Vigyani- serial story

Episode 6:

When Mr. Raman escorted by the villagers started walking towards the village, one person detaches himself from the crowd, goes behind a tree and takes out his cell phone and makes a call to some one in Mumbai. He tells the person,' Sir, Mr. Raman is going to construct the engine. Our plans to project him among the people as a lunatic did not work out. It seems his grandfather was an influential man in the village and Mr. Raman also pleaded with them that he is framed and actually not a lunatic person. What shall we do?'. The person from Mumbai tells him, ' Don't do anything now. Let Mr. Raman complete the engine, then eliminate him and capture the engine. When he completes the engine report to us, we will come there and take care of the people'.

Reaching the house meant for guests to the village, the chief is satisfied that it has been cleaned and a cot with bed, table and chair have been arranged. Also, kept on the table covered with banana leaf the freshly cooked food with drinking water by the side. One elderly person humourously points out that Mr. Raman does not need drinking water as he has a mchine to produce it. Leaving Mr. Raman in the house to eat and take rest, the crowd return to their homes.

While Mr. Raman is fast asleep due to tiredness of the travel, one person sneaks into the house, opens Mr. Raman's suitcase, grabs the machine, covers it with a cloth and escapes. He is none other than Anjalai's husband who upon returning to his house produces the machine triumphantly before Anjalai. Anjalai gets angry and scolds him,' Ada paavi, antha manushan kashtapattu senja machine i ippadi thirudikittu vanthutteye, kondupoi thirumba vachudu, illatti kaali athavuku boli pottuduven' (' Paavi, that man has made the machine with lots of trouble and you have stolen it. Go and return it, otherwise I will offer you as sacrifice to Kaali amman').

When Mr. Raman wakes up suddenly he finds Anjalai's husband standing in front of him with the machine in his hands saying,' Ayya, ennai mannichidunga. Theriyathanama intha machine i naan thiruditten' (' Sir, please forgive me. Unknowingly I have stolen your machine'). Mr. raman has a laugh and says, 'You want the mchine, then take it'. Hearing this, the village chief who had come there just then says, ' It is not good to give the machine to one person, then the entire village will come to you asking for machines for them also. The best way I think is to keep it in a cage under lock and key in the front yard of this house with the tap accessible so that people can open the tap and drink water'. Mr. Raman agrees saying it is a good idea. When they are talking, a police jeep arrives in front of the house.

to be continued.....

 

Dear Kamala,

Thanks a lot for your kind and encouraging words. As our beloved President Dr. Abdul Kalam has been saying people to be dreaming, I am also dreaming solutions for problems like Cauvery river water. When I was working in Australian laboratory, they had a problem of supplying drinking water which they were getting in big cans and filling the water dispenseers. They had the problem of disposing the empty containers. Much to my surprise, the machine which I have been dreaming of producing water from air has been realised and commercially marketed in Singapore. Upon my recommendation, the machine was procured and installed in the lab. I will produce the details of the machine in this forum shortly. Thanks once again.

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Ladies,

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I digress from the main story and bring to you the details about the machine now available commercially to produce water from air. As I have already mentioned in the story, my dream and the center theme of the story is the building of a machine on totally different principles than the one commercially available. I am quite sure that this machine also will become a reality one day.

Here is the picture of the machine and a diagram of how it works.


The air is sucked through the filter by the motor with the fan, that filter stops all living creatures – flies, mosquitoes, bugs and so on – and the water then enters a chamber where it is kind of squeezed through a condenser. It literally, in layman’s terms, the water is squeezed out of the air. It dribbles through the condenser, which is powered by a compressor, which of course, like the back of a refrigerator produces cold gas. It then goes down into the tank, which has got some copper pipes in there that keep the water at a very low temperature, and from there when you suck the water out and the actual filtration and the purification is done on a need-to-drink basis.

The machine meant for household use produces one litre per hour and can store 15 litres of pure (they claim purest water) water with water purification done by ultra-violet rays. It generally consumes 450 Watts of electric power since they provide two water, one hot and one cold and nearly 250 Watts are consumed out of 450 Watts for heating the water. What i have mentioned in the story is a portable battery-operated version, the discovery by Mr. Raman.

