Executive Summary
Sem Sal Systems
Desalination in Mozambique
Amanda Bailey, Aya Beiso, David Zaremsky, Gabrielle Gundermann, Jeffrey Morgan,
Luke Gockowski, Paul Archuletta, and Tony Bae
PI: Khanjan Mehta, Director, HESE Program
Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program
The Pennsylvania State University
Mozambique
Website: https://sites.psu.edu/semsalsystems/
<Three>-minute Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w_r7FITu1I
I. Problem/Market Opportunity
Venture Overview
Sem Sal Systems is a for profit venture addressing needs of food insecurity in Mozambique through a
novel yet simple desalination system that provides water for entrepreneurial farmers to increase
production, efficiency, and profit. The system uses proven technology engineered to work in the context
of a small scale farm that has access to brackish water, characterized by having less salt than seawater but
too much to be used for anything productive. The system is built locally in Mozambique using off the
shelf, low cost components combined with a proprietary method of processing agricultural waste into
biochar that pulls the salt out of the brackish water. This system is scalable, profitable from year two, and
can easily provide sufficient water to operate greenhouses in areas otherwise useless to agriculture.
Demand for Water in Mozambique’s Agricultural Sector
In Mozambique, agriculture is the primary user of water consumption with more than 70% of water going
towards farming. 78% of that water comes from unreliable sources that are either weather dependent
(Surface water) or easily contaminated by saltwater intrusion (Shallow wells). The lack of water
independence leads to a shortened growing season (6 months), which prevents the 3.2 million-subsistence
farms from producing all of the crops necessary to support the country. This contributes to the growing
epidemic of food insecurity. 34% of Mozambique is chronically food insecure and forces people to rely
on expensive imports from South Africa and other neighboring countries. Central and Southern
Mozambique is greatly affected by this problem and leaves 1.5 million people acutely food insecure.
A Repeating Story From Mozambican Farmers
One of the 1.5 million people affected by this epidemic is Thomas. Thomas is a middle aged,
entrepreneurial farmer. He has been farming for many years in Mozambique after his parents taught him
how to trade. Within the last 5 years, Thomas has started noticing that his crops are failing to grow within
the normal yields he’s experienced all of his life. He soon realized that other farmers using water from the
same local well are experiencing similar effects. Together they reason that there has been saltwater
intrusion within the well causing the fresh water to become contaminated brackish water. Thomas must
resort to waiting for rainwater, but his town is currently experiencing a drought. Without a reliable source
of water to grow his crops, Thomas is struggling to support his family.
Why We Exist
Sem Sal Systems was established to enable entrepreneurial farmers in Mozambique to achieve greater
water access for their agriculture, increase their revenue and better support their families, and improve
food security nationally and in their local communities.
II. Our Solution
Technological Innovation
Capacitive deionization (CDI) technology has been around for nearly half a century. First demonstrated to
be commercially viable by George Reid in 19681, large-scale CDI facilities for brackish water
desalination, wastewater remediation, and water softening have since grown in popularity around the
world. In the context of Mozambique, however, small-scale brackish water desalination systems are
uniquely appropriate and propose several advantages over larger-scale desalination systems.
Comparing nine desalination technologies, including CDI, on the basis of initial investment, energy cost,
operation and maintenance cost, water pre-treatment requirements, and water post-treatment
requirements, we found that CDI technology outperformed its competitors. Despite these attractive
qualities, little research has been done to elucidate the feasibility of small-scale, low-cost, and
technologically appropriate desalination systems for resource-constrained settings. Sem Sal Systems’
innovation emerges from this niche.
Product and Service
Sem Sal Systems offers a $1000 desalination system (Figure 1) capable of reducing the salt content of
200 liters of brackish water (500ppm – 5,000ppm) to levels appropriate for productive agriculture
(<100ppm) via CDI desalination. This baseline mode of operation, producing a minimum of 200 liters per
day, is enough to sustain a 36 m2 plot of crops--yielding an estimated average annual income of $1,500
USD per farmer.
Figure 1. Sem Sal Systems 210L brackish water desalination system.
In addition to offering a quality product, Sem Sal Systems plans to deliver the system to customers,
provide demonstrations of the system in the local communities, educate individual farmers about system
use and maintenance, and partner with local kiosks for accessible maintenance. The specifications of the
system (Table 1) dictate that after approximately three-hundred cycles the CDI cell (i.e. the red bucket in
Figure 1) will need to be removed from the system and exchanged for a new one at a local kiosk for a
small fee.
Table 1. Performance specifications of the 210L CDI brackish water desalination system.
