Story behind founding AirCool
Derrick's and my family were very close. We received scholarships from Buganda Kingdom Education fund in Kampala the principal city in the country. And so had to leave our families in the village to pursue our educations.
We had barely been away for two years when we received a call from the village stating that Derrick's parent and his two beautiful sisters had all perished mysteriously during the night.
They didn't have a single scratch and so witchcraft allegations were cited as the probable causes. As I became older, I started questioning witchcraft more and more and therefore after high school I initiated my own research to ensure that I really knew the cause of their deaths. I kept going to health centers to ask about their post mortem results and later through inquiries from Mr. John Katurebe the head Doctor at the health center in my community I was able to understand that my beloved friends had been killed by the carbon monoxide poisoning that was produced by their charcoal stove cooking beans at night.
Extent of the problem
According to the World Health organization, Uganda is listed among the 21 countries worst affected by indoor pollution in the world. This mainly results from the massive use of solid fuels especially in the rural population of the country that covers over 90% of the overall. These main gas component particles from coal and wood fuels are sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, black carbon and nitrogen dioxide result into respiratory, cardiovascular complications and cancer. Current statistics state that Uganda now loses 2,540 people to respiratory and 1,900 people to pulmonary diseases all related to indoor pollution and this is mainly cause by the overwhelming use of open flames to cook, kerosene lighting among others.
From our pilot, we realized that we had to identify another problem that our target population really looks at as more valuable solving and this leads to the massive postharvest waste among smallholder farmers. A study carried out by Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) and Uganda National Farmers’ Federation (UNFFE) shows that on average rural Ugandan farmers lose over 67% of their produce due to waste because of poor postharvest handling since most of the people do not have effective alternatives where they can store their food. This leads to a cycle of hunger whenever between harvest and plant maturity time but also during drought and this has consequently led to over 1.3 million people starving in the country according to FAO.
Business overview
Rural African communities that live off of the electric grid face numerous health and safety issues in their homes. We are focused on developing multi-purpose solar powered household appliances. We have developed proprietary solar appliance platform that allows me to add different types of functionality to serve multiple needs. Our current prototype uses solar to power vacuum technology which solves two problems, first as an air purifier to address toxic fumes from cooking fires and second as a suction device to vacuum pack food for longer term storage. Our flexible installment-based payment, microfinancing and subsidies of up to 60% of device price provided by our partner non-profit organizations offer enough options that ensure that even the poorest people living below the poverty line can access our products.
Our flagship AirCool ACA03 eliminates four of the most abundant toxic air pollutant particles that cause respiratory, heart and cancer complications in humans when inhaled. The same device also preserves food for up to 4 times longer without removing any of the nutrients in the fresh farm produce. We do this using vacuum technology that eliminates all surviving conditions for organisms that make food go bad.
We identified through research that treating terminal health conditions like those caused by malnutrition and indoor pollution is a major source of poverty. Also hunger and malnutrition especially to young children and expectant mothers permanently affects the brain capacity of these children permanently therefore tremendously affecting our productive populations in future.
We initially started with the air purifying product but with market research and pilots studies we made, we realized that the product would not penetrate the market since it is a trend that low income communities tend not to care about the quality of air they breathe even if air pollution kills more people than HIV and malaria combined since it kills silently. We had to identify a first-hand problem which is food security and by adding an auxiliary benefit on the same device. With this we are able to convince our customers get an air purifier for themselves also fight hunger and malnutrition.
The device is able to self-start whenever it senses air quality levels not healthy for its users to survive therefore minimizing chances of any incidences where people die or are constantly exposed to these gases.
Technical overview
The AirCool ACA03 device has an air purifying component which eliminates the most abundant toxic air pollutants in developing countries. These include; Sulfur dioxide, Nitrogen dioxide, Carbon monoxide and black carbon. Apart from the health effects brought by these gases to humans, circulation of gases like Nitrogen dioxide and Sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere leads to SOx and NOx cycles that lead to the formation of Ozone which is a leading greenhouse gas that escalates climate change. This component of the device is not only clean technology specifically designed for low cost and rural households but it is also the first one for markets like this that is built on artificial intelligence. Thanks to low cost sensors from the Hunnigan laboratories, we are able to attach low cost electro-chemical sensors that enable itself start, stop quantify and alert users whenever the levels get extremely toxic. This eliminates chances of any of its users accidentally getting into dangers of exposure.
Elimination of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, black carbon and carbon monoxide is enabled by three inbuilt activated carbon filters which are impregnated with three different catalysts that make adsorption more efficient and faster thus create a triple filtration in a continuous flow method of air around the house escalated by inbuilt inflator fans. The filters are easily replaceable by the users themselves without requiring external support and since we manufacture them ourselves from oil palm shells that are a large agricultural waste in rural farming families, they are affordable and always sold at nearby grocery stores of the places we cover.
Component and use case 2 of this device is the two food storage units which preserves fresh produce and all organic food matter without changing its physical state or altering its nutrients. We two fans that create a vacuum in these units thereby eliminating all living conditions for all living organisms that make food go bad. This part is also connected to the sensory unit which makes sure there is 100% vacuum all the time.
This device has a detachable solar panel that is always installed outside the user’s house. Only the vacuum food preservation unit has a switch but the air purifier is self-controlled thanks to AI.
Startup Awards
- Smogathon global competition for air pollution fighting startups 2017 semi finalist (only team from Africa).
- $13,000 Watson institute scholarship class of fall 2017 (only team from Africa).
- Nokia top 20 innovations 2017.
- Red Empress foundation grant recipient 2017.
Team
- Charles Muhanguzi - Founder and CEO (Electrical engineer/Entrepreneur)
- Asiimwe Francis Xavier - Technical director (professional chemist)
- Ivar Guererro Ruiz - Business (Business undergraduate at Lynn University Florida)
Advisory team
- Lupita Montoya (Professor in the environmental engineering department at University of Colorado Boulder)
- Aaron Lamplugh (Mechanical Engineering PhD student at University of Colorado Boulder)
- Jesse Lawrence (Founder and CEO of Boulder Bits)
- Andrew Larson (CEO of Gustave A. Larson company)
