VacciVan
A self-cooling vaccine transportation and storage device without the requirement of ice packs or external electric supply for operation.
With Covid-19, the need of vaccines was felt around the world and the necessity for better transport and accessibility is now more evident than ever. While immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions, coverage has plateaued over the last decade. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated disruptions have strained health systems. According to UN WHO, 25 million children missing out on life saving vaccination in 2021, 5.9 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2009. In 2021, WHO set the target for 70% global vaccination coverage by mid-2022. As of June 2022, only 58 of WHO’s 194 Member States had reached the 70% target. This imbalance is common to almost all countries and poses a major challenge to the nationwide provision of health services. Its impact, however, is most severe in low-income countries. People living outside major cities are still inaccessible to the vaccines. This is hastily decreasing the life expectancy of humans, especially in third-world nations and is increasing the death rate exponentially. Even without the impact of Covid-19, delivery and storage of vaccines in rural regions was in destitute.
The major cause of this death crisis is that the transport services (such as trucks, cars, or other automobiles) cannot reach their destinations fast enough or cannot provide the vaccines their required temperature. Moreover, these vehicles can also over-heat or over-freeze the stored vaccines; and hence they cannot withstand the journey. Once the vaccines get transported, people (in various developing and remote countries and regions) do not have the appropriate electricity-free refrigeration systems to store them; with these regions lacking access to reliable electricity.
- Transportation:
The transportation device has a cooled container unit, with a layer of
peltier tiles and another layer of insulation. There is an electricity generator attached to the pedals the bicycle. While pedaling, the generator generates enough electricity to power the peltier tiles and provides it to the container (containing the peltier tiles as a layer). The tiles gain power, generated from the pedaling, and cool one side of the tile; while the other side works as a heat sink. Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux between the junctions of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current. Such an instrument is also called a Peltier device, or thermoelectric cooler (TEC). It can be used either for heating or for cooling, although in practice the main application is cooling. It can also be used as a temperature controller that either heats or cools. This keeps the vaccines in the sealed container at a controlled recommended temperature.
- Storage:
The storage device works in the same manner as the self-cooling systems of kangaroos and elephant. The device uses underground temperature and water cooling and evaporation to cool the hot air entering inside the container, using a series of pipes aligned in such an order to cool the hot air from outside to up to 130 – 300 depending on the temperature of the hot air; which is further used to store Vaccines upon arriving, and also can be used to store perishable food items for long periods of time.
cooling unit which uses evaporation and Earth’s underground temperature in order to maintain a cool temperature inside the storage container, mimicking the cooling process of animals like kangaroos and elephants.
PURPOSE OF THE DEVICES:-I. TRANSPORTAION:
- Securely transport vaccines and/or perishable food items to remote areas and regions.
- Once the vaccines/food items get delivered, we can store them on-site in the natural eco-friendly refrigerated storage.
I currently study as a science student with Computer Science major in a public school. The opportunities and resources are low here for students, as the student body of the nation as a whole is mostly focused on clearing exams to get into a college, which hinders the development of ideas outside of the curriculum, or even the resources to actualize them. Hence, when it comes to prototyping, I need to think outside of the box and utilize the means at my disposal to the best extent, which has led me to some exciting and bizarre scenarios as well. This didn't stop me from losing hope altogether, but slowly build towards realizing my goals. I am currently the president of my school's technology club and regularly work with and mentor other students in the school's innovation society. I also take up volunteering lectures in basic physics and engineering and aeronautics in partnership with local students of other schools who come from economically weaker sections. This has led me to work and socialize with bright young minds and sharing of stories, problems and ideas.
No significant or beneficial research has been done in this field for the last decades, except for ice coolers, or mini refrigerators, which by far are less effective, and hence waste millions of rupees of the government in disbursement of wasted vaccines or re-vaccination of the citizens. While researching, I found about Peltier Tiles, which are small thermoelectric devices used in cooling/heating, by creating a temperature difference on the plate after receiving some voltage. I decided to use these tiles in the
transportation part of my project. After researching, regarding the
transportation of vaccines, I thought of how to store them properly, and after some time of searching online, I was astonished to see that millions of children across the globe die due to improper storage and treatment of vaccines, as vaccines become inactive in the scenarios of either over-heating or overcooling. A study found that an estimated of 25-50% of the world’s food goes to waste, leading to the death of millions in the developing as well as the developed nations as they do not even have anything to eat. Hence, I thought of developing a storage unit for vaccines as well as perishable food item.
- Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)
- Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.
The device does not use conventional ice packs which either make the vaccines too cold or leave them too hot. The use of controllable heat sinks enables us to store the vaccines at a constant recommended temperature. And since the device generates its electricity from the act of transporting itself, it doesn't have to rely on any external source of power which may be unreliable in remote regions which this technology targets.
- Within the year, I expect to build a working prototype in order to begin testing in different environments, and potentially develop better alternatives or accessories.
- Further, after the testing is concluded to a satisfactory extent, I intend to begin networking with professionals and specialists for their opinions and experience with the device in real world use-cases.
- The product has major potential to be commercialized and used as a tool for the general public. Thus, I intend to network with the innovation departments of my country's government first, to introduce this concept and develop it further.
A Peltier unit is an electric device that converts voltage into temperature difference. This technology is far less commonly applied to refrigeration than vapor-compression refrigeration is. The primary advantages of a Peltier cooler compared to a vapor-compression refrigerator are its lack of moving parts or circulating liquid, very long life, invulnerability to leaks, small size, and flexible shape. Many researchers and companies are trying to develop Peltier coolers that are cheap and efficient.
- Max Operating Temperature: 138 °C
- Life Expectancy: 200,000 Hours
- Failure Rate Based on Long Time Testings: 0.2%
Pedaling a bike at a reasonable pace generates about 100 watts of power through a tool like electromagnetic dynamo. That's the same energy-per-time used by a 100-watt lightbulb. This energy is sufficient to power the tiles. Though, first we can implement a solution to the store the energy at the constant pace and relay that to the tiles for constant power.
- Manufacturing Technology
- Materials Science
- India
I project to finish up the prototyping and pilot program for this technology in the next year, and thus expect to start trial cases and user experience with a pool of at least 10-20 professionals and specialists, along with 10-20 general working citizens and students of various fields.
Biggest hurdle is time, as is with anything. To juggle everything duty and responsibility with an ever approaching deadline. Once I expect to dedicate full time to the project, the questions comes on financial support for development and networking support for professional contacts, for real world testing.
