Manhat at COP28: UAE Startup Promises Water Desalination Without Electricity

Manhat is making the most of the COP28 Summit in Dubai to promote its vision of food and water security with products that generate fresh water without electricity. Saeed Alhassan has described the technology as an ambitious one.

“This is an opportunity to meet and network with potential investors, technology providers or NGOs to bring our product to the market,” said the Emirati founder, who is also a chemical and petroleum engineering professor at Khalifa University.

Current Desalination Process Has A Lot Of Problems

The device uses proprietory technology to generate fresh water without using electricity, addressing one of the most significant hurdles as the Arabian Gulf looks for ways to ensure water and food security, that has historically been a problem in the region.

Pointing to one of the devices, Alhassan said “water basically evaporates from the bottom side,” adding “then it goes up and it fills this sphere, and when the night comes and the temperature drops, then the water condenses inside and gets collected in this reservoir here.”

He highlighted that the current energy-intensive desalination process has a lot of problems. In the current process, the brine also collects a lot of contaminants and it eventually goes back to the ocean and has an effect on aquatic life.

The UAE startup seeks to bring the technology to market as soon as possible. It is in the process of finding a better price point for its proprietory devices to bring them to the masses, the founder further noted, according to The National.

Water Scarcity “Inherently Woven Into Our Imagination”

Moreover, a floating farm is also part of Manhat’s vision. “A floating farm will always produce water because you have access to the ocean and you can grow crops in an efficient way,” Alhassan added. The company’s devices have been able to generate a buzz online.

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Alhassan highlighted that “the water challenge is inherently woven into our imagination,” noting that the devices luring in substantial attention is not surprising from a Middle East and North Africa perspective due to the region’s historical struggle with water scarcity.