An ingenious water-saving device allows you to wash your hands with just 50mls of water — and has won the royal seal of approval.

Engineer Wes Sugden-Brook, 39, who hails from Brighouse and attended Rastrick High School, has designed and built a water-saving device that allows people to wash their hands under the tap using just 50ml of water, instead of two litres, which is the average amount.

Now he is set to bring his Drenched Volumiser to market – after impressing a gathering of leading business people and even Her Majesty the Queen.

Wes, who lives near Selby, with wife Emma and children Darcy, 10, and Charlie, six, is also taking space at Huddersfield’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre (3MBIC) for his other company, Drenchtec, which aims to develop other energy or water-saving devices.

Wes Sugden-Brook (left) with entrepreneur Peter Jones at the Pitch at trhe Palace event

Wes hit on the idea when he switched the garden hosepipe to get a fine mist of water.

“I wondered if I could wash my hands just with a fine mist of water,” he said. “That was the eureka moment. I began to think how many billions of people washed their hands every day and how much water that uses.”

Physics showed that it was possible to wash your hands using 50ml of water.

The average hand wash uses two litres, while running the tap for 30 seconds wastes six litres.

Wes ordered some industrial components online, which he re-engineered to fit into a tap – and got family members to test out his theory by washing their hands repeatedly!

They also discovered that his Drenched volumiser fitted to a cold tap had thermodynamic properties – raising the temperature of the water and potentially saving on heating bills.

Wes entered a Pitch at the Palace competition and was chosen to “pitch” the product to leading business people, including Dragon’s Den panellist Peter Jones, at an event hosted at St James’ Palace by the Duke of York, Chancellor of Huddersfield University.

Wes Sugden-Brook (second left) chats with the Queen at the Pitch at the Palace event

Now his Drenched product is undergoing trials at Huddersfield University, Unilever and Heathrow Airport and – following the pitch – St James’ Palace.

Wes predicts Drenched could also have a massive impact on parched countries in Africa if fitted to standpipes.

Wes was an apprentice mechanical engineer at the former Hopkinsons Valves firm in Birkby and studied at Huddersfield Technical College.

He gained a degree in manufacturing systems engineering at Leeds Metropolitan University before working for a company in Hull.

His company, Drenched, is currently in talks with a potential manufacturing partner in Europe with a UK distributor.