H2OLL, an innovative Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) technology developed at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, has won the prestigious Water Europe Innovation Award for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
More than 10% of the world’s population — over 670 million people — presently have no access to clean drinking water, impacting public health, education, and gender equality. It’s why access to water is a critical part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: clean water means better health and well-being, a healthier climate, a stronger education system. It even has implications for gender equality, as in many places in the world, children — girls in particular — are required to provide water to the family at the expense of attending classes at school.
The H2OLL technology was developed by Professors David Broday and Eran Friedler from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and was patented by the Technion. The development team is headed by Mr. Ilan Katz (M.Sc.) as CTO, Mr. Oded Distel who leads the business development, and Dr. Khaled Gommed from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. H2OLL uses atmospheric moisture harvesting technology, capable of extracting moisture from the air by an absorption-desorption cycle. The new technology generates pure and safe drinking water year long. Because it requires very little energy, it can work in all seasons, geographic areas, and times of day.
The Technion research team built a prototype at the Technion’s Environmental Technologies Yard, which has been producing potable water since the winter of 2019-2020 and serves as a proof of concept. H2OLL is en route to becoming a company and to commercializing the technology.