watterBottleEvap IRENG-7254
watterBottleEvap IRENG-7254
watterBottleEvap IRENG-7254
net/publication/283741685
Reducing Evaporative Water Losses from Irrigation Ponds through the Reuse of
Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottles
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3 authors:
Alexander H Slocum
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Abstract: Evaporation is one of the sources of water loss from artificial reservoirs used by the agricultural sector. Current methods of
covering artificial reservoirs are too costly to be used by poor, small-scale farmers. This paper presents a method for using waste polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) bottles to reduce the evaporative losses from open tanks. This water-conservation method was tested using eight evapo-
ration pans with daily water level measurements to record evaporation rate. Four pans were used as controls, two were covered with empty
waste PET bottles, and two were covered with bottles partially filled with soil. The experiment showed an average reduction in evaporation by
40% with the PET bottle treatment, with a 90% confidence of reducing evaporation by at least 18%. The addition of soil did not affect the
degree of evaporation reduction. Given the local economics of the region surrounding Pune, India, it was found that this intervention can save
water at a cost of US$0.09=m3 . DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000972. © 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: PET bottle; Irrigation tank; Water conservation; Evaporation reduction; Waste management; Floating covers;
Evaporation pan; Bootstrap.
Introduction each bottle in half of the treatments. When rain falls on the floating
bottles, it passes between them and into the irrigation pond.
Agriculture is the main source of water use, representing 70% There are popular concerns about chemicals leaching from PET
of global water consumption. In 2013, 25% of the world’s irrigated bottles into water when exposed to sunlight and heat. However,
agricultural systems were withdrawing water faster than the review of literature on chemical leaching has revealed that the
regional replenishment rate (Rengel 2013). The challenge of sus- leaching of dangerous chemicals into irrigation ponds is well below
tainably managing water is acutely noticed in developing countries. dangerous limits (Gorbaty 2013). Only one reviewed experiment
In 2010, India consumed 761 × 109 m3 of water, of which 90% exceeded human health limits for any contaminant (antimony)
was used by the agricultural sector (FAO 2011). for a 0.5 L bottle. That experiment was conducted at 80°C to sim-
Evaporation accounts for a little more than 2% (16.95 × ulate the inside of a sealed truck in the U.S. state of Arizona. The
109 m3 =year in 2011) of India’s effective water consumption PET bottles used for agricultural purposes will never reach the 80°C
(Frenken 2011). This paper proposes the use of waste PET bottles point when used as floating covers because they will be in open-air
as floating covers to reduce water scarcity as a less expensive and conditions. Furthermore, irrigation ponds are much larger than the
potentially scalable solution to reduce evaporation from artificial volume of plastic bottles, further reducing the risk of toxic chem-
irrigation storage systems by approximately 40%. icals leaching in dangerous concentrations.
Discussions with farmers near Pabal, India identified concerns There are similar concerns surrounding the disposal of these
about the rate of evaporation loss from their water-retaining ponds, bottles at the end of their use as a floating cover. PET can withstand
often referred to as irrigation tanks in India. Suspended and floating photo, thermal, and biological degradation for 20–50 years, so it is
covers have been used to reduce evaporation in industrial applica- likely that the bottles will still be intact when they are replaced or
tions and with large reservoirs (Yao et al. 2010). These existing finished (Webb et al. 2013). Fortunately, PET bottles have value as
solutions cost from US$8=m3 to US$30=m3 per reservoir, which recyclable materials. Because the PET bottles have already been
are expensive, unable to handle high winds, and unable to capture aggregated at the storage tank, they can be sold to waste pickers
rain. This paper proposes and tests a method for using PET bottles or waste aggregators at a small price.
as floating covers that are less expensive than existing evaporation
reduction methods. In preliminary tests, it was found that those
bottles rotate, exposing water film to air and increasing evapora- Materials and Methods
tion. To address this challenge and to prevent the bottles from being
blown away in stronger winds, a small amount of soil was added to The experiment consisted of daily measurements measured
from eight evaporation pans, as shown in Fig. 1, from March 5
to May 24, 2014. This timeframe was chosen because it is the
1
Engineering Systems Division, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., hottest and driest length of time in Maharashtra. Only data from
Cambridge, MA 02139 (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected] March 5 to April 20 were used because of leakage. Out of eight
2
Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, Dist. Pune, Maharashtra 412403, India. pans, four were uncovered and designated as control, two were
3
Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,
covered with empty PET bottles, and the last two were covered with
MA 02139.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on January 20, 2015; approved on
500 ml PET bottles containing 10 g of soil. Each pan was made
August 27, 2015; published online on October 9, 2015. Discussion period from a rolled piece of metal, welded into a 400 mm tall, 1.5 m
open until March 9, 2016; separate discussions must be submitted for in- diameter cylinder, and lined with white tarpaulin to prevent leakage
dividual papers. This technical note is part of the Journal of Irrigation and into the soil. Those pans were filled with approximately 270 mm of
Drainage Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9437. water and refilled when empty. A wire mesh was placed over the
ensured that their albedo was similar. Leakage was the only major
source of error unaccounted for in the experimental design. A sud-
Fig. 1. Evaporation ponds from the experimental setup (image by den drop in water level indicated a leak, which would be excluded
Kevin Simon) from the final analysis.
Results
300
Controls The cumulative evaporation rate is shown in Fig. 2. Table 1 shows
Empty Bottles
250 Soil Filled Bottles that the data had low skew and high kurtosis. Using the absolute
Cumulative Evaporation [mm]
Number of occurrences
35
60
30
50
25
40
20
30
15
10 20
5 10
0 0
-4 -2 0 2 4 6 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6
(a) Evaporation rate (mm/day) (b) Evaporation rate (mm/day)
Fig. 3. Histograms of the evaporation rates for the treatments and controls
Control
Empty
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 10/13/15. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Soil-filled
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Mean Daily Evaporation Rate [mm/day]