AFR Winner

Employees: 500+

Project Gilghi is a breakthrough off-grid water purifying system to help solve water inequality in remote Indigenous communities. A water treatment unit pumps groundwater from a bore, passing it through three stages of water treatment: advanced filtration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection. It is powered by solar coupled to battery storage and a novel electrical control system.

The unit uses smart batteries to store electricity generated from solar when water demand is low. Water is extracted and treated when demand is low. The design optimises when energy can be generated versus when water is needed. It combines electrical and water storage systems to find the optimum point between the electrical/water demand profiles.

This breakthrough enabled the previously prohibitive cost of water treatment to be reduced because it uses smaller, more efficient components The unit operates without access to mains water or grid power. Housed within a 20ft shipping container and plug and play commissioning, it is serviced by people in the communities and is monitored in real-time via 3G/4G or satellite. Output is scalable from a base of 28kL per day to 250kL per day.