Aditya Patnaik is the CEO, Co-Founder at Lustral Water, a B2C model-based company that pioneered World’s First Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Internet of Things (IoT) enabled water purifier with inbuilt sensors. In his current position, Aditya is responsible for developing the long and short-term strategies of the company while aligning the ultimate vision and goal with the stakeholders. He is also managing the overall operations and resources of the company. After completing his Bachelor’s from Utkal University in 2006 he pursued a diploma in Pharmacy from the Institute of Pharmacy and Technology (IPT), Salipur. Aditya has worked with multiple notable companies in his remarkable professional journey, including Nicholas Piramal Limited, Orissa, Lupin Limited and Jubilant Life Sciences.
It all started on a kitchen counter which had two glasses of purified RO water. Seeing this the thought struck us if what we were consuming is actually purified water? I wanted to be able to answer this question by keeping the purification process of water more transparent. Lustral would do that for every household and that’s all it took for us to be set on this path where we wanted to guarantee that the water that is consumed by people is in fact true to its claim. Of course, this would be a challenge as we live in a world where there is black marketing of water. UV/RO filters are also not fully efficient leading to poor quality of water being consumed by us. Our basic rights entitle us to clean water suitable for our health. But water safety is under prioritised and the reality is that less than 50% of the population have access to purified water. We as a team intend to change this current situation.
We are fortunate enough to be living in a time where our sources are not limited by technology. Having a vision of becoming a company to responsibly offer water treatment products and services is praiseworthy at a time where water purity levels are decreasing by the minute. Cleantech has used GRAVITY; a basics physics principle to develop an ingenious way to purify water at a nominal cost. The system is divided into 4 steps:
Pre-treatment involves RAKE which helps in separating the large solid materials from entering the facility. Then a SOLID/LIQUID SEPARATOR is used which as the name suggests removes various types of liquid phase from the solid phase using gravity and mechanical pressing. This is followed by the subsequent cleaning process by processing the dissolved solid materials using a filter membrane or COMPACT BIO REACTORS and finally the SLUDGE DRAINAGE PROCESSES the solids separated earlier by the solid/liquid separator. Simple physics is used to clean water by creating a vortex which sends the water swirling down as though it’s going down a drain. As the speed increases all the solid materials form a beam and is sucked out with the help of a vacuum leaving the water re-usable. All this is done in a container with no lingering odour or noise. Thus making it possible for a ten-meter-high container to remove solids and biological material from wastewater. A single container can purify all the water needed for a large hotel or a small village of 200-1,000 people and this using almost no energy at all. The only energy it needs is to push up the water to the top of the container. Larger container may purify enough water for a small city with 1,000 – 50,000 inhabitants.
Similarly, ULTRAFILTRATION has been a game changer in the pre and post treatment of Ion and RO systems. It ensures superior output with its stringent design offering a smooth flow of operations. Quick installation which suits the modern times with no compromise and the result has been appreciated by customers. The advanced monitoring and controlling system brings a highly energy efficient system that is long lasting with hassle free maintenance.
Technology has advanced to bring us benefits from the comfort of our home and we wanted to exploit this as best we could. My team and I came together to form a prototype for Lustral 3 yrs ago. I can now proudly say that we have successfully installed the gadget in a few households and are growing steadily to achieve our goal of providing humankind with a safer and smarter future. Our IOT based water purifiers are powered by Artificial Intelligence and rely on real-time data to validate the water purification process. With Lustral Water you can check the PH level, learn the details of minerals present in the dispensed water, watch the TDS level and can even understand the condition of the filtration candles inside the purifier. In line with the present trend of gadgets being upgraded to smart gadgets, we designed an App which is compatible with any such instrument, allowing the user to be notified, the moment there is any drop in the filtration process. Lustral water is smart, user friendly and brings something new to the table with its unparalleled technology to satisfy modern generation’s curiosity to validate any product before using. The surprise lies in the fact that we are able to achieve this entire feat at a nominal cost of Rs. 200 per month.
This of course was not an overnight achievement. The product design was completed in Jun 2019 and by 2020 we had a working prototype on hand with finalized manufactures and a backend App which would help us spread the importance of water validation. All these factors were equally important to bring Lustral to the open market. We are happy to announce that we have been able to make validation of water possible from its present usage in a laboratory to the indoor of your homes.
We are thankful for our 3 years long association with Medibuddy DocsApp, which is a successful healthcare initiative that has been downloaded 5 million times. This experience definitely helped us in our current project.
Though, we have not faced any major constraints in our journey so far; we are creating daily challenges for ourselves to reach higher standards.
We are going aggressive and by 2025 we will be able to reach 60% of the population of our country, and it will be every householder’s dream come true to drink pure water, which is absolutely their right. I feel satisfied and overwhelmed when I look at the future and see that affordability and accessibility walk hand in hand.