Copied from - DNA
When SRISTI started cooperation with MSMEs through GTU in Gujarat, a lot of people were skeptic. Entrepreneurs too! Many of them felt that students used to come for training, how can they be expected to solve problems! Few of them even put up a board that students were not welcome. But hard work and sincerity towards the purpose of teacher guides and college management, students have turned around the situation within a year. All of it was possible under leadership of GTU supported by techpedia.in team.
Let me begin with an example of the textile industry. It is a major consumer of water, and proper disposal of impure water is a serious environmental challenge. A student team comprising Shreyasi Mehta, Jaysheel Pandya, Priyanka Jajal, Bhavesh Prajapati and Mrinmoi Das from LD College of Engineering studied the problem of water inefficiency and water pollution at textile units and suggested several solutions for the purpose. They conducted water efficiency tests during several stages of textile processes and found that washing, jigger dyeing and continuous dyeing processes had low-water efficiency compared to mercerizing process, which was not that bad.
The team conducted the study at two plants and the names are not disclosed at the request of the unit concerned. It found that Industry A consumed approximately 2.06 litre of water/kg of cloth produced while Industry B consumed approximately 4.41 litre of water/kg of cloth. Such benchmarking, about which we have argued for last three years, must be done in every sector, region and cluster. The team suggested that recycling of scouring rinses for de-sizing and recycling of mercerizing or bleach wash water for scouring or de-sizing.
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Generally, caustic scoured cotton yarn packages were washed by a 10-minute hot running rinse followed by a 10-minute cold running rinse. Experiments showed that the same fabric quality could be obtained by a three-minute hot running rinse followed by a three-minute cold running rinse. Non-contact cooling water can be used as makeup water for the boiler and as processing water in some operations. It is also possible to reuse this water as non-contact cooling water after heat exchange. Use of automatic shut-off and flow control valves were suggested where it was not in use.
The Students claimed to have saved 3.2kw per hour besides saving in the amount of chemicals used. The student team improved the method by first reducing the size of ultrasonic cleaning tank much below the size of the conventional tank and reducing the number of piezo-crystals used from a high of 36 to just two. This in turn reduces the power each crystal consumes and hence leads to the reduction in power consumption. Students also designed a sensor-based switch which senses the temperature and switches the tank heater ON and OFF as required.
Just imagine what can be done by a million students every year all over the country if we decide to harness the power of tech-youth. Karnataka government has taken a very deep interest in the matter.
Both their Knowledge Commission and Innovation Councils are likely to meet along with VCs of all universities and a strategy will be developed not only to link the power of youth with the challenges in MSME sector but also agriculture, informal sector and other areas of public life. I don’t see why should there be so much inertia in public policy for supporting students to file patents and put their knowledge in public domain.
We take pride in the fact that without any monetary incentives, students have done what was considered impossible just a year ago.
I will seek forgiveness of those wise people in position of power if we have proved their doubts wrong and if hundreds of young teams of students have made us all proud inspite of their indifference. Hiranmay and his team at SRISTI also deserve appreciation for sustaining their spirit despite all obstacles they faced, thanks to GTU’s undiluted commitment to this social linkage.
The author is a professor at IIMA
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