With the motivation of bringing drinking water to those who do not have access, researcher Bárbara Gosziniak Paiva, 29, developed a bottle that purifies water through the radiation of blue light. The purpose of the prototype is to eliminate bacteria, protozoa and other pathogens present in the water that are harmful to human health.
Bárbara was born in Belo Horizonte, graduated in environmental engineering and is currently studying for a master’s degree in materials engineering at UFOP (Federal University of Ouro Preto), in the central region of Minas Gerais.
“When I went to define what my master’s project would be, I talked to my supervisor that I wanted to do something in the area of materials, but that was also related to the environmental part. From there, the idea of studying the effect of blue light in water treatment”, says the student.
According to data from the National Sanitation Information System, almost 35 million people in Brazil do not have access to treated water. According to Instituto Trata Brasil, about 3.5 million people die in the world every year due to problems related to inadequate water supply.
The prototype developed by Bárbara consists of a bottle that uses blue light radiation to eliminate pathogens found in untreated water. In addition, there is a membrane filter to retain particles that may be present in the water source and a device responsible for cooling or heating the liquid inside the bottle.
A differential of the project is that the entire system responsible for the functioning of the bottle is powered by solar energy, and can be taken to any environment, without dependence on electrical energy sources.
“The bottle has several technologies involved, which come from different sectors of electronics. So, what Bárbara did was to couple in a single system several components known to be useful in the process of making water suitable for human ingestion”, says Rodrigo Bianchi, professor at UFOP’s physics department and project advisor.
In 2021, Bárbara entered her project in the Red Bull Basement contest. The competition sought to find students with innovative proposals that would use technology to generate positive change. Among the 443 works submitted, her proposal was chosen as the national winner.
At the end of March, the young woman participated in the world final of the event, held in Istanbul, Turkey, with projects from 44 countries. Despite not winning the international competition, Bárbara was the winner of the “storytelling” challenge, in which participants needed to tell the stories of their projects and the development of research up to the moment of the event.
“It was a really cool event, because it brought together people from 44 countries with the same purpose. I had the opportunity to talk to people from all over the world about my project and hear about their projects too. It was very exciting to represent my country, not I can’t even explain this feeling”, says the researcher.
According to the student, the project is in the testing phase. Some of the main challenges for research are the high cost of materials involved in the analysis and the difficulty of obtaining funding for research.
“I am now looking for investments and partnerships both to carry out more tests and to start producing the bottles on a large scale. My plan is to continue with the project, because I believe it can help improve the lives of many people”, he says. Barbarian.
While she is finalizing her research to improve the technology and be able to produce the bottle on a large scale, Bárbara has already filed a patent application for her project.
According to the advisor professor, the recognition of a work like this is very important for reinforcing the potential of Brazilian science, even with the lack of investments.
“It’s great to see young people having the opportunity to take risks, to go through challenges, to win and also to be frustrated. It shows that they are capable. And being capable, they develop and develop communities and our country”, says the teacher.
