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Aquaduct Bike Purifies Water As You Pedal
Mike writes "Winner of the '08 Innovate or Die competition sponsored by Google and Specialized, the Aquaduct is a pedal-powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water. The design has massive implications for communities where safe and secure sources of drinking water are not readily accessible."
What about Beer?
Have they come up with something that will take my beer pee and filter it into water?
I live in Arizona and that would be a great thing to have in the desert.
--
Oh Well, Bad Karma and all . . .
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
So, as I sweat and pee, it could collect it, refine it and put it back in my sports bottle. I would imagine it might have a little twang to it if you catch my drift.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
The design has massive implications for communities where safe and secure sources of drinking water are not readily accessible."
What, like for small villages in the middle of nowhere without roads?
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It seems nice and all, but the lifestraw is a much more elegant solution to the problem.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Does the filter remove bacteria from the water? I would think that the filter would become a haven for bacteria to breed propagate, especially when not in use. The main concern in countries where this would be useful are contaminants in the water and bacteria and I don't know of any filter that would effectively eliminate both without costing a fortune to replace every week.
This is more of a question than a criticism, seeing that I don't know if the filter technology exists or not...but a Brita filter isn't going to help the third world very much.
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Not a terribly advanced commodity.
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just one step closer to a stilsuit!
What has three wheels and quacks like a duck?
A boil and condense system might be another solution given that it could get away without he need to replace filters. And could also double as a stove.
Permanent magnets and metal coils are all that is needed to generate the heat. It could also have a stationary mode where the back wheels are off the ground so it could serve as a stove and avoid the need to collect/burn wood as well.
I grant that a boil and condense system would be a lot slower and require a heat sink. But then the entire water path could be cleaned by scrubbing and there would be no requirement for filters.
And if you insert a broom into my asshole I also can sweep the pathway.
This is a competition to design a green thing that is sponsored by google and specialized, specialized is a BIKE company. How many green products are there that incorporate a bike? Two using the bike to offset car usage and generating power with your pedal power. This is just a novel way to use that power while your still attached to the bike, there is really no reason for this to be actually on the bike at all.
And if you insert a broom into my asshole I could sweep the pathway.
It will have "massive implications"? Yeah right. This is likely to cost quite a bit, and it is going to be far cheaper to have other systems, from boiling the water, to stationary filters, to sterilizing and sealing a well. From what I have seen in Laos (a developing country), the urban population buys bottled water, and the rural population either does nothing, boils water, or the village pitches in to install a sealed well with a hand pump. The later costs on the order of $100-$150 start to finish. Or I suppose you could buy a bicycle to filter water.
However, I must note that the people developing this did not claim "massive implications". Here is a quote from the article:
In its present configuration it is not a feasible solution for most developing communities due to production costs and durability. But in fairness to the IDEO team, they have stated that, "In its current state, the Aquaduct is a prototype aimed squarely at demonstrating a concept and raising awareness around the issues of clean water in developing countries. The Aquaduct team plans to continue the concept's development into an economically and technologically viable solution that addresses challenges such as cost, suitable purification technologies, and the logistics of addressing an issue that [affects] billions."
"The Aquaduct team plans to continue the concept's development into an economically and technologically viable solution that addresses challenges such as cost, suitable purification technologies, and the logistics of building an infrastructure of roads that make travel by bicycle possible."
See issue 14 of Make:
These people should team up with the makers of H2Opia (on Facebook). That would be really cool.
-W
You have obviously never heard of Frost Piss, another invention from the wonderful slashdot readers.
Infuriate left and right
This vehicle looks cute, but is completely useless.
The thing works by spending some of the energy of your pedaling for a pump which then pumps the water trough a filter and into the "clean" tank in front.
Here's the thing, if you've got that filter, and can maintain it, you can achieve precisely the same thing by lifting the water you've fetched a single meter off the ground, and letting this fancy thing called *gravity* push it trough the filter.
Mounting a mechanical pump on a bike, as a solution for "how to get water to flow trough a filter" makes it much more complicated, thus more expensive and more likely to go wrong.
The mechanical pump, coupled to the pedaling, *will* go wrong sometimes, it'll also cost money and need maintenance.
Gravity has none of these problems.
...this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62F5qPwXVcA
It met with a big success on the BBC's Dragons Den. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/
You pull or push it instead of riding it.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.