consumption for critical industries globally.
- Developed at MIT
- Backed by the U.S. Army
- Designed for Critical Industries
Why we exist
AI data centers run hot and thirsty. Evaporative cooling, the dominant cooling method for large-scale compute, requires enormous quantities of fresh water. Most of that water is lost to blowdown: mineral-heavy wastewater that operators typically discharge. Nona has the technology to RECOVER the water that AI wastes.
Our technology, Ion Concentration Polarization (ICP), was invented at MIT by our co-founder Jung Yoon. It uses an electric field to separate dissolved minerals from water, the way an electromagnet pulls metal from a mixture, without the filters, heat, or high pressure that make conventional water treatment expensive and failure-prone.
See how ICP compares to reverse osmosis →
RECOVER, our flagship product, bolts on to existing cooling infrastructure as a modular side-stream unit. Continuous operations. Durable technology. No major retrofits. Learn more about RECOVER →
Out of the lab and into the field
RECOVER is in active deployments and commercial conversations with the companies that build, cool, and operate data center and industrial infrastructure.
3 Exclusive MIT Patents
Co-authored by Jung Yoon, our CTO, with development funded by the U.S. Army.
Top Cooling Tower Manufacturer
Proven to reduce fresh water used for cooling by up to 50%.
$1B+
Data Center Company
Bringing RECOVER into their cooling loop
Working with leaders across data centers, cooling, and renewable energy
The founders
After years of research at MIT, postdoc Junghyo made a fundamental discovery in electrochemical water treatment. Bruce, an expert in hardware commercialization from Rivian and MIT, partnered with him to turn it into deployable water technology for AI waste.
Dr. Junghyo Yoon
CTO & Co-Founder
Dr. Junghyo Yoon co-founded Nona Technologies to commercialize IP he developed during his 6-year tenure as a post-doctoral Research Scientist at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. As one of the primary inventors of ICP technology, he brings 12 years of dedicated research in electrokinetic processes for biomedical and environmental applications.
Bruce Crawford
CEO & Co-Founder
Bruce co-founded Nona Technologies while earning his MBA at MIT Sloan, after a product development finance role at Rivian during its pre-launch scale-up. He leads the company's commercial strategy and fundraising, translating MIT's lab breakthrough into a deployable industrial product.
Team
Annabelle Lee
Chief of Staff
MPH, Harvard
Annabelle helps the leadership team bring Nona's technology to market and scale. Her background in health policy spans state and federal government, focused on equitable access to essential systems — the same challenge playing out where data center infrastructure meets water scarcity. She holds a Master's in Health Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ben Thomson
Hardware Engineering Lead & Founding Engineer
M.Eng., MIT
Ben has been critical to product development since joining as Nona's first engineer. He brings deep hands-on experience across mechanical engineering, product design, prototyping, testing, CAD, and manufacturing, with prior experience at JETCOOL Technologies. He holds an M.Eng. in Advanced Manufacturing and Design from MIT and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Dr. Lutfi Agartan
Pilot Development Engineer
Ph.D., Drexel University
Dr. Agartan leads the design, development, and optimization of Nona's module and testing skid. He brings expertise in electrochemistry and electrochemical water desalination from prior work at Phase Two Chemicals developing electrolyzer systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University, and an M.Sc. and B.Sc. from Middle East Technical University.
Liz Collins
R&D Engineer
B.S., Northeastern University
Liz supports product development through prototyping, CAD, and engineering design. She brings hands-on experience from co-op positions at Williamson and Gilbert Associates and work on NUWave Robotics' electric propulsion team. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University.
Elizabeth Smith
Summer Associate
MBA Candidate, MIT Sloan
Elizabeth drives strategy, operations, and growth at Nona. She is an MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan and recently led GTM and growth strategy at an AI-native travel startup. Prior to Sloan, she spent six years at ZS Associates leading cross-functional teams on strategy and digital transformation. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.
Ajith George
R&D Engineering Intern
B.S., Northeastern University
Ajith works on initial software and hardware testing of Nona's latest prototype. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and will begin an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Advisors
Dr. Jongyoon Han
Professor, MIT
Inventor, ICP Technology
Dr. Han holds appointments in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Research Laboratory of Electronics, and the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Supported By
See what RECOVER saves for your facility
Our interactive calculator models water savings, OpEx reduction, and payback period for your specific cooling tower configuration.