Our project is effective in implementing the SDGs even during this crucial pandemic period. The basic commodities like water, food, etc. required for our livelihood is fulfilled through our idea. We believe that this project will be successful as the raw material required to get these 4 important commodities is the food waste and other biowastes that we generate on a daily basis.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
Few signs of progress made in implementing the SDGs before COVID-19:
· Between 2000 and 2017, the proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water—the highest level of service—increased from 61 percent to 71 percent.
· The under-5 mortality rate has fallen by 49 percent—from 77 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 39 deaths in 2017.
· The percentage of people using electricity is rising from 83 percent in 2010 to 87 percent in 2015, then accelerating to 89 percent in 2017 (a gain of 1 percentage point annually in the past two years).
This pandemic has exposed fundamental weaknesses in our global system. It has shown how the prevalence of poverty, weak health systems, lack of education, and a lack of global cooperation exacerbate the crisis.
Sadly, this pandemic hit at a time when the SDGs were gaining traction and a significant number of countries were making good progress.
Our project is effective in implementing the SDGs even during this crucial pandemic period. The basic commodities like water, food, etc. required for our livelihood is fulfilled through our idea.
What are the problems/challenges faced by us?
1.Water scarcity:
Water is a basic necessity for all living things.
According to a report released by WWF, about 1.1 billion people face water shortage in the world. The major cause of water shortage is due to water pollution, overuse of water, water wastage, drought, improper sanitation, etc which has resulted in the increase in the price of water drastically and could be afforded only by few people.
In the past seven years, water rates in the US have climbed more than 50 percent on average, according to a new survey of water rates in 30 large US cities. As the world population continues to grow, we are heading towards a global water crisis. According to current estimates, the shortage of freshwater resources is expected to reach 40% of the required amount by 2030.
In almost all countries the source for water for citizens is generally through groundwater but recent studies on the USA show that this water scarcity being observed.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dv0D9IVnkzuRRm12FVhcpwAGwD1K599_/view?usp=sharing
So broadening our point of focus we have to understand the importance of having alternate sources that we can rely on during water scarcity situations.
2. Electricity
Electricity is a particularly high grade of energies and the lifeblood of modern society. Electricity facilitates technological advancement and underpins a wide range of products and services that enhance our quality of life and stimulate economic productivity.
Carmakers say they'll accomplish with their future electric vehicles between now and 2030. So electricity will be a major need soon.
The major source from which a large amount of electricity is produced is from Thermal power plants. These thermal power plants use a massive amount of coal as fuel.
Coals are estimated to last for around 150 years, after which humans will face a crisis in producing electricity.
Global surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest on record. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) was established in 1982 as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) to collect and analyze the global distribution of clouds, their properties, and their diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18q0ConwtUcKy0WExg02150fDylFeqmBt/view?usp=sharing
3. Manure
Manure is an organic matter used as fertilizer in agriculture. Manures improve the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and lots of nutrients, such as nitrogen that is trapped by bacteria in the soil.
But THESE PACKED MANURES ARE BULKY WITH LOW NUTRITION CONTENT AND:
2) THEY ARE INCONVENIENT TO HANDLE, STORE AND TRANSPORT.
3) THEY ARE NOT NUTRIENT SPECIFIC.
Most of the manures produced contain at least an adequate amount of chemicals in it and are not organic which eventually spoils the idea of using organic manure for good nutritious yield.
4. Need for a clean fuel
Fuel is one of the most important commodities which are required by a man regularly but this fuel when combusted can result in releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere causing air pollution and even contributing to ozone holes.
The worst-case example is the pollution problems faced by the capital city of our country DELHI.
According to the information provided by NASA:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17nD-KgEmQOIatoc6idp0u75nAGHatx_q/view?usp=sharing
“The GEOS FP system captures the elevated pollution over India, shown for 08Z on November 6, 2016. This major pollution event caused extremely unhealthy air masses in New Delhi and the broad region in early November.
