Partner organization : Department of Chemistry, IIT Bombay

Project Leader : Dr. C. Subramaniam, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay 

A research project, to develop a rural household nano technology based water purifier, through capacitive deionization, using carbon nanotubes coated cellulosic threads as anode and cathode. It handles water upto 4000 TDS, with less than 5% water wastage, and running on a single 1.5 V cell. As against this, a typical RO system consumes more electricity and has over 50% water wastage.

Objectives: 

  • Reduce TDS in water at house-hold level – for upto 4000 TDS
  • Wastage <=5%  (as compared to >50% in RO plants)
  • Nano-technology filters based electrostatic deionization
  • Achieve cost efficiency of less than 1 Rs/litre

WIN is supporting for the following: 

  • To convert its laboratory scale product into a prototype for field testing
  • 50 prototypes under production – To be tested in various usage conditions with actual users in underdeveloped areas. Additional prototypes may produced at very low incremental cost
  • Prepare plan for a sustainable social business enterprise with objective to progress further to enable for production optimized design, mass production and nationwide marketing with a strong social impact focus. 

About Indian Institute of Bombay (IITB) and Dr. C. Subramaniam

Project Leader : Dr. C. Subramaniam is Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry,  Indian Institute of Technology Bombay  

Established in 1958, as an institute if national importance, IIT Bombay has grown from strength to strength to emerge as one of the top technical universities in the world. The institute is recognised worldwide as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. Reputed for the outstanding calibre of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, the institute attracts the best students from the country for its bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes. Research and academic programmes at IIT Bombay are driven by an outstanding faculty, many of whom are reputed for their research contributions internationally.

For more details, visit the IITB  website.

Further Information

  1. Publication on  Water Treatment – ACS Applied Material and Interfaces  (click here)
  2. IIT Bombay’s very low power water filter –  The Hindu online Article (click here)
  3. Bottom-up approach to capacitive deionization – Presentation (click here)