Creative solar-powered water wheel picks up garbage in Baltimore harbor + video Bashny.Net

Garbage has never looked attractive, especially floating in rivers and bodies of water, and according to eyewitnesses, a new invention — called the Water Wheel in Baltimore, Maryland, which helps collect garbage from water — looks very unusual and fun.

Powered by electricity from 30 solar panels and water currents, the Water Wheel Trash Inceptor can collect about 22,679 kilograms of garbage per day – the rate at which the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore hopes to make the city’s harbour suitable for swimming by 2020.

Developed by John Kellett and Daniel Chase of Clearwater Mills, a wastewater treatment company, a solar-powered garbage collector generates 2,500 watts of electricity per day, enough to power an average home in Maryland.



Every year, storm drains bring tons of debris and various construction debris from the streets and tributaries of the Jones Fall River basin, which, through the flow of the river, fall directly into Baltimore Harbor.

“I’m tired of hearing tourists say, ‘Ew, this harbor is disgusting,’” says Water Wheel co-founder John Kellett. “I thought there must be a better way to collect garbage than right at our doorstep.”



And so, after a successful prototype test, with the support of the Waterfront Partnership, an organization dedicated to improving the state of water resources, and especially the harbor, Baltimore, the first Water Wheel was assembled in just seven months, by a team of four people.

So how does this work?

Two orange guides, collected from floats, help guide debris to the Water Wheel, where, with the help of spring-loaded grabs resembling rakes, debris is captured and fed to the conveyor, which in turn transports it to a garbage container installed on a trailer floating platform.

When the container is full, the platform is disconnected, hooked to the boat, and then towed to the RESCO waste recycling plant, where it is burned, while receiving electricity. Solar-powered pumps pump 75 cubic meters of water per hour through a water wheel that drives the conveyor belt.



In addition to cleaning the harbour, the Water Wheel has other advantages.

The constant rotation of the water wheel saturates the water with oxygen, helps attract flocks of fish, improves living conditions and water quality. The garbage collector also collects all the organic waste that has the properties of decomposing, reducing the oxygen content in the water and secreting ammonia. Also part of the Harbor Healthy Harbor Living Laboratory, the Water Wheel serves as an educational platform to demonstrate the rainwater management system in Inner Harbor.

“Baltimore will soon cross the TMDL line, in which case the city will officially be required to remove a certain amount of garbage annually,” says Adam Lindquist, manager of the organization “Clean Harbor”.

“The garbage is flowing to us. “We hope it’s not commercial, but it depends on the city’s decision,” said Lori Schwartz, president of the Waterfront Partnership. And of course, we're going to need to focus on the sources of that garbage.

City officials plan to use the Water Wheel by 2020, when the official education program, which should educate society to properly handle garbage, will end.
We plan to collect about 600,000-800,000 feet (272,155-362,873 kg) of garbage per year. But it all depends on the amount of rain, says Daniel.

While the Water Wheel is a permanent fixture in Baltimore harbour, negotiations are underway to create another one to clean up the clogged Anacostia estuary in the northeastern United States.

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Source: facepla.net