Innovation Description
ProfilesMr. Nikhilesh Das and Mr. Debanjan Mukherjee hail from Kamrup district of Assam.
Purpose:Basically, their project puts emphasis on curbing oil polluting the water. Staying at Guwahati and seeing the pitiable condition of the river Brahmaputra behind the Numaligarh refinery moved them a lot. Not only Guwahati but throughout the country tons of oils are thrown directly into the water bodies, thereby, destroying the ecosystem and its balance. So, they thought of helping the environment in an "inexpensive and easy" way.
They were discussing possible ways of addressing this problem when Nikhilesh recollected his childhood experience. He shared that when he was a child his mother always used to put oil in his hair, which he disliked a lot because the oil used to stick to his hair. They thought that human hair must be possessing some property because of which the oil sticks to it. They experimented with it and succeeded. Both of them then was surfing the internet one day when they came across an article about an oil tanker spillage in the Persian Gulf. They read about the death of sea-gulls and other migratory birds whose feathers had got soaked in oil rendering them unable to fly. They brought some bird feathers and put it over some engine oil floating in water kept in a beaker. When they picked up the feathers, they found much of the oil sticking to the feather. Another incident gave them their third ingredient. A carpenter, at Nihkilesh’s house, cleaned some oil off the floor by putting and rubbing some sawdust over it. They tried it in and succeeded. The use of hay was also serendipity. After finding four such ingredients that could absorb oil, they planned to combine the four and test the efficacy in curbing oil pollution.
Technical details:
One day Nikhilesh and Debanjan took 4 beakers from school and collected some waste human hair, sawdust, bird feathers & straw from different places and then poured water on the 4 beakers and then added oil to each of the beakers. Then, they added waste human hair, sawdust, bird feathers & straw respectively and on the very first attempt, all the oil present in the beakers was absorbed and removed completely. Later on, analyzing further they found that the oil was removed due to the phenomenon of adsorption.
Benefits:
There are many advantages to this idea. Firstly, the materials that have been used in removing the oil effluents from water such as waste human hair, sawdust, bird feathers & straw, are all wastes themselves. Hence this process involves using one waste to clean up another. Secondly, this system is very much effective and cleans up almost 100 percent of the oil effluents from water. Thirdly, this is a simple, cost-effective and environment-friendly idea and can be used economically in refineries.
[i] While hair does not technically absorb the oil, the oil does coat the hair. The oil is unable to completely absorb into the hair. Instead, the oil coats the hair by latching onto cracks and holes in the hair shaft. (http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5267579_hair-absorb-oil.html). The United States Patent 5453191 describes a device comprising human hair which may be used to absorb oil which is floating on water. Human hair is formed into a generally planar layer. The layer may comprise a center scrim to which the human hair is attached. The device is buoyant when saturated with oil and water. The device is used to remove oil from water (the United States Patent 6146529); [ii] The feathers of birds have natural oil cover for protection. This natural oil breaks down/partly dissolves due to the crude oil, which then sticks to it. (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00161.htm) The United States Patent 4919820 discloses a method of removing oil from a body of water using waterfowl feathers. [iii] Among all the existing techniques used for oil treatment, sorption is a popular technique because it is cheap, simple and effective. Among the various sorbents used, sawdust appears to be the most attractive material in terms of cost, versatility, and abundance. Banerjee, S.S., Joshi M.V. and Jayarama R.V. Treatment of the oil spill by sorption technique using fatty acid grafted sawdust. Chemosphere 64 (6): 1026-1031, 2006. Hung, M. F., & Shaw, D. (2005). A trading-ratio system for trading water pollution discharge permits.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management,
49(1), 83-102.
IWA, (2021). Wetland systems for water pollution control. Retrieved on February 22, 2021, from
https://iwa-network.org/groups/wetland-systems-for-water-pollution-control/#:~:text=Wetland%20systems%20are%20engineered%20ecosystems,%2Durban%2C%20and%20agricultural%20landscapes.
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