Simple Technique to
Tackle Huge Real World Problem…Nikhilesh a Young Boy came up with Seperating Oil from Water by
3 Ideas!!!
We all have heard of incidents of oil spills devastating oceans
and marine life. All efforts at addressing the such malicious accidents have
resulted in failure. Big corporates such as British Petroleum and Shell energy
have overseen massive oil spills in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean.
That a practical method of using naturally available waste such
as human hair, bird feathers and sawdust to sweep clean the waters off oil
evaded everyone’s thoughts is bewildering.
Everyone except Nikhilesh Das, who came up with the
idea at the young age of 13.
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Nikhilesh Das |
Debanjan Mukherjee and
Nikhilesh Das from Guwahati were
in class nine when they devised a simple set up to combat oil pollution of
water bodies and submitted their entry to NIF.
The Young
Enthusiasts
Debanjan is presently studying in
1st semester (electrical) at Assam engineering college. His father is a
mechanical engineer, working in the railways and his mother is a housewife.
Being the only child of his parent he got enough freedom to explore his talents.
Nikhilesh’s father is a business
man and mother is a school teacher. He has been a good student throughout his
school years. He represented his school at various science exhibitions, debate,
quiz and speech competitions; and won many prizes at state level.
He has had a keen interest
in science since his early childhood. When he was just in class six he made a
herbal repellant for cockroaches and rats, which was very effective.His dream is to become a nuclear scientist and find a solution to the never ending energy crisis of the world.
Nikhilesh and Debanjan devised
the project titled "water pollution and some easy and inexpensive ways to
control it"when they were in class nine. They put forwarded their
views and ideas to their parents and teachers who acknowledged the novelty and
encouraged them to go forward with their ideas.
They participated in the regional level
science fair and got selected for the eastern India science fair. They got the
"best state exhibit" award and a fair amount of recognition.
“Many existing
techniques that people use only create more pollution in the water. I wasn’t
convinced that these can be used as sustainable methods to eliminate water
pollution and separate oil from water,” he says.
Using Three Waste Materials Nikhilesh and
Debnjan Invented Solution for Water Pollution. They are
Using Human Hair
This made him think of his childhood when his mother would
oil his hair. “She would say that because I am so short tempered, the oil will
keep me cool. I used to hate that. The oil would stick to my hair and not come
off,” he remembers.He tried his idea and was met with success by removing 90
percent of oil in 30 seconds.
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| Human hair as Shield to Oil |
Using
Bird Feather
One day he saw a documentary which
showed migratory birds that died due to oil spillage. He then came up with idea
to use bird feathers to separate oil from water. His second experiment was a
success too.
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| Bird Feather stops oil |
Using Sawdust
His third idea came when he saw a
carpenter who spilled oil on the ground use sawdust to absorb it. He then
experimented on using saw dust to separate oil from water and did so successfully.
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Sawdust blocks oil |
Accolades
For preparing a prototype using the three waste materials,
Nikhilesh has won many awards.
The short-listing by the National Innovation Foundation,
got him an award from the President in 2009. He also received the INK
fellowship in 2011.
“I would like to design a big hairbrush kind of machine, which
could be used to clean water bodies. I am not an engineer and I don’t even have
the resources or technologies to design a big machine though. I will be glad if
someone could help me take the design to the next level,” Nikhilesh says.
On emphasizing the value of imagination, Nikhilesh says, “I
would want school authorities teachers to be more supportive of students who
want to innovate. More focus should be given on practical knowledge rather than
theoretical knowledge and scoring good marks” concludes Nikhilesh.
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Award from Former President Prathiba Patil |
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