With its computation of aerosol and pollutant emissions from fires detected by MODIS, the GEOS FP system provided realistic estimates of this surface pollution as well as strong evidence that the source was from agricultural burning practices that are prevalent at this time of year. The plots compare MODIS true-color imagery (left, showing fires as red dots) with GEOS estimates of AOD (middle) and PM2.5 (right)”. India's Ministry of Earth Sciences published a research paper in October 2018 attributing almost 41% to vehicular emissions, 21.5% to dust, and 18% to industries. Therefore this example further stresses the need for clean fuel to protect our environment.
Thus by studying and analyzing these important problems we have ideated a solution which we believe that if implemented this idea can create a significant impact and save millions.
Our solution:
In India, about 62 million tons (MT) of waste annually generated in which around 40% of MSW constitutes of organic wastes that can be utilized through either an aerobic or anaerobic process to generate biogas, electricity, and compost.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJg6R4G47rvBGeMnKSOlN_TTvclFHJAy/view?usp=sharing
Therefore it will be very helpful to get a system with which the majority of these food waste being converted into useful commodities. Thus our idea is a self-sustainable idea to obtain water, electricity, manure, and biogas from food waste and other biowastes.
Proposed solution
The proposed idea can generate electricity, water, manure, and biogas from the food and other biowastes. This will be possible if done in a proper methodology. For obtaining the above-mentioned commodities, a sequence of steps or processes are performed and this can be depicted as a block diagram as follows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lEKTvg2XWi2RNcM68ShRHn-IEuks0yv8/view?usp=sharing
From the below-given 7 steps, and are analyzed in-depth:
1.Collection and segregation
This step is the most crucial step which determines the efficiency of this process. Collecting the waste products and segregating only the required ones are mandatory to proceed to the next step.
2.Biogas extraction
In the process of extraction of biogas the segregated biowaste, Food waste is fed into a resting container for 30 to 32 days where the anaerobic and aerobic respiration occurs resulting in the release of biogas, water and other organic chemicals of nitrogen and ammonia bases.
3.Separation
This separation is done between the two layers formed in the resting tank after the decaying process. After the decaying process two distinct layers are observed in which nearly 90% of the obtained heterogeneous mixture is water and thus after the filtration process, this water can be used for steam production ultimately used to generate electricity. Note that the solid waste which is being discussed in this part will be explained in the upcoming sections.
4.Electricity generation
As discussed earlier the water along with other organic chemicals after filtration can be used for steam production and using the kinetic energy of the steam electricity can be generated. HERE, either the biogas obtained in the previous process can be used as a fuel or other forms of fuel can also be used. This is the reason for calling this whole process SELF SUSTAINABLE.
5.Extraction of Water
After completion of electricity generation, this steam can be condensed to water again which can be further treated to make it more useful and less harmful. NOTE that as the water has already been at very high temperatures, all the biotic life can be destroyed making sure that its safe for consumption.
6.Extraction of manure
As discussed in the 3rd step, the leftover solid compounds which settle at the bottom of the resting tank. This compound is rich in organic chemicals and nutrients of nitrogen and ammonia bases thus making itself the best and rich form of manure. This manure is the same as organic manure got from composting.
7.Storage and supply
After extracting all the 4 above-cited commodities, the final step is the proper storing and consuming of the same.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11y9iwG_6rTaLQYNdyEndsEjy9r4Ld_5r/view?usp=sharing
Testing the Hypothesis
A small initiative was taken by us to test whether the hypothesis of the presence of water in the majority was true or not. So household food remains and waste we segregate and kept to decay for 32 days and the filtered water was studied and found to be proving our hypothesis to be true.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14pi6HHlWBTDxddsCcHCnal5nrLqOT6s1/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Npbd48pdxnLr37iBARqZRftN1zg6oREn/view?usp=sharing
A Small initiative was taken by us to prove the hypothesis of the presence of water in decayed food material.
