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In 2024, 2.2 billion people lacked access to clean drinking water. Contaminated drinking water costs around 500,000 lives every year and a far greater number of people fall ill. The winners of The Bright Idea 2025 can eventually become a serious contributor to the fulfilment of SDG 6 and its ambition to ensure clean and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.
On 5 November 2025, the two students, Viktor R. Tamstorf and Andreas S.H. Rygaard, heard their names read out on the Startup Stage during the Digital Tech Summit. It was the chairman of the Otto Mønsted Foundation, Nis Alstrup, who congratulated the two master’s students as winners of The Bright Idea 2025 in the Late-stage category. The award came with DKK 250,000 for the further development of their idea and their startup Njord Aqua.
The award jury had no doubts. This year’s winning idea builds on Denmark’s proud tradition of innovative water technology with a solution that can save millions of lives in the long term and has interesting business potential in huge markets such as Asia and South America.
The two prize winners study Biotechnology and Design and Innovation at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and have developed a water purification device for installation in a water tank. The water purification process uses electrochlorination – a process that converts the small amount of salt that is always present in water into chlorine as a disinfectant and can be sustainably powered by solar cells. In preliminary tests, the device has managed to purify 1,000 litres of water in a few hours. This allows a household to have not only clean drinking water, but also plenty of clean water for bathing, washing and cleaning, which helps improve overall hygiene and health.
“Globally, over a billion people drink water from water tanks, so the scale of the need for this type of solution is huge. It’s not some luxury problem we’re working on,” says Viktor.
In a previous bachelor’s project, he was intrigued by the idea of using electrochlorination in rainwater tanks. But the realisation that approximately 500,000 people die every year from unclean drinking water gave the technology a different perspective for him and Andreas.
“Our goal is to get this technology out where it can really make a difference. Especially in places like India, where drinking and household water is stored in containers and it’s often risky to drink the water because it can cause illness and death. And we hope that with this technology we can change the dynamics that can actually make it possible for more people to get clean water,” says Andreas.
New attention to the idea
Leaving the award ceremony with DKK 250,000 and a bronze statuette has clearly meant something to the two prize winners, they say.
“The award has provided some capital that can help us finance the further development of our idea and commercialisation. And we have received a lot of publicity and attention that we wouldn’t have got without winning the award. The Bright Idea Award carries a lot of weight in the startup community,” says Viktor.
“Yes, and people who have known and followed the project for a long time suddenly realised that it was a good idea when we won the award. There’s definitely a legitimacy in receiving it, and that legitimacy should of course be used,” Andreas continues.
The prize money will be used to mature the technology before they embark on a full-scale pilot project with 50-100 units in India in 2026. Njord Aqua has also recently received funding from Innovation Fund Denmark’s Innofounder programme, allowing them both to work full-time on the project for a year. In parallel, they have submitted a patent application for the technology they have developed.
Viktor and Andreas hope that with further capital injection after the pilot test, they can finalise the solution to become an actual product and find the right local companies to partner up with for a quick market breakthrough.
Read about the 2025 awards ceremony
DTU has delivered solid backing
If you ask the two award winners what has had a significant impact on the development of their idea, they are quick to emphasise the value of collaboration at DTU.
“Henrik Rasmus Andersen and Ravi K. Chhetri from DTU Sustain have really been crucial in guiding the technical part of the project and they have believed in us,” says Andreas.
“They gave us the courage, because we had an idea and it can be difficult to assess how valid it is from a technical perspective,” says Viktor.
Njord Aqua has also been part of DTU’s innovation and entrepreneurial environment.
“We’ve been part of Skylab’s incubator programme, and it’s also been great to see others who have succeeded in creating companies. It makes it a little easier to believe that it’s also possible for two students like us,” says Andreas.
See and hear the winners talk about their idea
THE FACTS
Sustainable Development Goal 6
Clean drinking water and sanitation
Ensure that everyone has access to water and sanitation and that it is managed sustainably
Target 6.1
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2.2 billion people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2024.