Status of Technology
To date, Penn State researchers Ram Rajagopalan, Randy Vander Wal, and Arupananda Sengupta have
developed a functional lab-scale CDI cell, and are continually amassing data to improve upon it’s
performance. The results they have already accrued informed the design of the system-scale prototype
illustrated in Figure 1 above. In the coming year, our team of researchers hopes to investigate the
fabrication processes necessary to convert local Mozambican biomass into biochar electrodes suitable for
CDI brackish water desalination. Below (Figure 2), we offer a more detailed timeline of our technology’s
development.
Figure 2. Sem Sal Systems technology timeline.
Competitive Analysis
Currently most of the Mozambican farmers are solving the freshwater problems in two ways: digging a
well (or even a deeper well) or digging an improvised pit to store the rain. The current solutions are not
only ineffective, but also unsustaining to provide the sufficient amount of water for their farms. In terms
of more advanced technologies, there are other desalination systems existing in other countries. However,
how Sem Sal System stands out among other technologies is that our system is way more affordable
(compare to a system that costs several thousand dollars in Tanzania) and requires significantly less
amount of engineers to manufacture as well as maintain the system. These competitive advantages enable
the Sem Sal to produce more desalination systems that will support more local Mozambican farmers
sooner; in result, our system will support the farmers to be more self-reliant on providing water to their
farms and to make more profit from their agricultural products.
Financial Value Proposition
Sem Sal Systems is a for-profit business that offers an attractive financial bottom line in addition to
addressing social problems. Business operations and production of desalination systems will be colocated in Xai Xai, Mozambique which provides low overhead and direct access to the initial market in
Gaza Province. Sem Sal System is constructed with off the shelf components that are readily accessible in
Mozambique and other countries where agriculture is the primary source of income. The for profit
structure seeks to capitalize on entrepreneurs that have a stake in the widespread use of desalination for
agriculture and offers rapid growth potential with the prevalence of brackish water across Mozambique.
Social Value Proposition
Sem Sal Systems works towards social change by providing farmers in Mozambique with greater access
to water in times of drought and water shortage. For example, communities have had to depend on the
drilling of wells, which is extremely expensive, in order to access water. Irrigation techniques such as the
digging up of holes, and then placing the plants in the center. Such practices do not address the problem
of water scarcity, rather they are an adaptive technique taken by farmers.
Water shortages inhibit a farmer’s ability to grow during the dry season. Additionally, their production is
limited during times of drought. Through our small-scale affordable desalination system generates 200 L
of water per day for a price of $1000 dollars. The farmers are now able to increase their income by $375.
Overall, the utilization of Sem Sal systems will enable people in Mozambique to depend less on imports.
With our product the imports per community can be reduced from 70% to 50%. With this increase in
income, farmers are equipped with the necessary tools to adapt to droughts and floods.
Farmers are now able to utilize their income to send their children to school. A study done revealed that
generally, that the first good that is purchased by the poor when their income is increased is sending their
children to school. Specifically, the revenue generated per desalination system has the potential to send 72
children to school.
Additionally, we are providing NGOs with a more effective tool to help them achieve their goals of food
security. Many farmers currently resort to ineffective methods of dealing with water shortage.
Environmental Value Proposition
Our system is produced with locally sourced materials and solar panels to reduce our environmental
impact. Instead of transporting materials from far distances, which largely increases our CO2 emissions,
we have chose to locally source our manufacturing materials. Additionally, the system will be powered
with a solar panel to ensure that there is no negative environmental impact.
III. Business Model
Identification of Customer segments
When looking for customers, we wanted people who met aspects of following criteria:
1. Experienced with agriculture
2. Located in an area with prevalent brackish water
3. Looking to increase their income
4. Invested in aiding food security
This led to the determination of our ideal customer segments to be Agro-Entrepreneurs, Greenhouse
farmers, NGO’s, and Aquaponic farmers. Each of these customer bases encompasses at least one of our
criteria and would mutually benefit from the use of our system.
First customers
Sem Sal System will set up a model Greenhouse and desalination system on site to provide potential
customers with demonstrations and informational sessions. We will invite NGOs that we have an interest
in partnering with to our Xai Xai operations to come and view the system. After we develop a partnership
with an NGO, we will offer them 3 pilot systems to implement at locations of their choosing for a
minimized fee to reach our first customers. The customers will be able to use the system and see the
benefits for themselves.
Narrative overview of financial summary
Sem Sal System is a for profit venture that achieves a 50% profit margin after all expense, providing
profit for entrepreneurs to run the business and revenue to grow and expand beyond initial markets. Each
system is ready for use once assembled, costing $200 to assemble, including the barrels, CDI cell, solar
panel, and conductivity meter. The system is sold for $1000, providing 80% of the sales price to cover
overhead costs and provide a reasonable profit. Overhead is estimated at $12k including transportation
costs for 40 systems sold per quarter, with a COGS of $8k for 40 systems this leaves $20k as profit over
all expenses per quarter. An additional source of revenue beyond initial system sales are replacement
CDI cells that will need to be purchased about every three months by the farmers using Sem Sal system.