There are larger and mobile machines producing 1000 litres per day are also available. But, still tese machines are not adequate to solve the Cauvery water problem and these machines depend on the amount of moisture in air.

Regards,

TDU

 

Hi, Manjula,

Thanks for the appreciation. My creativity gets a boost with responses from ilites like you. I have posted an explanation of the working of a machine that converts air into water. I am curious about the points that you need clarifications. First of all, I will reiterate that this story is purely fictional and I have to put a disclaimer that it does not refer to any living persons. As I have mentioned in the beginning I am imaginig this story more like a Tamil film script. So, I may be throwing some emotional, melodramatic and contrived situations typical of Tamil film stories mainly to add some spice to the theme. In the end I would like to bring the message that scientists who can shape the destiny of mankind need to be protected, nurtured and encouraged and not allowed to fall victims of socio-political pressures.

As I have now worked in few countries as a scientist, I have found that scientists are not that well paid globally and not treated with the respect due to them. But, unlike India in western countries scientists are allowed to take advantage of their discoveries by way of patents and start private business using their scientific knowledge. Ofcourse, a real scientist cannot be money-minded, but lack of money should not be a hindrance to his thought process. For example, in India scientists are made to worry about day to day living. In spite of that many achievements have been done by Indian scientists. Hats off to those dedicated Indian scientists.

Regards,

TDU

 

Dear Manjula,

Although you claim to have only high school knowledge of science, your questions are very intelligent, poignant and interesting worthy of a Ph.D in science. Your parents and husband must be proud of you. Incidentally, I am reminded of you whenever I visit the local mall here where they have a section marked 'Big & Tall'.

Before going into answering or rather trying to answer your questions, I have to put a disclaimer again. It is that this field of water technology is not my field and my knowledge is all bookish or webbish. So, I expect some knowledgable ilites to contradict my answers.

The air to water machines work on three principles namely, evaporation, condensation and purification. In this context, my answers are as follows:

1. Is there a generic name for this machine yet?

Ans: By generic name if you mean brand names, yes they have been named as Dragon fly, Oasis or simply air to water machines.

2.How does it differ from a dehumidifier ?

Ans: As I understand the dehumidifiers work on the principle of evaporation only.

3. The airconditioning units also expel a steady trickle of water, presumably sucked from air. Can a U.V. filter or membrane( for osmosis) be fitted to the drip hose to harvest potable water ?

Ans: You are right. But, the difference is the air-conditioners suck in hot air, cool it and circulate the cool air. So, the power consumption by the machine is more than 1000 watts as against the power consumption by residential air to water machines are one tenth of that and hence, they can be made easily portable. These air to water machines are being tried by U.S army in the war at Iraq.The addition of U.V. filtration to air conditioners will be increasing its cost and power consumption.

4. How cost- and fuel-efficient is this machine compared to a desalination unit for the same yield ?

Ans: As I have told in the answer to previous question since the power consumption of these machines are low, the cost (running cost) is quoted to be less than 3 pence per liter of water in U.S. In Australia, we had estimated in our laboratory to be around 25 pence per liter ( the machine was producing one liter of water per hour). Comparison with desalination plants is not valid since desalination plants are meant to make not pottable water into pottable water (example: sea water). In the gulf they have giant floating desalination
plants and they could afford with oil money. In Australia, presently a severe draught situation is there in some states and the Australian Govt. did not opt for desalination plants due to high costs, but to harness water through a 10 billion dollar project called Murray-Darling project. Both Murray and Darling are river names and they do have enough water (but not pottable) as I myself went on a ferry tour and found.

5. When used in a closed system, say like a room or small apartment, where free flow of fresh air is restricted, can the machine lower the moisture content to less than the comfort zone of 35% humidity - which may cause skin and eye irritation and electrostatic discharges ? I have heard that dry air, having more density, may also cause breathing problems.

Ans: You are right on theoretical grounds. In the lab. in Australia where we had installed this machine in our Cafetaria, the occupancy is limited to one or two hours during coffee and lunch breaks and most people will move into benches in the adjoining garden area.

Incidentally, the humidity levels in Australia is very low (30% to 40%) as against very high levels in India (90% to 95%). So, in Indian homes if they are installed there should be no problem. Also, even when the humidity levels go low, they can be located where the occupancy is less like the areas of shaded balcony or store rooms.

