By Evan Ackerman
Sometimes, the spotty electricity and mere half hour’s worth of hot water in my apartment makes me feel like I’m living in the developing world. I should be more thankful that I don’t have to carry my luxurious shower’s worth of water around on my back every day, like a lot of people have to do… The Aquaduct is designed for people living in developing countries without easy access to water. It’s got a tank on the back that can be used to store and transport water, and while the user is pedaling, water is pumped through a filter into a ‘clean’ tank on the front of the bike. If you get to your destination before all of your water is purified, flip a clutch on the side of the bike, and you can pedal in place to purify the rest. More, including a video, after the jump.
The Aquaduct is obviously a great idea, but I’m not sure that the combined concept really solves the core issue of water purification… As they say in the video, boiling water to purify it wastes fuel, but my guess is that people have to boil water because they don’t have an actual filter, which this design is dependent on. I mean, if you have the filter bit, you can purify water using gravity, which is how most filtration pitchers work, right? But filter or no filter, I bet this bike would still make life easier for an awful lot of people.
The Aquaduct placed first in the Innovate or Die pedal powered machine design contest, sponsored by Specialized and Google.
very interesting water filter i think this is a double purpose, good for the body because it filter a safe water as well a good exercise
the aquaduct is hilarious…with all the bike riding i do, I might dehydrate (joking)
The picture's absolutely beautiful. Do we know where it was taken?