BY: Phillip Harris
I chose to do my blog post on a new and very interesting invention called the "Smart Pipe". The Smart Pipe is a new way to monitor water quality and quantity in public water systems. The idea came from two students at the University of Illinois, Mr. Yu-Feng Lin and Mr. Chang Liu in 2009. When doing a study on public water systems in 2009, the two students found out that over seven billion gallons of clean, treated water disappears every single day due to leaks and damages inside the water pipes. The students also found out that this is enough water to supply the population in California in daily water usage. Seven billion gallons of lost water can lead to a loss of between 20 and 100 million dollars per day. This of course is entirely too much money to waste every day, and a loss of that much water can be a loss of energy resources for future generations.
The way the Smart Pipe works is using nano sensor technology to improve water system infrastructure. Each 2.5 by 2.5 millimeter base unit would include sensors for pressure and temperature flow velocity. The Smart Pipe would also be connected with a wireless processor and antenna to transfer monitoring data to a command center in real time.The sensors inside the water pipes would detect pipe pressure, flow rate, slow-flow sections, stagnant points, pipe leakage, and water quality. Applying this technology at an affordable cost will help small, rural water systems maintain the maximum amount of clean, treated water to reach its rightful destination. After undergoing hundreds of tests, the Smart Pipe still proved to be extremely efficient and the invention has began to be placed in small, rural water systems, and according to the Lin and Liu, if the Smart Pipe continues to show success it could be used on an even greater scale in the future. However, the broader application of this invention is dependent on future research and government funding. Below is a video of Mr. Lin himself showing a demonstration of the Smart Pipe.
I think this invention is very innovative. It is a great way to increase sustainability, which makes it highly desirable in today's economy because of recent trends. There is a big shift where there is a focus on the environment and general conservation whether it be energy, or natural resources. This could prove to be the wave of the future and I think they will not have problems gaining government funding provided it performs well in the communities where it's already been placed.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great development, and the fact that this is the first time that I've heard about this is a problem. Thank you Phillip for sharing this information. This could be the difference in saving countless lives and improving the quality of even more lives across the globe. I think that this technology should be implemented in urban areas, where the most water is wasted and infrastructure is rarely checked regularly.
ReplyDeleteI find this invention very interesting various ways. The first way is that it is innovative and help reduce waste. With that said I do have questions about how much would it cost to implement the system: because sometimes fixing a problem could have more cost associated with it than it had before the fix. The other is that the invention was created by students. I believe that our school needs to invest more in student innovation projects and entrepreneurial efforts.
ReplyDeleteThis invention is very interesting because it addresses a problem that most people never even knew about. We all take advantage of our access to clean water not thinking about how much that access really cost us. Its unacceptable that we have been wasting this much money and water yet ignoring the problem. It will be interesting to see its application to the community and how many companies and communities will invest in this product
ReplyDelete