Tag: India

Business Standard

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Water scarcity has become a global concern, with incidents such as Day Zero in Cape Town (2018) serving as stark reminders of the urgency of this issue. Transporting drinkable water to regions affected by natural disasters, especially equatorial areas during summer, remains a challenge. India faces its own water crisis, with cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Shimla, and Chennai projected to exhaust groundwater reserves by 2030, as highlighted in a report by Niti Aayog.

In April this year, water scarcity triggered mass migration in rural Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district. Moreover, the groundwater contribution to the Ganga River is expected to decrease over the next three decades, potentially impacting 115 million people in the Ganga basin, according to IIT Kharagpur.

Such issues require innovative solutions. One promising approach is the Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) technology developed by AKVO Atmospheric Water Systems Pvt Ltd, under the leadership of Mr. Navkaran Singh Bagga, Founder and CEO.

How AKVO Tackles Water Scarcity

AKVO AWGs generate pure drinking water by extracting and purifying humidity from the air. These machines come in various sizes, catering to both community and industrial needs:

  • Capacity: Machines produce between 100 and 10,000 liters per day.
  • Cost: AKVO water costs INR 1.75–2.00 per liter, significantly cheaper than market rates (INR 15–20 per liter).

Impactful Deployments of AKVO AWG Machines

  1. Rural Communities:
    • A 1000-liter machine was installed in Hardua Mangarh, Madhya Pradesh, addressing the water needs of a village that relied on a 200-year-old well.
  2. Industrial Use:
    • Six machines have been installed at the IOCL refinery in Haldia, decentralizing water availability across its 300-acre area.
  3. Hydroponics:
    • Customizable machines support water demands for hydroponic farming, meeting specific mineral and volume requirements.
  4. Global Reach:
    • AKVO AWG machines gained international recognition at the International Water Summit (2018 & 2019) in Abu Dhabi and have been installed by Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) in the Middle East.

A Green, Cost-Efficient Solution for the Future

AKVO AWG machines operate without water wastage and consume just one unit of electricity per hour. Unlike desalination, which damages marine ecosystems, AKVO offers an eco-friendly alternative, making it ideal for tropical and coastal regions.

“Our vision is a future where no one suffers from water scarcity,” says Navkaran Singh Bagga, CEO. “We aim to deliver sustainable, cost-effective solutions that protect water resources while meeting the needs of diverse communities.”

Explore how AKVO AWGs are transforming water access across India and beyond. Discover the full original article here.

Sunday Guardian Live

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Kolkata entrepreneur generates drinking water from moisture

As the country faces a ground water crisis, a Kolkata-based entrepreneur has come out with a solution to generate water by extracting atmospheric moisture and making it usable for drinking purpose.

AKVO, a unit of Trishan Exports, has developed a prototype which is ready with its commercial production, using Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) technology, with capacity to produce 1000 litre per day pure water. The company is in the process to start production of equipment for domestic use also.

The equipment run on the basic principle of converting atmospheric vapour into liquid form and purify it further so that it can be used for drinking. “It’s like harvesting humidity when it is in the air,” said director of AKVO Navkaran Singh Bagga, who was in the capital recently, while speaking to this newspaper.

The device consists of a system wherein the water extracted from the atmosphere is subjected to four-stage purification. Some minerals are added in the process to make it sweet to drink. So at the end of the process, the final water is completely safe for drinking and is just like an RO water. The USP of the product is that it uses unlimited source of water, which is natural and abundant and that no separate purification is required. Humidity/moisture is present everywhere. If some moisture at a particular place is used for condensation, moisture of surrounding areas fills in at that place after some time.  Normally, the humidity is around 80% at a temperature of 28 degree Celsius.

