Imagine this. You use steam water to clean surgical equipment then cool the steam down to get yourself distilled water that can be of use in pharma industry! If you think this is the stuff that science fiction is made of then you are wrong.
For four recent biomedical engineering students of LD Engineering College have, as part of the Student Startup Innovation Policy (SSIP), built an 'autoclave' facility that not only cleans surgical equipment, but uses the steam that cleans the equipment to turn it into distilled water. As of now it has been named Solar Powered Sterilization Unit and was a result of the Rs 68,000 funding that they received from SSIP.
The product is the brain child of three, now former students of the college - Rashmi Chavda, Pooja Patel and Nikitaba Rathod.
Utkarsh Pancholi, college's assistant professor of biomedical engineering department said that usually autoclave machines used to sterilise surgical instruments are run on electricity.
"This one runs on solar energy. Here we are not using solar, but reflection panels that heats up water placed in a pressure cooker. This generates steam which cleans the surgical instruments kept in the chamber," said Pancholi.
He said once the surgical instruments are removed the steam is cooled down, distilled and the same can be used as distilled water.
"He said the reflection panels ensure that the temperature in the chamber reaches 121 degree celsius and 15 PSI which is mandatory for cleaning surgical equipment," said Pancholi.
When asked what if it wouldn't steam when used to clean surgical equipment and get contaminated, Pancholi said first and foremost surgical equipment are never put in for sterilization without giving them a thorough cleaning.
"Later when the steam cleans them, what it does is kill the bacteria. Water or any other thing is polluted only when the microorganism is alive. Here it is dead. So it cannot pollute the water which will be distilled when the steam is cooled down. Moreover, after it is cooled down, the water is filtered too," said Pancholi.
We have tested the quality of the water derived in our laboratory and the results have shown that the distilled water is of good quality. "It can be sold to pharma industries too as a byproduct," said Pancholi.
Rathod said it is of particular use in rural areas where hospitals may not have regular electricity or may not be willing to spend on autoclave machines. "On an average an autoclave machine costs Rs 50,000. We have used products that are easily available and yet the cost will be below Rs 20,000 while achieving the same level of sterilization as any autoclave machine," adds Rathod.