Contest is to create a device that extracts a minimum of 2,000 litres of water per day from air using renewable energy

Indian start-up Uravu that has developed a technology to create water from air is among the five finalists in a global competition. The two-year competition is to create a device that extracts a minimum of 2,000 litres of water per day from air using 100% renewable energy.

The Hyderabad-based company would compete with four other companies in the final round of Water Abundance XPRIZE, worth $1.75 million. The five finalists were selected from 98 teams in the previous round from 25 countries, and would share a $250,000 milestone prize purse. The winners would receive $1.5 million, to be announced in August 2018.

Los Angeles-based XPRIZE, which designs incentive competitions to solve humanity’s big challenges, is running the water abundance prize with the support of Tata Group and Australian Aid.

Uravu is run by a multidisciplinary team of five, with engineering, sciences, architecture and design backgrounds. The young team says it “believes in working on hard problems which are technologically achievable and also culturally and socially salient”. “Solving challenges around water not only requires amazing technology, but empathy and systems thinking,” a release from XPRIZE said on the team’s vision.

Led by Swapnil Shrivastav, Amit, Bharath, Sandeep and Venkatesh are other members of the group. “The team is developing a completely off-grid water-from-air device, spinning together the magic of material sciences and solar thermal energy,” the release said. A scalable device of this nature could revolutionise access to fresh water. The finalists would begin round two testing in July 2018 at a location to be determined yet. During this phase, teams must fully demonstrate that their device can extract a minimum of 2,000 litres of water per day from the atmosphere using 100% renewable energy, at a cost of no more than two cents per litre, the XPRIZE said. “At the end of the testing phase, the team whose solution enables the greatest ability to create decentralised access to water, giving people the power to access fresh water whenever and wherever they need it, will win the prize,” the release said.