The Earth’s water supply is – paradoxically – both abundant and scarce. The planet has more than 1,400M km3 of water, of which 97.25% in the form of oceans and seas. However, freshwater represents just 2.75% of that volume or 39M km3. Already today, nearly half of the EU countries suffer from water scarcity and thereof foremost the farmers (and so agriculture sector), accounting for 80% of freshwater demand. Against this background, BIGEKA has developed an innovative, energy-efficient and sustainable technology to generate atmospheric water (DAPHNE) cost-efficiently (by using specially designed and produced nano-engineered materials that offer great potential for water innovations) and environmentally-friendly (by minimizing the groundwater need in agriculture and other negative externalities, including salinity and stream depletion)
DAPHNE uses nanostructured surfaces to produce 300% more water than any other system in the market at 8000% lower weight (0.1 kg instead of 80 kg) which brings efficiency, feasibility and mobility. The worldwide market for industrial and domestic water equipment is worth an estimated EUR 918.9M in 2015. With growing concern in water availability, it is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 37.4% to 2022 and the market value of the water withdrawal market rises is expected to reach EUR 9.3B.
BIGEKA is delighted to be a pioneer of this innovative project and the introduction of DAPHNE into the market will have a positive impact on: i) the economy of farmers (our customers), by allowing them to use water at lower costs ii) the environment, and iii) BIGEKA’s economic growth.
We envision that DAPHNE will reach long-term sustainability and will also become very profitable. We estimate an NPV of € 1M and a payback period of 6 years. DAPHNE will result in about €25.9M annual turnover and create 66 new jobs, most highly qualified jobs.
