Colorado Springs, CO - March 15, 2023 - Applied Flow Technology recently made a donation to the Jnana Prabodhini Foundation on behalf of Rajitha Papagari with Basell Polyolefins India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, IN. The donation is in recognition of Rajitha winning two categories in Applied Flow Technology’s annual Platinum Pipe Award contest. Rajitha’s donation will help the foundation build ferrocement tanks in rural farming areas of the Eastern region of Maharashtra (Marathwada) which suffer from severe scarcity of water. 

The Jnana Prabodhini Foundation is comprised of engineers residing in the United States for higher education or jobs. These young professionals began meeting on a weekly basis in 2018 to habitually discussed their homeland, India, and the contemporary nationwide challenges it faced. Together, they identified education, rural development, and women's leadership as the areas that need urgent attention.

Rajitatha requested a donation be made to specifically support water conservation efforts. 

 What are these water conservation efforts and why are they important?

• ​The eastern region of Maharashtra (Marathwada) suffers from a severe scarcity of water. Even during the rainy season, 60% of the population is dependent on water supply from other regions.
• Towards the end of the monsoon, when water reservoirs are supposed to be abundantly filled with recently accumulated rainwater, the water reservoirs are left with less than 3% of the cumulative water stock.
• Even though the Western region of Maharashtra (Velhe and Bhor), is blessed with plenty of rainfall, the hilly terrains present the challenge of storing the bountiful rain, where insufficient storage of rainwater often leads to drought and water shortage.
• Harsh summer temperatures in this region average around 40°C (104°F) often exacerbating the severity of water shortage problems.
• Since the majority of the families in these regions are situated beneath the poverty line, purchasing water from other regions is not a viable option.
• On account of their low population density/ square feet, these regions often fail to get priority and benefit from the water conservation initiatives run by the government of India schemes, hence JP believes that these regions warrant our special attention.
• In this day and age of 5G network, villagers from these regions are required to walk an average of 1.5 km to 2 km (~ 1 mile) to just to fetch water for their domestic use from distant water sources. Even then, the quality of the fetched water is generally less than ideal for human consumption.

What are the solutions for the water scarcity issue?

One of the tried and tested approaches to addressing water scarcity issues in these areas is to develop a sustainable infrastructure for water storage and water distribution. Ferrocement technology is a simpler and cost-effective version of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) construction. With low maintenance costs, these tanks are durable and have the capacity to store about 10,000 liters to 20,000 liters (roughly 2500 to 5000 gallons) of water.

The foundation plans to build 8 ferrocement tanks to provide ample water supply to 8 villages consisting of around 800 households and cattle. This will give the villages a cumulative water storage capacity of 80,000 liters which will provide year-round access to clean drinking water more than 85 % of the time. The foundation then trains villagers on harvesting rainwater and maintenance of the system.

The Root of the Donation

Rajitha Papagari was honored with this donation due to two winning Platinum Pipe Award Entries, both for the Most Interesting Model category. 

AFT Fathom Used to Identify and Address Slurry Deposition in Polymer Cooling System

Rajitha performed a reliability study on a polymer slurry cooling system. The polymer slurry was used to maintain a stable temperature in a reactor, critical to maintaining product quality. This system had several reliability issues leading to downtime and associated maintenance costs to clean the piping. The existing system was unable to meet design requirements, potentially due to solids deposition not considered in the initial design. Read how AFT Fathom’s Settling Slurry (SSL) add-on module was used to identify and mitigate several slurry deposition areas. 

 Hydraulic Study for Debottlenecking

Rajitha Papagari used AFT Fathom to test modifications to chemical process piping for a 28% production increase and expansion. The study also addressed pump NPSH concerns, revealed faulty measurement equipment, and identified large pressure losses in the system to improve system efficiency.