AUTARCON GmbH is a Germany based SME founded in 2010 in Kassel. The company develops and operates water treatment systems that assure the long term supply of safe drinking water in developing regions without connections to basic infrastructure systems. With the SuMeWa|SYSTEM, the company offers a robust and reliable technology platform which is capable to operate under nearly all local source water conditions.
By 2019 AUTARCON about 50 treatment stations are running in 12 countries and supplying remote villages, hospitals, schools and desert oases with safe drinking water.
It is AUTARCONs core philosophy to assure a reliable water treatment independent from any external chemical or energy supply. The applied treatment modules neither need a frequent exchange of filtration media nor do they require chemical cleaning. All treatment processes are based on natural process using e.g. the combinations of physical filtration, biological oxidation and solar driven electrochemical disinfection. The latter is required to assure residual disinfection of water and is mediated by the production of small quantities of chlorine from the natural mineral content of the water. The stations use solar generated electricity to pump, treat and store the water. The water quality is online monitored and continuously adapted if required. Depending on local source water conditions the stations are adapted to remove turbidity from surface waters as well as iron, manganese or even arsenic from ground waters. With this technical approach AUTARCON has reached a system reliability that is unmet by its competitors. If required, AUTARCON modules can be combined with alternative technology providers, such as, River Bank Filtration, UF or RO membrane systems.
Within the LOTUS project, AUTARCON will implement a SuMeWa|SYSTEM into a water tanker, where it assures the water quality of the delivered water using the signals from the LOTUS sensor. The target is, to produce minor quantities of residual disinfectant to keep the water safe during the transport. The water quality will be continuously monitored and transferred to the tanker operator as well as the customers purchasing this water.
Core competencies:
- Water disinfection
- Control and process optimization of self sufficient water treatment processes applied in remote regions
- Renewable energy supply
- Online water quality control and data transmission
Link to the website: www.autarcon.com
Name of the main contact: Philippe Otter
Position of the main contact: Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Lear Research and Development
Contact [mail]: otter(at)autarcon.com