THE RESULT: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tU3jWoSsEKCQMpdz2PzpWppMBoMVl9kv/view?usp=sharing
Scope for development:
We can implement our project on a large scale by collecting various types of food waste (Bio-degradable waste) from various apartments and colonies and we can direct it into the underground by digging wasteland areas or we can even use abundant wells too, to implement this process. This will ensure that no waste material is present above the ground to serve as breeding grounds for diseases. The above process of bio-degradation will directly help to implement our project and it will indirectly help to clean our society.
Apart from using the wastewater produced from apartments and colonies, the contaminated wastewater from the polluted water bodies such as Rivers and Lakes can be used to implement our process. So, the wastewater from these mass water bodies can also be used to rotate turbines to generate electricity. This process will also use to implement our project directly and it will indirectly help in cleaning the water bodies and aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, the aquatic life that was initially affected by water pollution can thrive once again.
As we generate water, electricity, manure and other by-products with the help of food waste our product is nutrient-rich and our project is Eco-friendly too. Our solution significantly reduces the amount of waste being disposed of and thus, creates a more healthy and sanitary environment. On a small scale, with our idea, we can generate up to 1-megawatt of electricity with approximately 50 tones of food waste. So we can generate a large amount of electricity when compared to other alternate sources.
The impacts which can be created by our project:
WATER:
We have gathered the water content from different varieties of food and calculated its average value from a trusted source.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nr8eU2wafWUd7WXgvRDRN8CAQJ2mDSE-/view?usp=sharing
o So we can see that soups have the highest average but soups are mostly made up of vegetables so actually, we as an industry prefer vegetables, fruits, and sea products.
o Therefore when those products begin to decay we obtain the maximum level of water without any raw materials because here we only use the waste foods and obtain the water.
Electricity:
The above water which we got is not pure we need to make it pure so we are going to heat it so now we obtain the pure water and on the other side, we obtain the steam through this steam we are going to generate electricity too.
But for now, let’s see some of the other thermal power-plants.
So when we look into the thermal power plants process it is a coal-basedthermal power plant that converts the chemical energy of the coal into electrical energy. This is achieved by raising the steam in the boilers, expanding it through the turbine, and coupling the turbines to the generator which converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.
A 1000 MWe coal plant uses 9000 tones of coal per day, equivalent to an entire trainload (90 cars with 100 tones in each!).
Let us see the pollution problems from the thermal plants using coals in a tabular column:
o From the table, we can say that the use of coal percentage in thermal power-plants is decreasing over the years.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PhoxggJUC4EubotTN7HKXT2IuKnOOwPJ/view?usp=sharing
o So from an image captured from satellite through NASA which shows the before and after images of SO2 production which is produced by burning fossil fuel after lockdown.
o Through the emission of pollutants from coal, there will be possibilities that even google maps can’t show the desired map because the satellites cannot process a clear mapping from the camera because the air will be full of smoke and smog.
o So what we can understand is that burning coal causes an enormous amount of pollutants to spread in the air and cause air pollution and so this the satellites cannot even take the picture clearly due to the smoke effects.
o So even though coal consumption may be reduced but still the pollution will be highly toxic. So now we came up with an idea that our project will also be Eco-Friendly.
o It is eco friendly because we are going to use clean fuel produced on our own for steam production in the electricity generation process.
o So our project turns out to be eco-friendly
Manure:
Manures are an important component to guarantee the growth of nutrient-rich crops in the farmlands.
The below image shows the picture of the organic manure. These producers claim to sell manure which is 100% organic but their actual process involves and extracting the essence of the manure and mix them with chemicals and other preservatives thus spoiling the whole point of using pure organic manure.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tavb_VcEYpGxctT7UhMMmF-hTZ0Edu8k/view?usp=sharing
o Here from the above tabular column, we can see that there are some major losses of important components of manure.
o However, we can overcome this through various processing but again the cost will shoot up
o We have already explained that when the food decay it will be separated into two layers one layer is water and the other layer is food waste.
o Food waste is rich in nitrogen content so we can directly use this as manure.
