Tree-like Street Light

Create an forest-like city and challenge more SDG .

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Inspiration

Inspired by the mechanism of forest. As seeing many streetlights on the road, I am thinking can I develop the streetlights to more sustainable streetlights that acts like a tree. It can generate electricity and help to reduce CO2 in the air. It also can help to solve flood risk and water scarcity that act like a tree.

What it does

Tree-like Street Light is designed to reduce the risk of flooding and turn the excess water to generate electricity and reduce the possibility of water scarcity happens in the selected area in the future. It also have a water system that be build to manage the flow of excess water during flood and prevent waste of water during flood as the water collected will be reuse after water be treated.

Tree-like Street light is inspired by the mechanism of forest. To achieve zero floods , we come out with tree-like street light that inspired by the mechanism of the forest. Funnel-shaped street lights can collect more rainwater even when the wind direction is different due to the larger surface area. The upper side of the street light is made of solar panels while underneath the funnel is LED light that will light up at night.

Epiphytes and bryophytes will be grown on the street light. Rainwater will be absorbed by a tube of orbeez that has plants to provide water to the plants. The plants will purify the air and monitor the quality of the water and air. This can help to achieve urban greening.

The funnel part and the holes surrounded under the street light are the entrance for the water to enter. The height of the holes is lower than the road. Filters are installed in the holes to block waste from entering the piping system.

After the water enters the concrete drain, the water will flow along until it flows to the mesh filter. Some water will flow through the mesh filter to the next tree-like street lights while most of the water will flow down to the catch basin due to gravity. The rubbish and debris will trap in the drain inlet that consists of small holes to allow more water flow during heavy rain. The missed trapped rubbish and debris will be blocked by another mesh filter on the exit of the catch basin and settle down. Oil and grease will trap in the drain inlet insert. Water will then flow to the micro-hydro turbine located underneath each street light.

The electricity generated by micro-hydro turbines will operate a small sewage system nearby. If there is excess electricity from solar panels, the electricity will help to work the small sewage system. The micro-hydro turbine creates a sustainable energy resource to power the small sewage system and reverses osmosis.

Some water collected from the street light and a small sewage treatment plant will be stored in the underground storage tank, while the excess water will flow out to ponds, rivers, another water treatment system, and underground during the flood. Referring to the ancient city Ganzhou, a water window will be inserted on the exit to nearby rivers. When the river level is high, the water window automatically closes due to river pressure and vice versa. During a flood, ponds and lakes will be used to collect and store trapped water when floods.

The black water, grey water, and the water collected during a flood will undergo reserve osmosis then supply drinking water to the resident when there is no water supply. The black water will flow in a specific pipe to the sewage treatment system while greywater and water collected when the rain will be the continuous supply for the micro-hydro turbine. The water that does not undergo reserve osmosis will not allow entering the piping system to residents. The water will flow along the loop of the piping system underneath the street light to guarantee only clean recycled water supply to the resident during the flood and pledge a continuous water supply to the micro-hydro turbine.

The loop will continue day-to-day but when flood, excess water will be distributed.

How we built it

-Have not do prototype but have done draft in 3d form

Challenges we ran into

-The rubbish will affect the water flow to generate electricity. -Have not do experiment to see its workability

Accomplishments that we're proud of

-Gold Award in SiCEx COMPETITION USM 2021 -Silver Award in I2CreaTE-2021 -Gold medal for The 6th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada, iCAN 2021 -3rd Place Pitch in the Envirothon -Wolfram Award for top 10 teams

What we learned

-Keep improve Tree-like Street Light to a more sustainable and affordable street light -Try to challenge more Sustainable Development Goal

What's next for Tree-like Street Light

-Semi-permeable road pavement that can generate electricity through osmosis -Tesla Turbine can be study to be inserted to increase electricity in the future -Advance filter can be inserted in the street light after water enters the pipe to prevent clogging and mechanical damage such as DSD Separator from bioclean company -People can drink water that condense from the air from the street light. -More recycled materials or sustainable materials be used to construct this product and system to reduce carbon footprint. We plan to use recycled plastic to be the main material to create the street light. 3D Printing will be used to cut down some costs. Recycled solar panel will be used for each street light .We also hope to use a more sustainable cement to build the concrete drain in the future

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