With your goals set firmly, anything is attainable. And that holds true for some people who fused the power of pedal to render some brilliant green options especially for developing nations. Ideally, it’s kinda impossible to think about using bicycles for any other eco-friendly approach other then pedaling about your city to save fuel and avoid air pollution too. But a group from Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC) program at the University of Colorado at Boulder has gone a step ahead and conceptualized a human powered bicycle for pumping water in communities where electricity is unavailable. Their model was able to pump at a maximum of 18 feet below ground, at 2.5 gallons per minute. Also interesting is the pedal-powered water transportation and filtration vehicle, dubbed as Aquaduct, created by a San Bruno, California team which won Google’s “Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Challenge” this year.
This pedal powered vehicle transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary.
And before I end it, take a look at the “Third World Water Pump” sold by McEdwards Manufacturing and Distribution which supposedly can pump clean water from wells with depths of 200 feet or more.
Via Ecowordly
