The Free* Energy Water Pump
A water pump inspired by nature.
Product of the Design Engineering Collaborative.
*We acknowledge there is no such thing as free energy… just energy efficiently
captured from natural phenomenon.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Here is the problem:
• The use of diesel pumps is widespread in rural India.
A clean and affordable alternative needs to be made
available.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
An assessment of our resources:
• Solar power is clean, but expensive and hard to
maintain… In addition, the sun doesn’t always shine.
• Wind power is effective for windy regions, but our
target location of Bihar has very little of this powerful
resource.
• Human power is feasible, but tradeoffs would have to
be made with convenience and personal pride.
• Nuclear power is… probably out of the question, for
many reasons.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
So what are we left with???
We were unsatisfied with classical
water pump designs that use
classical sources of energy.
We decided to design something
completely different using new and
innovative solutions.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Let’s think about trees…
They’re green, they grow, and
they need a MASSIVE amount of
water to survive.
Each of these sequoia trees
pumps around 500 gallons of
water up its 300 foot trunk
(source: pbs.org) every day…
But how? And more importantly,
how can we?
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Trees rely on capillary action.
This naturally-occurring phenomenon
exerts a small force on the column of
water. The small adhesive force is
observable in between the water
molecules and the miniscule xylem
(tubes) that run up and down a tree
trunk.
In trees, the water-saturated xylem run all the way to the
leaves, where the water evaporates. The evaporation causes
a small pressure differential that draws up more water.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
But how could we use this?
• We would need:
• A medium that could transport water by capillary
action as well as a tree’s xylem
• A way to cause evaporation at ground level while still
somehow capturing the evaporated water.
• Is this possible? YES!
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
What would mimic a tree’s capillaries?
• Micro-porous (AKA wicking) materials exhibit all of the
same adhesive forces as the tiny tubes found in trees.
• Examples of these kinds of materials include paper
towels and various potting mixes (sphagnum peat and
coir - see coir discussion on slide 19).
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
What would mimic the evaporation of
water at the tree’s leaves, but still allow
us to capture the water?
In the AP1000 reactor design,
water is evaporated at the core
due to high temperatures, then
condensed on the walls of a
containment chamber and
recirculated. The condensation
is a result of natural convection.
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What do you get when you combine
these ideas?
Our “free” energy
water pump. It uses
capillary action
through micro porous
material in conjunction
with an evaporation/
condensation chamber
to pump water from
underground aquifers.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
The top piece of the pump serves as
the top of the evaporation/
condensation chamber.
The collar piece of the pump will be
the bottom of the evaporation/
condensation chamber and will rest
at ground level.
The main column of the pump is full of
micro porous material such as coir
and sphagnum peat, that will start
fully saturated, as to allow for a
continuous column of water.
The very bottom of the pump
is completely submerged in
the aquifer.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
There are two goals of the top chamber: to trap heat which will cause evaporation, and to use
natural convection to keep the wall temperature lower than that of the internal air temperature.
The top piece can be made of heat conducting metal, black plastic, clear plastic, or other
inexpensive materials to balance heat conductivity, weight, and cost.
1) The trapped heat
inside the chamber
causes the water to
evaporate from the
wicking material.
1)
2)
3)
2) The water then
condenses on the
chamber walls and
accumulates in the
reservoir.
3) The water is dispersed by gravity through the water
distribution system consisting of a simple series of tubes
(Not pictured), in order to eliminate evaporation.
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Why does this work?
A fully saturated column of micro-porous material exhibits cohesive forces
between water molecules as well as adhesive forces between water molecules
and micro-porous material. Water evaporating from the top of the column
leaves other water molecules under adhesive force directed upwards and
cohesive force downwards. The adhesive force is greater than the cohesive
force. In Micro-porous materials, this differential is enough to actually pump
water.
It could not be more important that the entire column start completely
saturated with water. Only then will evaporation at the top cause enough
suction to actually pump water. A dry column would never exert the same
behavior.
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Path of Water Flow
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Sounds too good to be true?
There are several pieces of
evidence pointing towards the
very real possibility of a pump
such as this.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Global Buckets has already done this…
In an effort headed by the project integrator of this
team, a design using the same concepts was
shown to work wonders. Using two buckets, a body
of micro porous material, and a submerged wicking
region, plants were able to draw up as much water
as they needed. In some cases, the design worked
so well that the plants drew up more water than the
gardeners had the time to supply.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Our prototype.
We prototyped our pump design using lo-fidelity
materials. Our prototype was made completely out of
two liter bottles, duct tape and paper towels. The
types of materials show the simplicity in design of
the pump.
The prototype was placed underneath a lamp for a
week and the water level in the bottom chamber was
observed.
On the positive side, the pump did pump up enough
water to lower the reservoir by about an inch. On the
negative side, the lamp was too efficient and did not
heat up the top chamber at all. Added heat is cruicial
to this design so this test was not a completely
accurate representation, and unfortunately, we did
not have enough time for a second trial.
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While there is no conclusive evidence
to prove the volumetric pumping
capacity of this design on the required
scale, the design certainly has massive
potential and is worth further research
and development.
