Sergey Mereutsa: "I like to solve problems that nobody else has solved"

 Our meeting took place in a cosy China Pure Tea shop at Dacia 24. The founder Alexey Dobrovsky warmly welcomed us and treated us to a delicious puerh, which I was happy to buy for myself.

Engineering approach in product development

Sergey, I've been wanting to know more about your projects for a long time. I think this interview is the perfect excuse for that 🙂 Tell me more about what you are doing now?

If I start going into detail about the projects I'm involved in, firstly, we won't have enough time for a couple or three hours. Secondly, I would have to demand to sign a non-disclosure agreement and then the interview would be crumpled 🙂 🙂 I would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. 

In brief and without NDA: at the moment, I am focusing my time on the project of a trading terminal that allows traders to speculate on stock exchanges, and our clients trade everything from cryptocurrencies to oil and gold.

And, when I'm absolutely bored, I consult various customers in the field of IT security and fintech. But I only take on projects that interest me.

So it could be a product from any field?

Engineering can be applied to anything from medicine to the production of the tea we drink now. Anything can be broken down into its components to understand what and how it can be improved. Speaking of which, in medicine, this is how they deal with the issue of aging. Scientists have studied the aging process and proposed solutions. So far the prospects are bright and we are promised to live up to 140 years, but people who want immortality, as a rule, do not know what they will do next week.

It's really hard to plan anything long term in our realities.....

Yes, things are very bad with the planning horizon right now, as the world is changing rapidly and we need to be able to adjust quickly, as we say, "be agile".

Water filter on a mobile platform

But despite that, you're still doing some pretty long-term projects right now. Can you tell me about it?

Due to all the well-known events in Ukraine, I realised that guns and ammunition are great, but we don't have proper weapons. We can only shoot down passing missiles with a slingshot 🙂 🙂 I realise that weapons and ammunition are cool, of course.

I analysed what is going on, and I was struck by one report that said that when all the infrastructure is bombed, there is a paradoxical situation - it seems as if there is water - rivers, lakes, but at the same time you cannot drink it.

Just like in Moldova, 99% of all wells that are considered natural and suitable for drinking are in fact not. There is a whole bouquet there - from E. coli to herbicides from the fields, which penetrate into the soil and groundwater. Clearly, there are industrial solutions, but this is a stationary facility that can easily be bombed. And in order to build it, it would take several years in peacetime, and in wartime no one will take it on, there is no point.

Did you set out to solve this problem using an engineering approach?

Yes, I took the same approach that is used in IT. There is such a thing as "distributed systems" without a single centre, which work independently of other parts. I came up with the idea of taking a stationary filter that is used in large projects and putting it on a mobile platform. The idea itself is not new, I just successfully combined the whole thing for the right niche. The military has filter systems that take up several trucks and cost like a wing from an aeroplane. Yes, they can filter, but it doesn't really suit us.

It so happens that I know the director of the local representative office of Aquaphor very well. It is an Estonian-Israeli company dealing with filters. I went to them and proposed a technical assignment, and I know how to write such assignments very well. I offered to pay for a prototype, and then we'll see. They liked the idea so much that they offered to invest in it, because they had their own ideas for improvement. We agreed that they would make this product for a humanitarian project in Ukraine, and in return they would get the right to do commercial work in other projects.

Is the prototype ready yet?

Yes, we tested it on the Dniester, we did all the tests on our part, they did the water tests on their part and asked us to certify it. The certification took several months, and just a month ago we presented the project to USAID, who promised to sponsor a batch of such filters for Ukraine. 

Can this be considered a Moldovan product?

Yes, absolutely. You can hang the Made in Moldova label. It's quite nice. They were inspired by the fact that you can take industrial things and put them on a mobile platform. It is interesting that the father of the very same friend of mine, the director of the Bulgarian representative office, installed a 40-foot container, and now it serves a village of 120 houses. There is the same problem there - there is water, but you can't drink it.

Phenomenal! How big is this device?

It fits on a standard Euro pallet and can produce up to three tonnes of industrial water per hour, which corresponds to the composition of our tap water, even slightly better. Or 120 litres of water purified by the latest generation of reverse osmosis. The whole device weighs 160kg with special handles for easy carrying. It has a very high efficiency of about 82%. At the same time, if you change the filters in time, it does not need maintenance for 3 years.

We are now working on a new version with a power unit that will run on energy stored from solar panels, at night or from a battery. And we tested it at different water temperatures - it was only a couple of degrees in the Dniester.

We have been coming to this for a long time. I hope it will be approved soon, and we will be able to use it not only in Ukraine, but also here.

Yes, it would be very useful, considering that in villages people still use water from wells.

I wanted to do a demo on our komsomol lake, throw a hose in and clean it in front of everyone. That's probably what we'll do. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that if they put a filter in, they can do nothing else, but that's not true. 

Beer de-alcoholisation device

That would be very enlightening 🙂 I know you have another equally interesting project.

It's a hobby project. I suggested these same guys remove alcohol from beer.

Unexpected 🙂 Do you care about the non-drinking part of the population?

There are quite a few people who don't drink for a variety of reasons - medical conditions, driving today, or deep convictions. But unfortunately, there is no non-alcoholic dark beer, non-alcoholic Porter, non-alcoholic Lager. Unfiltered non-alcoholic - there is no such thing and that's it. Every beer maker has a non-alcoholic beverage and it's usually one. They feel that for the sake of 5% users, it's not worth releasing more products in this line.

And imagine that there is a machine that removes alcohol from any beer. It turns out that you can taste any beer without alcohol.

Who will be your main customer? I think it's unlikely to be breweries.

It's a long way off. I think it's unlikely to be breweries. It will rather be useful for beer bars as an additional option, and customers will be able to drink any beer they want.

Creating water from air

Looking forward to the release! I, as a non-drinking person, will be the first one to come in for a sweat 🙂 . Any other products in the back of your mind?

There are also plans to create a device that dehumidifies the air and gets water. As a Jewish friend of mine said: "So you want to take away the Jews' know-how of making money out of thin air.

It is in demand where it is very hot and there is a lot of water in the air, where there is a more closed cycle. This is a completely autonomous unit - once you deploy it, you get water. There is actually a lot of water in the air. It is scarce only in the Arctic deserts.

What is the underlying technology behind this device?

It is based on technology that is several thousand years old. There are caves in deserts. Heated air passes through the cave and water droplets remain on the walls, so it is a water source with very pure water. We don't count the dust, it is easily removed.

Such projects are very much in demand in hot countries with poor water resources.

Sergey, you do incredible things! Why are you doing this? Because it's a long way from IT.

I realised that I should diversify risks, because tomorrow ChatGPT will come and say: "Now I will write code for you". I am joking, of course, but in every joke.....

I like to solve problems that no one else has solved. I like having to learn something new, you can't do without it. It's the kind of thing where you suddenly realise that cool stuff is made by people like you, not by mysterious wizards in a high castle.

Thank you for a very interesting conversation! And I wish you good luck in the development of all these projects 🙂