Andreas larssson – Design for Wellbeing

Innovation Engineering – Water Harvesting | 2012

Tobias Larsson — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 08:55:35 +0000

A Master project within Industrial design at LTH by Johanna Bengtsson.

After a month long research trip to the Amazon river I decided to work with water harvesting for the most economically poor people in the region.

From my keywords, local production, low running cost and renewable power sources, I refined the water driven water pump.

I had the opportunity to work in the Amazon (Brazil) with the flood plain community Nossa Senhora das Graças.

During a month long stay I observed the daily life of the people. A life where the inhabitants have shaped their daily routines after the rising and dropping water level of the Solimões river (a part of the Amazon river). I identified a need of harvesting water during the low water season, when the river in some areas draws back up to one kilometer.

Today people walk far over heavy terrain under a frying sun or uses gasoline powered boat motors to pump up the river water.

During my master project within Industrial design I decided to focus on how to transport the river water up to households in a low cost, silent and maintenance free way by using the velocity of the river.

The main goal was to transform the ancient coil pump to fit the unique situation in the Solimões river and to make it producible for the local people.

The benefit of using a spiral pump is that it from few rotations can build up a high pressure to pump the water. By connecting it to a water wheel it can be powered by the velocity from the river.

The pump handles water that contains sediments very well and has few critical mechanical parts that can fail. It has an easy and sturdy construction, similar to the construction of a bike. This makes it easy to produce on sight of the people with local materials and can be maintained and repaired by the inhabitants.

The design part of the project was to modify the coil pump which is mostly used in small, private and stable rivers to fit the big Solemões river with it’s changing water level, vast animal life, thick vegetation with floating obstacles and heavy boat traffic. Connections along the tube from the pump to the house makes it possible to disconnect and move the pump closer to the house then the water level is rising. This will protect it from damage from boat traffic. A lamp will signal to boats during night to prevent collisions. A V-shaped protection in front of the pump will protect the construction from hits from floating obstacles and vegetation.

The construction of the pump is developed so that it can be produced, maintained and repaired with simple tools and local material in the villages.

The concept and first prototyping phase of the project took part back home in Lund (Sweden). This prototype was exhibited at Lund University in June.

The second prototype was produced on site in Manaus with local materials, a grinding machine, a handsaw and a stick-welding machine. The challenge was to find a space to work at, with the material bought it took three to four days to make the pump. The pump was transported out to the village Nossa Senhora das Graças and installed.

The pump is still in the village.

The project was presented at a workshop at Lund University with selected actors (e.g. schools, businesses, NGOs, aid organizations) that are involved in the design and development of products and services at the Base of the Pyramid.

In the near future I will join Ankarstiftelsen on a trip to Colombia and install a pump together with their water cleaning system in one of the villages where they are running their projects.

For more information

TAGS: amazon riverAndreas larssson innovation engineering johanna bengtsson LTH Lund water harvesting

Mímir – Turns air into water | 2007-2008

Tobias Larsson — Sun, 22 May 2011 13:17:17 +0000

Design for Wellbeing work to solve the global water crisis
“…lack of access to pure drinking water is one of the key issues facing the world today.”

LTU students, in collaboration with students from Stanford University, Royal Institute of Technology and Lund Faculty of Engineering, were given the task to develop a product that produces clean drinking water from air humidity. During Design EXPE, the annual design fair at Stanford University, the students presented the Mímir prototype, named after the Norse mythology’s guardian of the well of knowledge and wisdom.

Water is the most precious resource known to mankind. Its importance to the survival of life on the planet can hardly be overemphasized. However, lack of access to pure drinking water is one of the key issues facing the world today.

Traditional sources such as rivers, lakes and ground water have proved to be highly unreliable sources of drinking water. Therefore, there is a need to develop a novel, innovative technology that is more reliable and is able to produce pure, safe drinking water at all locations even under adverse environmental conditions.

With this vision in mind, the design team set on the task to design and develop a new generation Atmospheric Water Generator to harness nature’s most abundant resource: Air. The project was founded by the US company Immerse Global and the Swedish PIEp. The design team had a unique setting of members from four different Universities – Helsinki University of Technology, Lund Faculty of Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Since the most critical objective of the project was reli- able water production, the team decided to focus primarily on the technical aspects of water generation.

During the benchmarking process various processes and technologies prevalent in the water processing industry was explored. The team believes that successful generation of drinking water in arid zones (with relative humidity as low as 20%) would require the development of a better technology. Therefore, all its efforts from the very beginning were geared towards the search of a new technology that would give a marked improvement in performance over all the current designs. Based on the encouraging results of the initial prototypes, the team pursued with the technology of desiccants. Desiccants are chemical substances that have a natural tendency to absorb atmospheric moisture. Based on extensive prototyping and testing the team demonstrated the practical feasibility of the liquid desiccant technology and employed the technology in the final prototype, Mímir.

Mímir produces pure, cheap and fresh drinking water under a wide range of atmospheric conditions. It has been tested to produce approximately 10 liters of water at 41% relative humidity and 22°C. The energy cost per liter of water consumed can be as low as 45 cents at 40% RH. This is not only cheaper than bottled water but is also environmental friendly. The acrylic based exteriors, new look and the unique interface of Mímir provides a complete drinking experience to the user. Mímir has been a breakthrough in the technology and design front, but further testing and optimization is needed before the product could be introduced on the market. Many new aspects of optimization have been realized in the development process and with this knowledge the team has no doubt that the product has a great potential of fulfilling most of the drinking water needs of the world in near future.

“- The project is interesting also from a research perspective, since the student teams face the same challenges as global industry companies when it comes to effective knowledge sharing and distance-spanning communication”, says Andreas Larsson, project leader.

Johan Wenngren demonstrates Mímir

Stanford University, with Professor Larry Leifer in the front row, carries out these types of global innovation projects every year. Apart from the Sweden partners, universities from Finland, Switzerland, Mexico, Colombia and Germany are participating this year. Head sponsors are, to mention a few, Panasonic, BMW, Siemens and GM.

Immerse Global is the owner of patent and developed prototype.

TAGS: air to waterAndreas larssson LTU Luleå University of Technology ME310 mimir sirius Stanford University tobias larsson

Nosphere | 2007

Tobias Larsson — Sun, 08 May 2011 13:08:08 +0000

The Nosphere (Nösphere was the original name) is a product that is patented together with Stanford University and that was developed within the project NeedInn – Need Centered Product Innovation within E-health, and in Stanford University ME310. The concept was developed in part also in the Future Elderly Environment student project.

The Nosphere motivates elderly people to activate the memory through a more physical interaction with images.

The Nosphere conceptual layout

TAGS: Andreas larsssonLTU madelene larsson ME310 needinn nosphere sirius Stanford University tobias larsson