While it might seem like humans and animals consume most of the world's water, heavy industry uses up to half of it. That's why business sectors are looking for new ways to recycle water, especially in the face of increased drought. The global water and wastewater treatment market is expected to reach half a trillion dollars by the end of this decade, according to Statista. "Other technologies can recover maybe 50 to 60% of water, but we can recover 99% of water," Govindan said. It claims to save 1.7 billion gallons of water daily, or the amount consumed by 48 million people.

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Persons: Prakash Govindan, Anurag Bajpayee, Govindan, Gradiant, Mark Danchak, Warburg Pincus, Lisa Rizzolo Organizations: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, BMW, Pfizer, Adnoc, General Innovation Capital Partners, G Investments, Clearvision Ventures, CNBC Locations: Statista, Veolia, Boston