Hyderabad-based Maithri Aquatech plans to tap new cities

Hyderabad: City-based Maithri Aquatech, which builds and deploys condensation setups to harvest water from air, has drawn up plans to set up manufacturing units in new cities. It currently has facilities in Cherlapally here and also in Chennai, and the new one will come up in Bengaluru soon, said its Chief Executive Office Naveen Mathur. […]

Hyderabad: City-based Maithri Aquatech, which builds and deploys condensation setups to harvest water from air, has drawn up plans to set up manufacturing units in new cities. It currently has facilities in Cherlapally here and also in Chennai, and the new one will come up in Bengaluru soon, said its Chief Executive Office Naveen Mathur.

The company has spent about Rs 20 crore for research and setting up of the manufacturing unit here. Its facility at Secunderabad Railway Station to supply clean water to railway passengers is a hit.

“The technology behind our product is based on condensation (the process where water vapour becomes liquid). Some amount of the humid air is drawn into the cooling tower and water is collected in a tank. Minerals are added to make the water potable. By tapping the moisture in the air to convert into water, we are reducing the use of the scarce groundwater to that extent. There is six times more water in air than the groundwater,” he said.

The apparatus needs grid or solar power to be operated. “The water harvesting now costs about Rs 2 per litre. We have generated about 100 million litre across our 600 installations in about 27 countries. It implies that we have saved the same quantity of water as existing groundwater is not touched,” he said.

According to him, the unit can be set up anywhere and works well even 200 km from the coastal areas. It is successfully operating one unit in Rajasthan as well, he said. “Our units will come handy in remote locations. A standalone unit can be set up for industrial, domestic, and commercial purposes. This is effective compared to laying a new pipeline for several kms from the source. Also, there are no associated costs of transport, fuel and plastic that are needed for the new pipe network,” said Mathur, adding that it was expanding operations in the Middle East and other markets where water is scarce.

The unit can have 1,000 litre per day capacity and the initial costs will be about Rs 10 lakh. Higher capacity units are also possible. The company has applied for a patent jointly with IICT that worked on the project. “Extending subsidy on the lines of solar projects will bring down the costs,” he said, adding that there were some players in the US and Israel.

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