Mobioclean HS

Hand sanitizers, hand rubs, surface disinfectants, veg & fruit wash, surgical instrument disinfection, general disinfection and fumigation usage practices have increased significantly post Covid outbreak.

Following are the problems/issues with the commercially available sanitizers/disinfectants

•       Cost:

Drugs and medical consumables are approximately 28% to 32% of the operational expenditure costs of running a hospital. A typical low cost hand sanitizer costs ₹150 per litre. Estimated consumption of alcohol-based rub (HAS) is 0.3 litres per bed, 0.3 litres per staff-member, 1.5 litres per admission, and 0.9 litres per patient-day.  India has a total of 43,486 private hospitals, 1.18 million beds, 59,264 ICUs, and 29,631 ventilators. On the other hand, there are 25,778 public hospitals, 713,986 beds, 35,700 ICUs, and 17,850 ventilators. Apart from hospitals the usage of the sanitizing/disinfecting has to be used as a safety measure in schools, colleges, industries, banks and places of public as well as animal husbandry. India has a population of 1.38 billion, 76.2% of which is in low income rural areas and remaining 23.8% in high income urban cities. However due to urban –rural ratio disparity of 1.45, 59.2% of the health workers are based in urban cities and only 40.8% of health workers are based in rural areas where majority of the population resides.      

•       Plastic waste due to single use plastic bottles:

The sanitizers and disinfectants are manufactured in one place and transported to the hospital care units and other places of consumption in single use plastic bottles. A landfill of used sanitizer bottles was reported in the UK in the early days of Covid-19 outbreak.

•       Logistics

Fossil fuels are consumed while transporting the liquids. Also rural hospitals in covid peak were short in the availability of sanitizers and disinfectants due to logistics issues.

•       Toxicity

Toxicity issues were reported in the commercially available sanitizers

•       Skin issues

Healthcare professionals as well as patients reported dry skin issues due to repeated usage of alcohol based sanitizers

•       Flammable

ICU units in hospitals (Vijay Vallabh hospital in Virar, Mumbai and another hospital in Nagpur) caught fire due to the alcohol fumes emanating from sanitizers. 

•       Not safe for kids

•       Digestive issues if consumed

Mobioclean HS is a powerful, skin friendly, alcohol free, non flammable, natural ingredient based multipurpose sanitizer generator with a touch-less dispenser. Very simple to use: all that the user has to do is to put water salt and vinegar in a prescribed proportion inside the device. With the help of electrolysis, the device converts the brine solution into hypochlorous acid which is the multipurpose sanitizing agent.

Disinfectants and microbial pathogens interact with each other similar to magnets. If you bring together two negatively charged magnets, they will repel each other. Bacteria and hypochlorite (OCl- aka. bleach) are both negatively charged and behave like two negatively charged magnets repelling each other. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is neutrally charged and is not repelled by bacteria. HOCl easily penetrates the walls of the bacteria, viruses and fungi and destroys them with its strong oxidation potential.

The advantages of using our device are:

•       Cost:

The generated sanitizer costs only ₹2 per litre. Compared to ₹ 150 per litre, our devices make a 50x magnitude reduction in cost and it is a boon for rural places where cost matters a lot.     

•       Reduction in plastic waste and logistics:

Since our device is directly generating the liquid at the place of consumption, due to direct usage, no single use plastic bottles would be needed for storage and transportation. No fossil fuels would be wasted as no logistics/transportation needed. Rural hospitals based in remote locality would be served better and shortages in sanitizers potentially avoided.   

•       Natural, safe and non-toxic

Hypochlorous acid is a naturally occurring compound in our blood cells that is made via an enzymic process. Electrolytic process in Mobioclean HS mimics the enzymic process to form the same hypochlorous acid. So it is completely natural, safe and non-toxic to the extent that it could even be consumed without having any digestive issues. 

•       Skin friendly

Since hypochlorous is alcohol free, it is skin friendly.

•       Non Flammable

Alcohol free, so non-flammable and can be used in fire hazard prone places.

•       Multipurpose

This is one of the most important benefits of Mobioclean HS. The generated liquid is multi-purpose. Hypochlorous acid can be used as a sanitizer, general purpose disinfectant, fumigant, surgical instrument disinfectant, wound cleaning, eyewash, deodorizer, skin care, animal husbandry disinfection applications. 

