Thinking about the poor farmers who cannot afford costly electric water pumps and all year running electric bills he decided to build a prototype of a windmill based water pump which can lift and pump groundwater or well water which can be used by farmers for irrigation of their crops. The windmill is a vertical axis type and is compact in space consumption along with being free from noise and air pollution. So, Saurabh along with his classmates Siddesh Dabholkar, Rushekesh Raut, Arjun Naik, and Vishnu Govekar put all their engineering knowledge and ideas together to build a prototype of a Windmill based water pump which could not only help poor farmers but also urban people to pump ground water on rooftops of multistory buildings where this windmill can be installed in presence of sufficient wind. The prototype was designed and fabricated within Rs. 10,000 and is a onetime investment as it runs on wind energy which is free and abundant in nature
The Windmill blades were made by cutting into half a 50L water storing barrel. The blades were then mounted on a central shaft which was supported on a rigid frame structure along with ball bearings to reduce frictional forces hence developed. Wind when struck the blades made it to rotate. The power hence produced was transferred to a reciprocating pump via a crankplate and connecting rod. The reciprocating pump had a piston which would move from top dead centre to bottom dead centre. The pump was made up of a piston, outer cylinder, non return valves and other PVC fitments. The suction pressure created by the pump would draw in water and at the downward motion of the piston would discharge the water. The observations made were to lift 1L of water at a head of 3m and at a wind speed of 4m/s the time taken was 90 seconds. The minimum wind speed required to operate this device was 3m/s.
The boys were guided by Prof. Mahalingesh Bagali and Prof. Parashuram Nandi who helped and guided them by giving necessary inputs in designing, fabrication and documentation of the project.
Due to increase in use of fossil fuels for generation of electricity which in turn pollutes the environment, this project can replace the electric water pumps being used for irrigation and lifting water in multistory buildings which will in turn reduce the electricity bills.
This idea can be further made more efficient by combining it with solar panels but with a slight increase in cost. The whole idea is to be as eco friendly as possible moving away from exploitation of fossil fuels and to use renewable sources of energy.
