Potable water is becoming scarce by the day. Even as a lot of focus is on increasing groundwater level, a research fellow at VIT University has turned her attention to seawater.
Devlina Das, a CSIR Senior Research Fellow at the university, has come up with a project – SALINO – to convert seawater into drinking water using a unique five-step method powered by solar energy. Her work has bagged the second prize in a world competition – 2015 RELX Group Environmental Challenge.
The challenge, according to her, encourages projects on water sanitation. “Hence, I presented my project on water purification. The focus has always been on groundwater remediation. We have not exploited surplus water that is available as the earth constitutes 70 per cent of ocean. This requires special attention. I have worked on this project for purification of seawater,” said Ms. Das, who has completed B.Tech in biotechnology at the university.
She bagged the $25,000-prize for the project, while the first prize of $50,000 went to Philippines-based social enterprise — Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation — that came up with reliable drinking water to upland rural areas using a unique hydraulic ram pump, a release said.
This was the fifth year that RELX Group was giving the awards to support innovative solutions to improve sustainable access to safe water and sanitation. The winners also get a year’s free access to Science Direct, a database that includes 3,67,000 articles on environmental science.
Ms. Das said the current scenario is such that the ground and freshwater resources were getting depleted by the day and required an immediate move to replenish the depleted sources.
“This inspired me to come up with SALINO. This product would work in five unit operations. Each step will be an innovation merged with a technology. We will use solar panels as well,” she said.
The product would be meant for large scale installation only. It would target communities and supply drinking water – at least 50 homes at a time – via a pipeline system. She plans to put in place SALINO on a pilot test first, and expanding it on getting funds.
VIT Chancellor G. Viswanathan lauded her achievement and noted that given the need for water preservation and utilisation, it was good that students were understanding ther urgency and working towards coming up with a solution.
