Genius in a Bottle

Two Penn grads with a big plan for potable water.

by Brian Howard

Aakash Mathur (left) and Jay Parekh with the Hydros Bottle.

The April issue of National Geographic magazine was a 200-page single-issue monstrosity titled "Water: Our Thirsty World." While wading through it, this jumped out: Just 2.5 percent of Earth's water is of the fresh variety, and two-thirds of that is frozen (and increasingly melting into the ocean) while desalination of salt water remains expensive.

Here in Philadelphia, nestled between two rivers and blessed with a top-notch water department, we take water for granted. But access to fresh and, importantly, drinkable water is perhaps the most distinct divider between prosperity and poverty.

Two Penn grads have a small idea they hope will make a big difference. Aakash Mathur, 22, and Jay Parekh, 23, were at the GoGreenExpo in Oaks last weekend showing off a little marvel they call the Hydros Bottle. It is, simply, a water bottle that's also a filter. But unlike a Brita, which takes forever to do its dirty work, Hydros filters almost instantaneously. Without getting too technical, the duo (Mathur graduated from Wharton; Parekh studied engineering) created a filter with more surface area to do the job more quickly. "That was a priority for us," says Mathur. "Part of our proprietary system comes from our use of filtration pellets," Parekh adds.

A spring at Operation Hydros' Gundun, Cameroon, project with Engineers Without Borders. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Right now, what they've got is a bottle (available since late March at hydrosbottle.com) made of all locally sourced parts, using the same Tritan material used in Nalgene bottles, that could negate the need to ever buy a bottle of water in the States again. If it catches on, that would be huge in and of itself (consider: It takes something like 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water). But the Hydros guys are thinking bigger. Through Operation Hydros, $1 from every bottle they sell will go toward a joint project with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to bring safe drinking water to those without access. The current target is Gundom, Cameroon, where EWB — applying the "appropriate technology" philosophy — is building concrete structures around natural mountainside springs to prevent contamination from surface water.

The big vision for the Hydros guys, however, involves bringing the portability of the bottle they've engineered for the American market. They'd like to develop bottles for urban areas with running water that's not safe to drink. "In terms of having a filter ready, it's going to be a few years, and will depend on the places we target," says Parekh. "Water in Mumbai is different than water in Mexico City."

Aligning with another Penn startup called Innova Materials that works in nanotechnology and material science, the 37th-and-Spruce-based Hydros Bottle guys have already begun testing with metals like arsenic, but are not rushing to go international. "We're building our company and brand," says Mathur, "so that we're able to go worldwide with the right weight and experience. We don't want to rush into things and wing it."

I'll drink to that.

(bhoward@citypaper.net)