Our solution will directly impact the rural healthcare facilities globally in cutting down the operating expenditures (50x cost reduction) and bring in additional benefits of multi-purpose natural ingredient based, non- toxic, skin friendly features that our product brings in to curb the spread of contiguous diseases/epidemics by following the hand hygiene compliance. In addition to hand hygiene, the 50x cost reduction is carried out in more applications as a general purpose disinfectant, fumigant, surgical instrument disinfectant, wound cleaning, eyewash, deodorizer, skin care and more.   

We have started with Pune, Maharashtra and have installed 250+ units of Mobioclean HS and brought in cost savings of ₹88,00,000 and reduction in 7,00,000 plastic bottle wastage. 

 There are approximately 1,32,14,738 rural households in Maharashtra which our product will impact directly or indirectly in the immediate future. As per statistics worldwide approximately 3.42 billion people reside in rural areas. With mass adoption of our device globally, the rural healthcare facilities as well as public places will benefit a lot with all the features that our device offers. 

We are a team of 9 and have conducted tests with our end customers in and around Pune extensively and incorporated the feedback received and launched the new product variants. In addition, we have onboarded 5 distributors as on date who are helping us connect with the rural healthcare facilities. We also recently won a social impact award in COMBAT'22 event organized by VertexXInc Pvt.Ltd in alliance with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imerys, Kirloskar Brothers Limited & with the support of outreach partner Asian-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Billennium Divas Pvt. Ltd. In addition to help from the eminent people associated with the event (Sudha Murthy, Sanjay Kirloskar, Ravindra Dharia of Vanrai organisation to name a few), VertexX Pvt Ltd who is connected with 150 companies pan India in CSR related activities (directing CSR funds to rural places) and has a good presence in rural communities (they have worked extensively in villages having no access to water) will help in reaching out to the rural healthcare facilities and other public places. We are also in discussion with Government organizations for implementation and installation of our device. 

We have a disruptive product that has a huge potential in benefiting the rural masses and need a platform to promote and reach out globally for mass adoption. This application, "a marketplace for social impact innovation with a mission to drive innovation to solve world challenges" is definitely one such platform. We are applying for the following reasons:

1. Global promotion of our product.
2. Access to key/eminent persons who would assist or advise in promoting  in their respective geographies.
3. Access to MIT network and people associated with this program.
4. Outreach via press & influencers on a global scale.
5. Connect with VCs.   

Traditionally sanitizing /disinfecting liquids have been manufactured at one place and transported to various end customers via the supply chain of distributors, dealers and end customers. By getting the production unit directly to the customer, we are bringing an innovative option to the market with added features of 50x magnitude reduction in costs, non-flammability, skin friendliness, natural, organic, multipurpose utilities.

Hypochlorous acid was being supplied since decades. Mobioclean HS innovation is focused on small generating units equipped with touch-less dispensers instead of manufacturing in bulk, dispatching and then fitting in dispensers.

We aim to achieve the following goals by the end of 2023

1.    Expand our footprint of at least 50% of Maharashtra, 15% of India rural healthcare facilities

2.    Have a pan India presence in all states by partnering with rural healthcare suppliers/vendors/distributors for connecting with the end users

3.    Sell 100K units of our device

4.    Have a 5% global presence by partnering with vendors/suppliers/distributors in Asia, Africa & MENA region.  

5.    Reduction in plastic wastage by 280 million single use bottles

6.    Consolidated savings of 46.93 mn USD in rural installations

We aim to achieve the following goals in the next 5 years:

 1.    Sell 3 million units of our device

2.    Have a 25% global presence by partnering with vendors/suppliers/distributors in all continents

3.    Reduction in plastic wastage by 40 billion single use bottles

4.    Consolidated savings of 3.52 billion USD in rural installations

5.    Reduced cases of sicknesses, diseases & illnesses in the places of installations compared to places where our devices are not installed.  

All the above goals will be achieved by associations with governments, health bodies, cross border chambers of commerce and partnerships with vendors/suppliers/distributors of the specific geographies as well as PR, media outreach, influencer outreach

Our progress towards our impact goals is directly related with the sales of our devices.