Biogas:
We have also gathered some data on the amount of biogas released by different categories of materials when subjected under aerobic and anaerobic respiration:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sg3HVVxx7cpUkvd87kGsyz0RsI_8FimQ/view?usp=sharing
From the above-collected data, we can see the contribution to the amount of gas being liberated due to decaying various biomaterials. From this list, we can say that an average of 600 to 800-meter cube of biogas can be generated at a larger scale.
There can also be a question of how this power plant Idea be useful in strengthening the economy?
Well,
1. this can be run systematically and can yield four different commodities which are very essential in man’s life:
· water
· electricity
· manure
· biogas
2. In any kind of situation even like in pandemic situations this process can be done with systematic automation, collection, and segregation of products derived from this process.
Even if this is not possible staff can still carry out this process by ensuring social distancing.
Thus whatever the situation may be this process if implemented on a large scale can help to maintain a good flow of money and the flow of all the products to everyone and control the rising tensions among the public too.
In addition to all the above-stated points, the most important quality of our project is that this idea if implemented proves to satisfy more than 10 UN Sustainable development goals in both direct and indirect ways:
Implementing goals in a direct way:
1. GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
2. GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
3. GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
4. GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
5. GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
6. GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Implementing in Indirect ways:
1. GOAL 1: No Poverty – When this idea is implemented as an industry this will lead to more employment opportunities which will subsequently reduce poverty up to its maximum potential.
2. GOAL 2: Zero Hunger – The waste or byproduct of our idea’s process is the fresh pure organic manure and thus in a large scale this can be sold at a very low price which can make it very useful and affordable amongst the farmer community and thus it can also result in obtaining organic nutrient-rich food. By this process, the cost of food will decrease and thus in a positive note, even global hunger can be targeted to be eradicated.
Thus with your help and support, we can implement our project and make millions of souls happy and ultimately the world a prosperous place to live in.
Problems and achievements in our team:
We are very happy to work together as a team and fortunately, we didn’t have any problems as we are from the same university and we are having a good connection with each other and during the process of work we understood the team’s strengths and weaknesses and proceeded accordingly.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank NASA from the bottom of our hearts for taking this big initiative of conducting this massive hackathon and also for introducing us to the world of open data which was very useful in creating this project.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_meXJXW_Hx6gk2JN1f4Pf4yu2vyMVsaQ/view?usp=sharing
1. http://www.data4sdgs.org/resources/covid-19-data-resources
2. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/
3. https://www.constructionworld.in/articles/special-report/Waste-to-wealth-/15258
4. https://www.sganalytics.com/blog/msw-india-dump-yard-wars/
5. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-effect-sdg-un-progress
6. https://www.oecd.org/development/implementing-sustainable-development-goals-imperative.htm
7. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-06/
8. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-03/
10. https://youtu.be/JZpYN503VXw (JAXA)
11. https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/energy-independence/the-end-of-fossil-fuels
12. https://data.nasa.gov/Earth-Science/Monthly-Near-Surface-Air-Temperature-Averages/kg9g-f2wt
13. https://data.nasa.gov/Earth-Science/Mirador-Water-and-Energy-Cycles/9tft-z8f6
14. https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/science_snapshots/slides/N_India_air_pollution-whitebkg.pdf
15. https://iasi.aeris-data.fr/covid-19/
16. https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/CMS-CO2-Emissions-from-Fossil-Fuels-Combustion-ACE/pd7s-5p7t
17. https://www.amazon.in/Grow-Well-Organic-Manure-Kg/dp/B01BCEO5H6
18. https://airquality.gsfc.nasa.gov/
19. http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data2b.html
20. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809917304228#bib14