Water & Wastewater Asia September/October 2019

42 | OPINION
Atmospheric Water
Generators gaining
prominence in
water-scarce areas
By Sumit Gunawant Kulkarni, Research Analyst, Adroit Market Research
Water scarcity is one of the
major issues of today’s world.
Water covers more than
70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. However,
potable water accounts for a mere 2.5 per
cent, which is insufficient to cater to the
needs of an ever-growing populace. Water
scarcity is evident in geographic locations
which do not have adequate fresh water
resources, such as ponds, rivers and
long coastlines. In order to address these
issues, countries meet their demands by
water treatment technologies such as
desalination, which is a costly affair. To a
considerable extent these technologies
are capable of meeting usable water
requirements, especially when it comes
to the locations that are in proximity to
aquatic systems.
However, they have still not been able
to establish themselves as an effective
solution in addressing issues especially
in rain shadow areas (dry areas on the
leeward side of a mountainous area). Such a
scenario has led to the development of water
capturing technologies from alternative
non-aquatic sources. Atmospheric water
generators (AWG) are one example of such
developments to gain prominence over the
recent years. These systems are not only
used for moisture capture, but also for
purification of gaseous or air streams in
industries. In other words, AWGs address
both water and air pollution concerns.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Atmospheric water generators extract water
or moisture content from humid air and purify
it. In 2018, the global atmospheric water
generator market revenue was valued at
approximately USD 2.03 billion.
Growing AWG adoption in steel processing,
pulp and paper, oil and gas, and power plants
is expected to increase the market demand
in the future. In 2017, The International
Monetary Fund stated that world economic
growth was more than three per cent, which
in turn is expected to create more demand for
oil and gas in the future. As a consequence,
this is considered to boost the usage of
extraction equipment and water treatment
machinery. Growing demand to reuse water
through eradication of oil contaminants from
produced water and discharge, to boost use
of AWGs in the oil and gas sector by 2025.
Global atmospheric water generator
industry is fragmented in nature as large
number of manufacturers are operating
in developing countries such as India and
China. Some prominent players are Dew Point
Manufacturing, Water-Gen Ltd, Konia, Saisons
Technocom Pvt Ltd, Water Technologies
International Inc, Ecoloblue Inc, Island
Sky Corporation, Watair Inc, WaterMaker
India Pvt Ltd, Air2Water LLC, Ambient
Water, Eurosport Active World Corporation
Technologies, Planets Water, and Fujian Yuxin
Electronic Co.
Water & Wastewater Asia • September / October 2019