Water may be a renewable resource, replenished in nature, but its availability for human consumption is increasingly under strain owing to overuse, pollution of rivers and lakes, and altered rainfall patterns due to global warming, among other reasons.
Efforts to mimic nature’s water cycle on an industrial scale have largely proved expensive and energy-intensive.
Uravu Labs, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup, attempts to look for alternative solutions. As Swapnil Shrivastav, a co-founder of the five-year-old company, explains, “Existing condensation-based technology is similar to air conditioners. Many companies in this space create cold surfaces using compressors and refrigerants to condense the moisture in the air.”
This consumes a lot of power and costs ₹8-10 to produce a litre of water. Crucially, it is not sustainable in the long run owing to the environmental impacts of refrigerants.
“Sourcing water from air was (earlier) expensive and not very scalable. Uravu solves both these problems using its liquid desiccant-based technology,” he says.
The company uses a solution of calcium chloride, which is not only non-toxic but also affordable since it’s the second most abundant salt in nature. It acts as a desiccant — namely absorbs moisture from the air passed over it.
Heat energy is then applied at about 60°C. At this temperature, all the absorbed moisture is released as steam, which the company collects as freshwater.
Cost saving
Uravu uses waste heat from industries — boilers, chimneys, distilleries, and data centres — to save on cost and power. “We sell water at ₹3-4 per litre and hope to lower it to less than a rupee,” Shrivastav says.
The two main equipments used are the absorber and desorber, and Uravu manufactures both.
“Today our production capacity is 4,000 litres per day (LPD). In Bangalore, we plan to expand capacity to 10,000 LPD; we want to run projects in other cities like Mumbai and Delhi, and reach about 1 lakh LPD capacity in two years,” he says.
The company’s process generates distilled water free of impurities and minerals. To make it potable, the company adds food-grade minerals using a copper- and zinc-enhanced proprietary formula.
It supplies to the premium hospitality and beverage segment through a water-as-a-service model. It has multi-year contracts with The Leela, Hyatt, Royal Orchid, BYG Ventures, and 40 other customers. It next targets real estate and business-to-business (B2B) industrial applications.
Bottling line
Since many hotels and restaurants ask for bottled water, Uravu has integrated a glass bottle packaging line at its manufacturing unit.
“Around 50 customers in Bangalore buy our packaged water. We take care of water production, quality checks, filling, and capping.”
The company has raised $3.5 million from venture capital firms like Speciale Invest, Anicut Capital, Rocketship.vc, and Verso Capital. It is now seeking series A funding.
Uravu’s beverage business is already Ebitda-positive, along with its factory operations. Its sales grew five times in the last three quarters and it achieved $340,000 annual recurring revenue (ARR) in March and $450,000 in April this year.
Uravu says it has sold over 500,000 bottles of water, helping conserve over 750,000 litres of groundwater — that is 2.5 litres saved for every litre produced from air.