20 Feature

Filtration+Separation January/February 2020

Water & wastewater

Turning air into

drinking water
ccording to the United Nations, more than two billion
A people are living in countries experiencing high water stress.
However, an Israeli company has developed technology
which uses humidity in the air to create clean drinking
water, potentially making fresh water accessible worldwide.

Watergen is based just a few miles south

of Tel Aviv and since the company was
established in 2009, it has become
something of a specialist in the develop-
ment and implementation of water-from-
air solutions based on its GENius
technology. The company’s efforts to
make fresh, pure water available around
the globe earned it a place on the World
Economic Forum’s list of the world’s top
technology pioneers in 2018. School children and staff using drinking water from the Watergen unit.

The company began mass manufac-
turing its atmospheric water generators
in 2017 and the first system was installed
in New Delhi in India in the same year.
Since then, Watergen generators have
been used around the world in countries
such as Brazil, Vietnam, Russia, Uzbeki-
stan, Chile, Costa Rica, China, South
Africa, Sierra Leone, Israel and Indonesia.
The mobile units, which require no infra-
structure other than an electricity source,
have been deployed in cities and remote
villages schools and office buildings.
They have also saved lives following
disasters and humanitarian crises in the
US and around the world. Watergen says
they are essentially a “self-sustaining source
of renewable fresh, clean drinking water.”
The generators
Watergen has three main atmospheric
water generators (AWGs) depending on
the requirements of the situation. Each
unit contains an internal water treatment
system and can operate without any
special infrastructure, which only require
an electricity source except a source of
electricity.

The large scale AWG is an industrial scale

atmospheric water generator designed
for towns, villages, factories, off-grid
settlements and rural communities,
which can produce up to 5,000 litres of
water per day. They can also be installed
on rooftops, helping to decentralise the
supply of safe-drinking water in munici-
palities that have insufficient water
infrastructure.

The GEN-350 AWG weighs just 780 kg

and is a medium scale, highly mobile
water generator which can be used in
Workers in Vietnam enjoy fresh drinking water from the Watergen unit. most weather conditions. It is designed

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Filtration+Separation January/February 2020
Watergen’s large scale atmospheric water
generator.
for schools, hospitals, commercial and
residential buildings. This generates up
to 900 litres of water per day depending
on the humidity and temperature. It can
also be set on a truck or trailer together
with a generator and serve as an
emergency response vehicle.
The technology
Watergen’s GENius technology works by
drawing air into the atmospheric water
generator, where an air filter removes dust
and dirt. The cleaned air then undergoes a
heat exchange and cooling process which
brings the air to the point where conden-
sation occurs, and water is created. The
water then passes through a multi-stage
cascade of filters which includes chemical
and biological filtration and mineralisation.
The water is now ready to drink and is
stored in a built-in reservoir where it is
continuously circulated to keep it fresh. The
company says that due to its proprietary
patent GENius technology, the machines
are relatively low in energy consumption,
generating five times more water per kilo-
watt per hour than any other technology
Workers in India queueing for drinking water from Watergen’s large scale atmospheric water generator.
on the market. It can be operated either by
electricity, generators or solar panels.
Economic impact
The Watergen technology is already
making a big difference to people and
communities around the world, as it is
now commercially available and
affordable and the company believes it
will have a major economic impact on
the water industry in general. Other
commercially available AWGs use
conventional air-conditioning
technology to generate water at tested
efficiency rates of 650-850 watt-hours
per litre. Watergen’s technology can
generate clean, safe drinking water at
just 250 watt-hours per litre, which
equates to a 300% increase in output.
The increase in output means the
company can produce four litres of
water for every kilowatt of energy, at a
cost of two-four cents per litre for
a renewable solution that costs less
than local purified packaged well water.
Disaster areas
In 2017, Watergen donated one of its large
scale AWGs and a GEN-350 AWG to the
American Red Cross and the Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency (FEMA) to
help in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey
and Irma. Watergen also has an Emergency
Response Vehicle (ERV), which is a
customised heavy-duty truck that securely
transports Watergen’s units in emergency
situations and natural disasters. The
company was a first responder during
recent floods in Houston, Texas and sent
manpower and its GEN-350 unit to the
wildfires in California. Its mobile, flexible
Feature 21
technology can provide water quickly
and easily where there is very little
infrastructure.
Severe drought
Recently, Watergen was chosen by World
Vision South Africa to launch a mobile
water generation project for communi-
ties stricken with severe drought in the
Eastern Cape. The drought has been
caused by many different factors,
including an increasing population, ineffi-
cient water infrastructure and a depend-
ence on water by the coal industry. The
atmospheric water generator chosen for
the job was the GEN-350 because of
ease of transportation and installation.
Over the next two years, the project will
provide fresh, safe-drinking water to 50
early childhood development centres
and almost all the 79 schools located in
Uitenhage and KwaNobuhle. At least four
clinics in an estimated 3,400 households
are also expected to benefit.
Water for the future
As it looks to the future, Watergen’s vision
is to use its technology to provide a
renewable source of high-quality drinking
water, extracted from the air and make it
available anywhere, on demand and at a
reasonable cost. Dr Michael Mirilashvili,
president of Watergen, says: “Access to
clean drinking water is an innate human
right. No one in the 21st century deserves
to live without access to clean drinking
water, our mission at Watergen is to
provide clean and safe drinking water to
all people around the globe.”
•
www.watergen.com
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