Translation in English (with additional reporting)

Varanasi. Clear – For hygiene loving urban inhabitants, many companies have introduced purifier for drinking water in market; however, only students of Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University have thought about providing the facility to poor people in rural areas. A team of five ITians studying in B. Tech. has developed ExVirus, using ‘cheap and best technique’ to purify any type of water on a mass scale. It is expected that after this design is patented, it will be able to supply purified potable water to village pots. 

This water purifier from ITians can be deployed for water wells, ponds and big tanks. According to students, this (filter unit) can be sent by a mobile team to villages to provide purified water. In last August, the successful model of ExVirus developed by ITians, has won first prize among the models from engineering colleges all over the country at IIT-Guwahati. Not only that, the research paper about the technique used by ExVirus to purify water has also won a first prize (Rs. 6,000) in the Paper Presentation Group. Apart from that, this model also won third prize in the Technex competition held at IT-BHU.

To make this water purifier, ‘Activated Charcoal’, ‘Silica Microsphere’ and ‘Reverse Osmosis’ have been used. Team members from second year Ceramics Engineering students Devender Singh, Ankit Kumar, Ankit Gupta, Nandit Pathak and Amay Baokar said that they have spent only Rs. 1,500 to develop this ExVirus; hence they can claim that this will be a cheap device for mass purification of water. Students had two-months training at Calcutta based Central Glass and Ceramics Research Institute to develop ExVirus. During research, students developed new technique to purify water. Group leader Devender Singh says that with initiative by industry and government, it will be easier to provide purified drinking water to villages. This is because so far villagers drink any water which appears purified by the clear look; although it may contain heavy metals and undesirable gases. Villages can easily use affordable purifier machine such as ExVirus on co-operative basis. Water treated with ExVirus easily meets all the standards laid down by the government for purified water.

Photograph shows a smaller working prototype of the water purifier. Students are working on two types of purifier, one which is designed for mass use and can be developed on co-operative level, and second for individual use which is specially designed according to the needs and affordability of people living in rural areas.

 

According to team, work has been going on making a self-dependent water filter in product form for rural areas which will cost around Rs. 350. Team has collected samples of water from different sources of water in villages like wells, tube wells; hand pumps etc. and found that their water filter is very efficient for rural areas. In this filter, majorly two processes, titania coated silica microspheres (invented by team) and a bed of activated charcoal is being used by students. Water after filtration process fell well under the standards of drinking water set by government. Students are promising that their product will take shape and will be available in less than a month which is designed specifically according to situation and needs of rural areas.

 

Devender Singh Maun (2^nd year Ceramic Engineering)

Email: devender.maun@cer11.itbhu.ac.in OR devender.cer07@itbhu.ac.in

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