A South African business has ordered Cape Town’s first water bottling plant that makes water from just the air.
Ray de Vries, spokesman for the supply company, the Airwater Group (AWG), said that this was the first of many expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks as the water crisis bites deeper and ‘day zero’ fast approaches.
“This novel humidity harvester is the answer to the massive water crisis facing schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and other commercial operations that face closing down because of the lack of water,” he said.
A single Airwater Meker bottling plant can generate enough water from the air to fill up to 3 000 standard 500ml bottles per day. The plant is scalable and machines can be added as demand grows.
“To put this into perspective, that is enough water for the needs of 30-40 restaurants. The company supplies smaller machines that make enough water from the air to meet the tea, coffee, sodastream and other needs of the restaurant.”
De Vries is one of the pioneers of the commercialisation of this technology on the continent. He describes himself as an innovator rather than an inventor.
“I am even more excited now than I was eleven years ago when I started this project. This is the third drought for which my team and I have provided solutions, although the Cape Town situation is by far the worst and is fast sliding from a crisis into a catastrophe.
The Airwarter Maker cools air down to dew point, causing condensation to occur. The condensation drops into an ultra violet bin and is then passed through a 9-point filtration process as well as inline ultra violet sterilisers. The resultant water is very soft and alkaline, making for a very tasy and healthy drink.
“We are super proud that these machines are made in South Africa by South Africans and for South Africans. We have many entrepreneurs who see the enormous business opportunities that the Airwater Maker brings and are keen to get involved in a profitable win-win.