6. And now, a rather extreme, hypothetical scenario: If industrial grade machines are used for higher yields, can it interfere with natural condensation, somewhat like depletion of trees, cancelling rains ?

Ans: First of all, the industrial grade machines produce a maximum of 50000 liters per day which is not big. As per the admissions of inventor of the machine in U.S, these machines cannoot cause a river flow or fill a lake. The effects you are referring like interference with natural condensation etc. might occur if water is produced in the scale to produce river flow and that too it may be localised to the particular region where the machine is located.

7. An unconnected - but related -thought: How feasible is the idea of using a bed of hygroscopic material ( similar to, but not, Silicagel) to absorb atmospheric moisture and then extracting that water ? Possible? or is that kokku-thalaiyiley-vennai ?

Ans: To the best of my knowledge, in all hygroscopic materials the absorption of water produces effects like chemical change or change of state from solid to liquid or change of colouration as in silica gel. Extracting water from these materials and purification will be a tedious process. One humourous thought on this question. Allowing water to be absorbed by hygroscopic material and then extracting it is like this. Instead of catching an animal directly with a net, you allow the animal to ba swallowed by a crocodile and then kill the
crocodile to get the animal.

I hope I have tried to give convincing answers.

Regards,
TDU

 

Episode 7:

Getting down from the jeep, the police inspector enters the house in which Mr. Raman is staying. Finding the village chief inside the house, the inspector salutes him and tells him politely, ' Sir, I have come to arrest Mr. Raman based on a complaint given by one of your village person. He has charged Mr. Raman for deceiving the village people and he has quoted the newspaper ad. saying Mr. Raman is a lunatic escaped from a mental hospital in Mumbai'.

Even as he is speaking a large crowd gathers out side the house and the villagers start shouting ' Don't arrest Mr. Raman. If you do so you have to take him over our corpses'. The police inspector is put in a dilemma and he offers to the chief that if he gives a statement that Mr. Raman is harmless and if Mr. Raman does any harm he on behalf of the village will take full responsibility and will hand over Mr. Raman to the police. The chief agrees readily and he writes a statement accordingly and the police inspector leaves. The crowd becomes happy as Mr. Raman is not arrested and they disperse.

After the village chief excuses himself from Mr. Raman and leaves, Mr. Raman's memories bring back the drama that unfolded in his Mumbai laboratory the day he was successful with the air to water machine.

Mr. Raman was so excited when the first trickle of water appeared in his experimental machine, he ran to the chief's room and said, 'Sir, I have produced water from air. Our cauvery river water problem will be solved'. The chief said,' cool down, Mr. Raman. Have you tested the machine thouroughly? is the water getting collected coming from air only?. What you do is to test it thouroughly first, prepare a report and present it to us. We will decide what next to do'. Mr.Raman's enthusiasm got deflated and he returned to the lab. despirited.

He tested the machine thouroughly and was fully convinced and recorded all the results, prepared a detailed report. A meeting of top bosses of the lab. was convened where Mr. Raman presented his discovery. Even as he was presenting excitedly, he was shocked to see some members dozing and some talking among themselves. In the end, one of the member who had woken up by then asked Mr. Raman, 'What is the earthly use of your discovery?'. Mr. Raman explained patiently the water problem in the Cauvery delta due to the inter-state river water dispute and the installation of these machines along the river side can solve the problem. One member said,' If we do that Karnataka people will oppose and will demand machines for them also'. Another member from Gujarat said, 'there is an acute drinking water shortage in the Kutch region. Why not install the machines there first?'. The chief of the lab. raised his hands and said,' Ours is a national lab. and what we discover we have to report to Central Govt. they will form several committees and the committees will ask lot of questions. Even the existing funds will be cut if they find that we have wasted our resources in this air to water schemes. Also, if it is proved that it cannot work on large scale we will become a laughing stock. So, Mr. Raman you write a paper and publish it in some journals. I may recommend you for promotion and we will stop at that'. Mr. Raman who became heart-broken at these happenings was shocked further when his friend who entered the meeting meekly, took permission from the chief and siad, 'Sir, it is actually my project and my work which Mr. Raman has stolen and presented here'.


To be continued....