The new technology for water purification using cavitation and low-temperature plasma won a gold medal at the International Engineering Fair 2021 on Monday, November 8. The CaviPlasma device can remove chemical residues from water and also kill pathogenic microorganisms. The invention from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT has the potential to handle large volumes of water and find use in industry, succeeding in the category of processing technology. Another exhibit, in which BUT cooperated and was entered into the competition by the partner company Slovácké strojírny, also received the award.

"Not only for me personally, but also for the entire team that participated in the development, it is an award for several years of work. From an idea that we gradually succeeded in verifying, we came up with a device that is able to purify water from micropollutants, such as drug residues, contraception or organic substances. We can also get rid of biological contaminants such as bacteria and cyanobacteria, or prepare the so-called plasma-activated water for surface decontamination or application in agriculture and forestry," Pavel Rudolf from the Energy Institute of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT says. And he reminds that scientists from Masaryk University and the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences also collaborated on the invention. "Without the specialization of the individual team members, the facility would not have been created and we would not have been able to further improve it," he adds.

The technology was presented to the public in January this year, then still in the form of experimental equipment. Since then, its development has progressed again and the research laboratory equipment has been transformed into a real product. "At BUT, we came up with a new way of generating hydrodynamic cavitation, the colleagues from Masaryk University continue to characterize the plasma discharge and research of plasmachemical processes in the facility. During the year, the work was carried out to verify the elimination efficiency of CaviPlasma in cooperation with other professional workplaces, and we are trying to expand the potential of our invention to include aquaponic farms, seed protection or water treatment in fish farms,” Rudolf said.

The equipment using plasma water treatment already existed, but only on a laboratory scale and used inefficient principles. On the contrary, CaviPlasma works equally well on a small and large scale, which is essential for practical use. We currently manage tens of cubic meters of water per hour, which is no longer just an academic matter, but an industrially usable device,” Rudolf assures.

The technology has already obtained a Czech patent and an international patent application has been accepted. "Negotiations are in progress with investors who would like to bring our technology to market, perhaps we are already approaching commercialization. CaviPlasma is a unique device due to its properties and it would be great to find a manufacturer and apply it in practice,“ Rudolf hopes.

A digital shadow awaits visitors

The gold medal for the best exhibit was also won by a multifunctional center grinder from Slovácké strojírny, on the development of which the company cooperated with BUT and CTU. At the BUT stand, one of the components of the entire system, which uses elements of industry 4.0, can be seen.

"It is one of the innovations in increasing accuracy. We have integrated a special interferometric device into the machine, which assesses the accuracy of the device. The solution also includes the ability to view the entire machine in virtual reality, as a so-called digital shadow. Thanks to it, customers will be able to look at the machine, even if they need to be on the other side of the globe, or before a prototype is created," Michal Holub from the Institute of Production Machines, Systems and Robotics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, BUT describes.

The machine is located in the production plant of Slovácké strojírny TOS Čelákovice. The user can also view the current machine parameters, such as temperature, pressure, load and more, in virtual reality. "Currently, we can monitor and display around five hundred parameters," Holub adds. The stated values ​​then affect the accuracy of the machine and can also be displayed retrospectively.

A total of 28 exhibits are presented at the stand of the Brno University of Technology. You will find the stand under number 168 in Hall V.