The young Mozambican innovator Beni Chaúque created a system that disinfects water with the help of the sun and eliminates bacteria and protozoan cysts in up to 90 seconds, which is currently in the process of being recognized for a patent.
According to the creator, being a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the technique of solar disinfection of water is common in the scientific community and known for its acronym in English ”SODIS” (solar water disinfection).
"The traditional process consists of putting some untreated water in a pet bottle, which must remain under the sun for at least six hours to kill all microorganisms and make the water drinkable again. All this thanks to heat and solar radiation. On cloudy days, with 50% fog, it would be necessary to expose the bottle for at least two days to have 1,5 liters of drinkable water.“, said Beni Chaúque in an interview with UOL.
The invention of the young African makes the process faster, where the volume of water obtained by the already known technique is relatively small, repetitive and tiring. Furthermore, in poor areas there are not always a large number of bottles or containers available for collecting water.
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The system created by Beni has a great differential, as it heats and sterilizes the water with UV solar rays (reflected by a set of mirrors), working constantly, by means of a pump powered by solar energy, which makes it possible to reach a volume much higher water.
"The promising prototype could be installed at the water catchment site, that is, in a dam for example, without the need for electricity. SODIS in continuous flow makes it possible to provide 1 to 5 liters of potable water per minute. ”In 24 hours, we would have, on average, 7 thousand liters of drinking water”, he reiterated.
The model created consists of two tanks, one for heating and the other for cooling the non-drinking water, as well as a pipe through which the water passes, receiving the UV rays of the sun. There is also a set of mirrors that direct these rays to the tubes where the water is located.
"As the system remains in constant flow, the water passes at high speed through the pipes and is naturally sterilized. This way the work can be done in large volumes."He explains.
The new equipment for disinfecting water was introduced just over a year and a half ago and the next steps, in addition to patenting the product, are to develop a bolder design, with new configurations, to maximize the amount of water produced. The next objective, according to him, is for the system to produce 800 to 1.000 liters of water per day, during sunny periods.
The researcher is going to carry out new experiments starting next summer, such as, for example, in the treatment of wastewater, which is discharged directly into the sewer and does not receive sanitary treatment.
"We want to use equipment to degrade drug and pesticide residues dumped in water, which is currently a global concern.l”, concluded the scientist.