These will cost $10 for a farmer to buy at partnered hardware stores, of that $4 goes to the hardware store
to provide profit and incentivise sales, while recycling the cell cost $3, leaving a $3 profit per CDI cell
recycled.
The business will be run by the project manager who supervises three other employees, two skilled
technicians who assemble the systems, CDI cells, and deliver to farmers and a laborer who processes the
biochar. Operations are centralized to minimize overhead, and will be located on the outskirts of Xai Xai
to be close to farmers and avoid higher operating costs. Startup costs are $14,000 to establish operations,
with prototyping and testing funded by grants listed below. With low initial overhead achieved through
partnership with established NGOs Sem Sal System will achieve positive cash flow in the fifth quarter,
with full profitability and initial operating losses resolved by the end of the second year of operation.
Figure 3. Sem Sal Systems Profit Projections for the first two years of business
The location of Sem Sal Systems at the intersection of economic benefit, increased food security, and a
profitable business model make it a prime candidate for various grants listed below.
Phase I: Prototyping and Testing funded by VentureWell Grant: $25,000
Phase II: Startup Costs of $14,000 funded by EPA P3 Phase 1 Grant: $15,000
Phase III: Scaling costs to achieve full-rate production with EPA P3 Phase 2 Grant: Up to
$75,000
Scale-up Strategy
After the success with our pilot program, we will scale up by finding other NGOs to partner with in
addition to inviting local farmers and hardware store owners to view our system. After we embed our
business into the Xai Xai agricultural community through word of mouth and a demonstration based
marketing campaign, we hope to expand northward towards Beira. Beira is an ideal expansion location
because it is located near the coast and the Pungwe River, which makes the local water sources prone to
salt water intrusion. Also the Beira Agricultural Corridor is working to stimulate agricultural production
and trade involving small-holder farmers, which relates to our venture. Our product would bring major
success to the region and align themselves with their goals.
IV. Implementation Strategy
Current status of the Technology and Venture
Penn State researchers Ram Rajagopalan, Randy Vander Wal, and Arupananda Sengupta have developed
a functional lab-scale CDI cell, and are currently gathering data to improve upon it’s performance. In the
coming year, our team of researchers hopes to investigate the fabrication processes necessary to convert
local Mozambican biomass into biochar electrodes suitable for CDI brackish water desalination. There are
hopes that in the near future we will enter the prototyping phase to further develop the technology. Our
venture would currently be considered as developmental research. The research team is hoping to extend
their grant in order to continue working on the technology so that the venture can advance.
Key Partners and Involvement
Our key partners are NGOs such as ACDI VOCA, World Hope, TechnoServe, ICRISAT, and Africare,
Farmers, and Hardware Stores. We are looking for the NGOs that have experiences in working with
entrepreneurial ventures and have taken similar risks before. Also these are the NGOs that: 1) have
experience in water and food security, 2) support local and community initiatives, and 3) access to
networks of farmers and funding. We envision to collaborate with these organizations to achieve aligned,
or similar goals, to gain financial leverage, and to extend our network on site. As our venture grows, we
hope to develop strong relations with the local farming communities as they will become our primary
customers. We want to ensure that they give us feedback on our product and that they are using the
system to its maximum efficiency. The farmers will also receive a reliable source of income of
approximately $1,500 USD and improve local food security, with an estimated decrease 20% in reliance
on imports, a result of using our system. We will be partnering with Local Hardware stores so that our
users can access the new electrode cells that need to be replaced every 3 months. The hardware stores will
also act as a hub to collect the used electrode cells to recycle the materials.
Metrics of Evaluation
To measure the effectiveness of the system we will measure the number of systems sold, number of farms
using the system, income of the farmers, agricultural imports per person, and tonnes of crops produced,
number of days the farmers go without water, and number of children in school in areas where our system
is in use. These metrics have been determined as metric to evaluate our goals of improved food security
and improved water availability.
What happens next with the venture?
Looking forward, Sem Sal Systems is continuing researching with Capacitive Deionization Technology.
We hope to make a small scale prototype within the next few months and begin testing the system.
Contact Information
Amanda Bailey
[email protected] or [email protected]
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (expected May 2019)
Certification in Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (expected December 2017)
Aya Bseiso
[email protected]
BS, Community Environment and Development (expected May 2017)
BA, International Political Economy (expected May 2017)
Certification in Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (expected May 2017)
Tony Bae
[email protected]
Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management & Information System
Prof. Khanjan Mehta
Director, HESE Program, [email protected]
Bibliography:
[1] Reid, George Wayne, et al. "Field Operation of a 20 Gallons Per Day Pilot Plant Unit for
Electrochemical Desalination of Brackish Water." (1968).