1.    Total number of devices sold per month in rural locations.

2.    Raw material (salt & vinegar) ordered by the rural clientele.

We need to formulate a procedure to measure this goal:  

·         Reduced cases of sicknesses, diseases & illnesses in the places of installations compared to places where our devices are not installed.

This will be done by partnering with universities/epidemiologists. Though hypochlorous acid was widely used to control Ebola in Africa, we’ll have to do this to convince the pertinent authorities for mass adoption on a large scale.   

Any business will create an impact that will help to reduce costs for the same quality as well as reduce the time. With a 50x magnitude reduction in costs, getting the production straight to the place of consumption and thereby reducing the time to procure and negate the logistics; and have added benefits of non-flammability, skin friendliness, natural, organic, multipurpose utilities; the social impact will be huge.

Regular Hand hygiene compliance, surface disinfection, fumigation is essential for controlling illnesses, sicknesses, diseases and epidemics. By mass adoption of our device in rural healthcare, public places, markets, farms etc, we anticipate reduction in the downtime hours due to sickness and thereby increase in productivity which will be helpful for the economy.

Electrolysis using special electrodes is the heart of our solution.

White blood cells of all mammals naturally produce hypochlorous acid with an enzymic process. It plays an important role in the immune system killing pathogens through oxidation and chlorination.

Hypochlorous acid can also be produced through electrolysis mimicking the enzymic process. Electrolysis is a technique that uses a direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Specifically engineered elecrolysis cells generate a solution of free chlorine species by running electricity through brine solution.

Disinfectants and microbial pathogens interact with each other similar to magnets. If you bring together two negatively charged magnets, they will repel each other. Bacteria and hypochlorite (OCl- aka. bleach) are both negatively charged and behave like two negatively charged magnets repelling each other. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is neutrally charged and is not repelled by bacteria. HOCl easily penetrates the walls of the bacteria and destroys them with its strong oxidation potential.

MOBIOCLEAN HS product features

1. Platinum INSIDE: Electrolysis process inside the device is performed with platinum electrodes. Electrolysis converts plain salt water to a powerful sanitizer/disinfectant hypochlorous acid (HOCL). The electrodes have been tested in an accelerated manner for 15+ years and works perfectly
2. IR sensor: for contactless/touchless dispensing of the hand sanitizer
3. Power: 5V, 2A micro USB adapter.
4. Wall mounted provision
5. Dimensions Fits in a form factor of 130 mm (length) x 102 mm (breadth) x 186 mm (height)
6. Weight 522 gms
7. Capacity: 1 litre

Future work

1.    We are currently incorporating IoT for a potential client in Saudi Arabia for monitoring when to replenish the device with the brine solution. Once tested and proven we’ll incorporate it as a separate product variant.

2.    Blockchain for supply chain management. 

As a startup in India our team is 33% female, staff from 5 different states and 2 different religions. As we grow globally and have manufacturing facilities overseas, we will incorporate more diversity, equity, and inclusivity in our workplaces. 

Our business model is based on selecting technologies that have applications in multiple markets, researching the need of the market, product definition, prototyping, pilot manufacturing, testing in the local market, crowdfunding for global promotion and then partnering with distributors worldwide. 

Apart from the product that we have described in this application, we have 4 more products that are in the pipeline. 

Our flagship product Mobioclean HS is addressing a need with 50x cost reduction solution and multiple benefits for rural as well as urban population. We have tested in the local market and are now looking to scale globally.   

We have been bootstrapped and invested $100K in our startup from the two co-founders. We have had revenues of approximately $250K so far. Now that we have tested our product, sold 250+ units, onboarded 5 distributors, we are currently approaching VCs to raise one million USD for scaling globally. With a net margin of 40%, the company is self sustainable in the long run post first round of external funding.

We have made revenues of approximately $250K so far. We also recently won a ₹500k social impact award in COMBAT'22 event organized by VertexXInc Pvt.Ltd in alliance with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imerys, Kirloskar Brothers Limited & with the support of outreach partner Asian-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Billennium Divas Pvt. Ltd.

We are in discussion with government bodies for bulk purchase of our devices amounting to a consolidated 3 mn $ purchase order.