Addressing scarcity: Meghdoot makes potable water from atmospheric moisture

Rameswaram, a town on Pamban Island in Tamil Nadu, is plagued by acute water scarcity. This is due to the heat waves that constantly envelop the region along with the depletion in the groundwater levels. As a result, farmers find it difficult to grow paddy, the major crop cultivated in the region, and people are forced to buy bottled water for drinking. Moreover, since Rameswaram is a Hindu pilgrimage site and also houses the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam National Memorial, it sees a huge influx of tourists every year. That too adds to the heavy dependence on bottled water.
 

One startup, Maithri Aquatech, is about to solve Rameswaram’s perennial water shortage. Based in Hyderabad, the two-year-old company has developed Meghdoot, India’s first indigenous Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) machine, which uses a novel technology to produce pure drinking water from the water vapour in the atmosphere. The device can provide high-quality drinking water for up to 2,000 people a day.
 
“We call ourselves a water company and not an engineering firm,” says M Ramkrishna, founder and managing director of Maithri Aquatech. “Today, the quality as well as the quantity of water are getting depleted around the world. We want to make water affordable for the common man.”

 

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), a state-owned engineering and consultancy firm, has already begun to install the AWG machine  in Rameswaram.
 
The atmosphere contains 37,500 trillion gallons of water in the form of moisture. Only one per cent of that is enough to fulfil global water needs, says Ramkrishna. According to him, Maithri’s solution is capable of converting atmospheric humidity into potable water at an affordable cost. One litre of Meghdoot’s clean, microbe-free, re-mineralised water costs around Rs 1.70 as opposed to Rs 20 for a litre of bottled water by reputed brands such as Bisleri. The company said that the purity of the water produced by Meghdoot matches the standards recommended by the World Health Organization.

The technology, which can be operated in a wide variety of temperatures and humidity conditions, is also highly scalable and produces water within hours of being switched on. The machine’s performance can be monitored remotely using the Internet of Things technology. Moreover, it does not need massive infrastructure — the only requirement is an atmospheric humidity of 25 per cent or above.
 
To further improve and standardise the quality of the water produced by Meghdoot, in 2018 Maithri joined hands with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), a Hyderabad-based research centre which operates under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). IICT has provided its water membrane and mineral dosing technology to the firm. Maithri and IICT have jointly filed for a patent for Meghdoot’s technology.

 
Meghdoot can be configured for residential and commercial purposes and can also be customised to fit in vehicles. In fact, it can work anywhere as long as it is exposed to fresh humid air. The smallest version of the device, which can produce 30 litres of water per day, costs about Rs 80,000 while the biggest model, which produces 1,000 litres per day, costs Rs 10 lakh.
 
Meghdoot’s system comprises compressors, fans, mechanical and electrical controls along with a proprietary heat exchange evaporator that maintains internal condensate surface temperatures below the dew point of the intake air. The controlled surface temperature increases the condensate formed and hence maximises the water produced.

 
Maithri’s innovation was unveiled by Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat at the Aero India Show in Bengaluru in February this year. Maithri and public-sector defence electronics firm Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) recently entered into an agreement to jointly manufacture AWG machines for the Air Force, Navy and Army. BEL would also help export the product to overseas markets.
 
The device is already being exported to Africa and Maithri sees the potential to tap markets in other countries that suffer from water shortage such as Australia, Indonesia and Maldives. One of its customers is Afro India Technology for Societal Transformation Foundation (AITST), which aims to improve the lives of marginalised farmer communities in Sub-Saharan Africa by providing Indian technologies in the fields of agriculture, healthcare and renewable energy.

 
“We have given an initial order for procuring 100 units of the device. The first 10 units will be deployed in Ethiopia and Zambia,” says Gopi Krishna Reddy, president and CEO, AITST.
 
Water scarcity is likely to become the biggest existential threat to humankind in the near future and it is estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population will be forced to live under water-stressed conditions in the next two years. Clearly, Meghdoot’s drinking water solution could not have come at a better time.


Drop by drop

• A device with compressors converts atmospheric humidity into potable water
• One litre of clean, microbe-free water costs Rs  1.70
• The technology can be operated in a wide variety of temperatures and humidity conditions
• Once the machine is switched on it can produce water within hours
• The smallest version of the device costs Rs 80,000 and produces 30 litres of water