The U.S. Department of Energy Waterpower Technologies Office organizes the ‘Waves to Water’ Prize to challenge innovators to submit ideas to develop wave-powered desalination systems.

This prize is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s ‘Water Security Grand Challenge,’ focused on advancing transformational technology and innovation to meet the global need for secure and affordable water.

International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members is named ‘Nalu e Wai’ and is a collaboration between the U.S., India and Sweden.

The other two members of the International team comprising IIT Madras researchers are from United States and Sweden.

Nalu e Wai which means ‘waves into fresh water’ in Hawaiian is working on a rapidly-deployable, small-scale wave-powered desalination system.

Deployment of substantial numbers of these devices in such water-scarce regions could produce life-changing results for water-starved coastal communities.

While International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members, the other two members are representatives of ‘University of Hawaii’ (Honolulu, US) and Uppsala University of Sweden.

Nalu e Wai team was among only 17 winners, out of more than 100 global teams, in Rounds I and II. They were awarded monetary prizes for these selections.

A video where international team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members are explaining the project is available at the link ‘https://vimeo.com/449764877/a3a76db3a8?fbclid=IwAR3BqL_0KPT7K3LSYnuc2wj5naWYrB_GG9e7e4b3rXKzgtfgGyPv0Sglmyw’

IIT Madras
1.Prof. Abdus Samad, Dept of Ocean Engineering,

2.Prof. Abhijit Chaudhuri, Dept of Applied Mechanics

3.Dr. Suchithra Ravikumar, Completed PhD.

4.Dr. P. Maheandera Prabu, Institute Postdoctoral Fellow

5.Mr Tapas K Das, PhD Research Scholar

6.Mr. Karthikeyan Radhakrishnan, Masters student

7.Mr. Devineni Ramanjaneyulu, M.Tech. student

8.Mr. Parthasaradhi Reddy Perla, M.Tech. student

9.Mr. Ravi Kumar Verma, M.Tech. student

University of Hawaii (USA)
1.Dr. Patrick Cross, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute

2.Dr. Krishnakumar Rajagopalan, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute

3.Mr. Nic Ulm, Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering

Uppsala University (Sweden)
1.Dr. Cecilia Boström, Department of Electrical Engineering

2.Dr. Irina Temiz, Department of Electrical Engineering

3.Ms. Jennifer Leijon, PhD Research Scholar

Speaking about the research being taken up by International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members Professor Abdus Samad said their team’s primary driver for this submission was the water shortage in India and to supplement our knowledge in the area of wave energy conversion.

‘We felt strongly that we could devise a system that would achieve the prize-motivated benefits of applicability to disaster-stricken areas and remote communities.’

While also being scalable to larger community applications such as Chennai, or in developed countries with water shortages, such as coastal California, he said.

Professor Samad further said The idea is new for portable small-scale wave-powered desalination devices. Our concept is entirely scalable.

Its modularity allows it to be adapted to varying deployment sites and wave regimes.

The same concept could easily be scaled to support much larger water production with increasing flap size and by deploying devices in numbers.

Larger RO units, adding additional RO units in parallel, together with larger flap geometry, can easily result in much greater freshwater production.

This application is of particular interest to the places like Chennai, where water scarcity is fast reaching critical levels, he said.

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Speaking about the technology, International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members is working on, Professor Abhijit Chaudari from IIT Madras said desalination has become imperative in order to solve the problem of global freshwater scarcity, particularly for the coastal areas.

However, currently available desalination technologies need large amounts of thermal energy or high-quality electricity for seawater purification, which is highly expensive and energy intensive.

Hence, the utilization of renewable energies such as solar, wind, tidal and wave energy for freshwater supplies appears to be fundamentally attractive and has been recognized as a potential and sustainable alternative with minimum environmental impact.

As one of the most concentrated forms of renewable energy, wave energy offers an environmentally friendly alternative and is highly favourable for seawater desalination in coastal areas with good wave resources, said Professor Abhijit.

Climate change appears to only be worsening the global water crisis.

Nalu e Wai, the International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members felt they could contribute in a near-term and meaningful way with solutions coming out of the Waves to Water competition.

Another motivation comes from the team’s desire to work together on a concept and foster new collaborations in the future.

Dr. Patrick Cross, Program Manager for Marine Energy, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii, who is overseeing research and logistics support to the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS), said, coordinating a research collaboration across three continents is challenging, due to large time differences, but our team has utilized video conferencing tools online to great effect to continue to press our concept toward maturity.

Being a part of an International team comprising IIT Madras as one of the members and doing commendable work is worth cherishing.

‘Working with our colleagues at IIT Madras has been inspiring and rewarding and we look forward to continuing in the competition, with the target of reaching the final ‘Drink Stage’ and competing with other teams in the real ocean along the east coast of the United States.’

Drs. Samad and Chaudhuri have put together an outstanding group at IIT that complements our other team members in Hawaii and Sweden perfectly, he said.

‘I have high confidence in this team, and I believe we have a concept that can ultimately make an important societal impact – in India, and around the world.’

The International team comprising IIT Madras researchers as one of the members has experts from various sectors.

The whole gamut of works is being done by the experts in different fields. We hope we will provide something priceless to the society, he said.

BITS Pilani signed an agreement with the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) in Pune, on December 4. The areas of knowledge-sharing activities undertaken include workshops, seminars, and conferences to be conducted on national security fields, according to a statement from BITS Pilani.

The BITS Pilani statement also says that joint research work will be an area of focus for this collaboration. The Center for Research Excellence in National Security (CRENS) established at the BITS Pilani will facilitate the partnership.

Both institutes will also undertake research projects including short-term consultancy assignments to deal with industry issues and long-term initiatives to explore emerging and future areas. The collaborations will include the usage of lab infrastructures, faculty members, and research scholars.

BITS Pilani vice chancellor Ramgopal Rao was critical of the tie-up and stated: “Our partnership with DIAT Pune reflects a shared vision that through research and innovation, we can synergistically elevate the defence capability of India and give a technological push to India. Through CRENS we intend to address the veritable challenges and bring about self-reliance in the strategic sectors.

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BHVS Narayana Murthy, vice chancellor of DIAT Pune, stated: “DIAT Pune focuses on developing India’s technological defence capabilities by focused research, innovation, and skill development. BITS Pilani has always led the way for innovation, and our tie-up with the esteemed university will enable us to share resources and expertise to address many of the problems that are now challenging National Security and facilitate an ecosystem of collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”

Conclusion

The partnership between BITS Pilani and DIAT Pune is a significant step forward in strengthening India’s national security and technological landscape. Through combining research, innovation, and skill development expertise, the two institutions aim to address critical challenges and enhance India’s defence capabilities. Initiatives such as joint research, certificate courses, and resource sharing will foster innovation and self-reliance in this collaboration. This partnership not only shows the importance of academia-industry synergy but also creates a benchmark for strategic collaborations in the building of a technologically robust and secure future for India.