A few hotels and organisations in Kolkata have started using the equipment, which Bagga claims is “fully indigenous”. A 1000 litre capacity equipment costs Rs 9 lakh. Right now, the cost of domestic equipment is coming close to about Rs 1 lakh, which according to Bagga, is too costly for domestic consumers. “We are working out ways to cut the cost so that it can be made available at a reasonable price of Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000. We hope we will be able to do it very soon,” he said.

Bagga is talking to Indian Railways and municipal corporations across the country for installing this equipment which can solve the drinking water problem to a great extent. For water ATMs, this device can be used instead of RO, he said, adding the most abundant source of fresh water is Earth’s atmosphere which should be tapped for our use.

When asked if separate equipment needed to be manufactured as percentage of humidity varies from place to place, he said: “We are trying to customise the product depending on the humidity of a particular location. For example, it will be easier to extract water in places like Kolkata or Chennai because of the presence of high quantity of moisture in the atmosphere, but it will consume more power in dry places like Rajasthan. We are trying to come out with a solution which can work best in low humidity areas.”

Read the article here: Sunday Guardian Live

The Hindu Business Line

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Use of atmospheric water generators picking up slowly
KOLKATA, OCTOBER 9:  With the impact of climate change making ground and surface water scarcer, companies are looking to tap the atmosphere that holds 37.5 million billion gallons of water.

This is higher than the approximately 32.6 million billion gallons of fresh water (the rest locked up in ice-caps and glaciers) present on earth.

The Technology

Mumbai-based WaterMaker (India) Pvt Ltd, Kolkata-based AKVO and Hyderabad-based Skywater Pvt Ltd, for instance, have set up atmospheric water generators (AWG), to condense the moisture in the atmosphere into water. The water is then filtered and purified through several filters, including carbon, and reverse osmosis, and UV sterilisation lights to get rid of impurities and heavy metals to produce pure drinking water.

Lukewarm demand

While the concept is not new globally, particularly in the US, Europe and Middle East, the technology, which works well in coastal areas where humidity is high, is yet to achieve scale in India.

WaterMaker, which is among the first few Indian companies in this segment (commencing operations in 2005), manufacturing AWGs of capacities ranging from 120 litres to 5,000 litres a day, admits that the demand has been lukewarm in India.

Of its total sales of 3,000 units worldwide, only about 50 units have been sold in India till date.

“The scenario is changing slowly and steadily, with people becoming more conscious of the environment,” Meher Bhandara, Director, Waterworks, told BusinessLine. Companies, which were initially focusing on industrial units, are now looking to tap the household segment.

AKVO, a unit of Kolkata-based Trishan Exports Pvt Ltd, which recently entered market, has come up with a prototype for household segment with a model capable of producing 40 litres a day, priced between ₹30,000- 40,000 per unit, Navkaran Singh Bagga, director, AKVO, said.

Cost factor

A senior research scholar at the School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, cautions that the contaminats in atmospheric water could be high, particularly for a country like India, which has a dense population.

“Atmospheric water has to be treated properly as it is loaded with heavy metals such lead, mercury and cadmium among others coming from industrial activity, vehicles, etc,” he said.

This explains the high capital cost of owning such machines.

While an industrial AWG of 1,000 litres a day capacity could cost upwards of ₹1 lakh, a domestic unit with a 40 litres a day capacity costs between ₹30,000-40,000.

This apart, the average cost of electricity consumed for a 40 litres/day machine works out to be close to ₹56 a day or ₹1,680 a month.

A reverse osmosis machine costs in the range of ₹15,000–25,000 and entails an additional annual maintenance cost of ₹3,500-4,000. However, for every litre of pure water produced using RO technology, close to four litres are wasted.

The average cost of a mineral water dispenser works out to be ₹600-700 a month (considering a family of four consumes about 360 litres a month for drinking). The capital cost (one-time cost of acquiring a dispenser) is approximately ₹150.

The success of the AWGs will, therefore, depend upon the pricing and efficacy of the product.

(This article was published on October 10, 2017)
Read the article here: The Hindu Business Line