You want more reasons why this pump
would be revolutionary? Read on…
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Bonus features? Besides the fact it
uses virtually free energy?
This pump can be made almost entirely from recycled materials.
Coir, or coir pith, is a byproduct of the coconut industry. Until recently, coir was viewed as
waste. It was burned or shoveled into massive piles which sat for decades. Recently, it was
discovered that coir pith is an excellent substitute for Sphagnum Peat, another micro porous
material used in potting mixes.
Why do we care? It takes 10,000 years for Sphagnum Peat to be created in wetlands and
it's rapidly being depleted. Also, coir pith is widely available in many developing countries
and regions, like India and central America...areas in which this water pump could be
utilized.
The pump’s main body can also be made out of recycled material. There is no specific
requirement for the material type used in the body because its only purpose is to contain
water-saturated material. This means that any rigid recycled plastic could be used.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Another bonus feature…
Because the design of this pump is so simple, locals
in underdeveloped countries would have the
technology to fix and even produce these pumps
themselves. This is a huge benefit over solar pumps,
which take electrical and mechanical engineering
knowledge to fix or create.
Taking this a step further, if a local industry was
created around this simple design, it could provide
local entrepreneurs with profitable ventures, farmers
with cheap easy water pumps, while simultaneously
recycling wasted materials.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Cost analysis:
Part of Pump
Material
Amount
Price Per Unit
Total
Pump Body
Rigid Plastic*
~13 lbs
$0.89 per lb
$11.57
Wicking
Material
Coir
152 ft3
$3.9 per ft3**
$592.8
Water Delivery
System
Polyethylene
Tubing
250 ft
$0.226 per ft
$56.5
TOTAL
$660.87
*Rigid Plastic is a generalization and can be any stiff plastic, recycled
or not. Prices taken from PVC plastic costs.
**This is American retail pricing found online and is certainly not the
cheapest coir can be bought. Because it is a waste product in many
third world countries, coir could be found at dramatically cheaper
prices, possibly even free. If we were able to find free coir, the pump
would cost under $100 making it easy for a farmer to buy multiple to
increase pumping capacity.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Portability discussion:
The portability of this pump is the greatest challenge. Due to
the massive amount of wicking material required, a fully
saturated pump is almost far too heavy to move.
To make the pump portable enough to sell at a market, we
designed the body to be composed of many telescoping
tubes that could collapse (see video on next slide). The
result is a highly portable pump prior to installation.
Once loaded, the only feasible solution for portability is to
extract all of the wicking material, and retract the telescopic
body.
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Pump Telescopic Capabilities
http://youtu.be/0Nzi5JTzgHA
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Technical Specifications
Efficiency: When comparing the energy efficiency to that of any other water pump, the
Free Energy Pump outperforms. Energy is drawn from the environment's heat, and no
input is required to fuel evaporation at the top of the pump. The rate at which water can
be drawn up is less, but can be modified with a solar dish to focus more sunlight onto
the heated portion of the pump. The relatively low cost also allows for more to be
purchased and be used together.
Viability: Because of its simple design and passive pumping mechanism, the Free
Energy Pump requires little service and repair, allowing farmers to easily maintain it.
The simplistic design also means that no education or training is needed to use it.
Although it is not as mobile when filled with the absorbent material, a flap on the bottom
of the tubes could be made to release the absorbent material so that the pump shell
could be retracted if necessary.
Affordability: The Free Energy Pump requires only a one-time cost for the recycled
plastic material that makes up the pump. This will be approximately $12.00 for the
recycled plastic. A highly conservative pricing places the pump at around $660, while
an optimistic pricing with cheap or free wicking material places the pump under $100.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Summary
Overview: The Free Energy Pump is inspired by the capillary action that trees and plants use to
absorb water into their root system and deliver it to leaves and branches, against the force of
gravity. By having a section in the well and another section exposed to the surface water flows
upwards as evaporation occurs at the top portion of the pump. This water that evaporates is
collected in a chamber that encloses the top of the pump.
Mechanism: The design of the Free Energy Pump consists of several large modular tubes made
of recycled plastic, which are collapsible for delivery, and then fit together to form a long tube. At
the top is an enclosure that gets heated and traps water. Once installed into the well, the long
tube is filled with micro porous absorbent materials, which must be fully saturated upon filling.
Feasibility: No new technology is needed for the Free Energy Pump. Results from various
experiments show that this design is feasible and worth further research and development
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
The Team:
Project Integrator:
• Grant Buster
Innovation Engineers:
• Alice Ma
• Francisco Peralta
• Heather Hughes
• Johan Lyon
• Kristal Celik
• Mason McGhee
• Matthew Chong
• Nicole Parker
• Parsa Mahmoudieh
• Rohan Punamia
With special thanks to Matthew for rendering our design, and Mason for suggesting bio-mimicry.
For more information on the Design Engineering Collaborative please visit dec.berkeley.edu.
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley
Thank you for your consideration!
Design Engineering Collaborative at UC Berkeley