Grino Water Solutions has taken on one of the world’s most critical problems in providing clean drinking water with their business concept and has delivered a clever solution: solar-powered water treatment systems.
The Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) alumni and founders of Grino Water Solutions, Josef Schütz, Alireza Derakhshan and Farzaneh Ahmadloo, were voted as FAU Innovator 2021 in the Alumni category. The award will be presented at the FAU Dies academicus on 4 November.
Grino Water Solutions demonstrated their business concept in the programme “We are #FAU – Bringing innovation to life” which was shown on 20 July by local German broadcasting company Franken Fernsehen. During the programme, three start-up teams who are associated with FAU were invited to showcase their business concepts. Following the programme, the public were invited to vote for the most innovative start-up idea. Start-ups “Duschbrocken” and “OnlineTasting” also took part in the programme.
The vision of Grino Water Solutions: Clean drinking water for everyone
Around 844 million people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water but it doesn’t have to stay this way. The product developed by Grino Water Solutions promises access to drinking water for people in remote areas. The start-up was founded in 2017 by FAU alumni Josef Schütz, Alireza Derakhshan, Farzaneh Ahmadloo and Sebastian Hörlin. Their water treatment system can operate decentrally, automatically and is solar-powered instead of using batteries which is more sustainable and cost-effect than comparable approaches. Thanks to the sustainable and cost-effective procedure, a pilot project that started in Ghana in October 2020 has already began filtering saltwater to provide clean drinking water for more than 600 school children and the local community.
READ: Grino, Africa GreenTec partner for solar water treatment in West Africa
Collaboration to empower Africa
Grino has announced that it is officially part of Africa GreenTec ImpactSite. In the ImpactSite, components for power production, cooling, water treatment, and communication are combined to offer new opportunities for the local village residents to increase productivity. The main goal of the collaboration between Grino and Africa GreenTec is to provide an independent and permanent solution to overcome all uncertainties and boundaries of water and electricity production and distribution.
Grino’s dynamic water purification systems are integrated into Africa GreenTec ImpactSite to develop a unique innovative solution that operates with the highest efficiency and lowest maintenance. This year, Grino has provided 20 solar water purification systems for Africa GreenTec ImpactSites in different countries with the mission, not only to directly contribute to SDG6 and SDG7, but also to meet almost all Sustainable Development Goals by improving the standard of living, local businesses, and enhancing the role of women.
Grino Water Solutions (Grino) is a spin-off company from FAU university and developed a novel water purification solution powered by renewable energy. The product is an off-grid battery-free fully automated water desalination and purification system. The dynamic operation of Grino systems enables simple integration into existing Micro/Mini-Grids to provide water and to stabilize the grid frequency at the same time.
Africa GreenTech (AGT) develops, builds, supplies, and operates ImpactSites. With products like the powerful Solartainer®, AGT relies on solar energy, the most logical and at the same time cleanest energy source in Africa. AGT empowers people to achieve more self-determination and growth through sustainable energy solutions.