Santosh Pradhan, an entrepreneur who runs a private engineering firm in Nagpur, India claims to have created a technique to harness the wind pressure from moving trains to generate power. He reports that the technique would be capable of producing 14.81-lakh megawatt (MW) of power in India alone, with its 14,300 trains operating daily on 63,000 route kilometers of railway. This technique would be environmentally friendly by reducing carbon emissions and would save the government on fuel too.
Santosh Pradhan's unique technology makes use of the air pressure created on the front surface of the engine of a moving train when it runs at high speeds. Pradhan explains that this pressure can be harnessed using turbo-chargers and impellers. The compressed air can be directed to the roof of the train and then accumulated in large fabricated tanks placed on either side of the track where it is used to rotate turbines or air turbine motors, which can be converted by generators to produce a large amount of electricity.
Pradhan has registered around 20 patents for this device but is still waiting for consent from the railways to conduct trials.
Top image of Mumbai train source nekur.lv
For more read : Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2009-2019
