- author, Suzie Behan
- role, Technology Reporter
When the Indian city of Kozhikode (also known as Calicut) was hit by a severe drought in 2016, residents, including student Swapnil Shrivastav, had access to only limited amounts of water each day.
“We were only provided with two buckets of water a day, which we collected from a water tank,” he said.
While he said water supply issues are not uncommon in parts of India, it had been a tough month for Shrivastav and others in the area. “The humidity in the area was very high and unmanageable.”
Shrivastava had already been interested in water scarcity since winning a student competition in 2012 to imagine the city’s water future, but the experience spurred him to search for solutions.
“One element of inspiration was the air-to-water jet in Star Wars, so I thought I’d give that a try. It was more of a curiosity-based project.”
A few years later, in 2019, the idea led him to found Uravu Labs, a Bangalore-based startup along with Govinda Balaji and Venkatesh Raja.
Their system uses an atmospheric water generator that contains a liquid desiccant that absorbs moisture from the air, converting it into water.
Solar or renewable electricity is used to heat the desiccant to 65°C, which releases the moisture and condenses it into drinking water.
The entire process takes about 12 hours, Shrivastav said, and each unit currently produces about 2,000 litres of drinking water.
But his vision of providing drinking water to water-scarce areas was not economically feasible, he says.
“We realised that this technology needs time to scale up and bring down the cost,” Shrivastav said, “or someone should fund it, but in India, the support is not there.”
Instead, the company now sells water to 40 hospitality industry clients, who then use it to provide drinking water for their customers.
“We tried non-profits and the CSR sector. [corporate social responsibility]…But a lot of companies shy away from technology. They thought it wouldn’t work. We had to move to commercial consumption applications because they are ready to pay us and that’s what drives sustainability for them.”
Image source, Getty Images
Water scarcity is nothing new, but in many countries, especially in the Global South, severe droughts and floods linked to climate change have contaminated water sources.
Could atmospheric water generation technology be the answer? Because it is energy efficient and can run on renewable resources, it is one way of providing a fresh water source without the need for traditional water infrastructure, making it an attractive option in remote areas.
There are two main ways that atmospheric water is produced: First, there is a cooling and condensation process in which moist air is cooled to its dew point, condensing the water vapor into liquid water.
The second, he says, is a desiccant-based system that uses hygroscopic materials to absorb moisture from the air and then releases it through a heat process.
Image source, Magic Water
Through her social enterprise Magic Water, co-founder and CEO Beth Koigi manages around 40 atmospheric water generation units, which use cooling and condensation-based technology to capture moisture from the air, in arid and semi-arid areas across Kenya.
Founded in 2017, Magic Water was inspired by the founder’s first experience of water shortages during a drought while studying in Nairobi in 2016.
Many people come to the nearby river to collect water for cooking, drinking and washing, but Koigi says he is hesitant to drink the polluted water.
“I realized that I took water for granted because it’s always been there.”
She began looking at other water source ideas before developing her air-to-water system and starting a water purification company.
Magic Water is sold in stores and also works with NGOs and humanitarian organisations.
Magic’s largest units produce 500 litres of water per 24 hours and are installed in schools and small communities.
Although there is demand for the company’s system, Koigi doesn’t see it as a permanent solution.
“Honestly, I don’t think this is a solution to the water shortage,” Koigi said. “It’s a temporary solution… mainly because it’s not cheap.”
Avinash Singh, associate director of research and consulting at Global Market Insights, said manufacturers are focusing on making air-to-water systems more energy efficient.
“For example, innovations in compressors, heat exchangers and desiccants have made these systems more energy efficient.”
He added that government support, subsidies or environmental regulations could encourage further adoption of the technology.
One development that has helped the adoption of these water systems is the shift to digital payments.
Headquartered in Italy, Veragon has water production units in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America.
“When we first started off-grid communities it was a cash-based society and not really viable. Now it’s digitalised,” says Stephen White, global business director at Veragon.
“For example, most of Cambodia has 4G coverage, e-wallets have exploded during the pandemic, the private sector infrastructure and partnerships are much better, there is no need for government involvement and they are selling water at a much cheaper price.”
All units are expected to be digitised within the next few months, he said.
But the units aren’t cheap: Veragon estimates that a unit with a cooling and condensing system will cost between $60,000 and $70,000.
Meanwhile, Koigi said the larger units are priced at $18,000.
But Shrivastav points out that water is very heavy and not easily transportable, making it more cost-effective to produce it on-site.
Going forward, the Urav Lab is investigating how advances in materials science can improve the efficiency of the desiccant, or make the process more effective by using different materials to absorb more moisture from the air. Shrivastav says these advances could also reduce the heat required from 60 degrees to 40 degrees.
The company also hopes to conduct a pilot project to set up units in data centers in India and Singapore.
Data centres generate a lot of heat that would normally be lost, but Uravu plans to use that heat to produce fresh water instead.
“This process reduces freshwater consumption by up to 95%. [by the datacentre] “Uravu’s system captures most of the waste heat and returns it as chilled water, so very little freshwater is needed for replenishment,” says Shrivastav.
