Sustainable Innovative design for Fire safety and Rain water Harvesting in Automabiles and trains

1. RAIN A-GAIN
A proposal to Reuse Rain Water,
enhance Safety and reduce Carbon
Footprint in Transportation

2. Introduction
• Plumbline Engineers is company in existence since 1990, with it’s registered
office in Bangalore, and is a specialist Plumbing and Firefighting contractor.
• Rain-A-Gain is a initiative to harvest rainwater and reuse them in automobiles
for which patent application has been filed (5376/CHE/2013 dated 21/11/2013).
• It serves the primary purpose of saving and reusing rainwater, acts as a backs up
as fire protection system, thereby increasing safety and can finally be used to
reduce Carbon footprint in highly polluted areas.
• The promoters of this initiative wish to work closely with State owned Transport
corporations, Private fleet owners and manufacturers of buses and other vehicles
• This is a high level proposal and details can be worked on specific inputs and
options

3. Why are they Storing Water?

4. Storing Water
• Every Passenger Carrier (Let us take a bus for example) has an issue with the
gasket or hose getting cut.
• Replacing the gasket or hose takes 15 minutes.
• The main issue here is that they need about 45 liters of water.
•Different Drivers had various reason for storing water
• So fact remains water is a necessity and as important as Diesel or CNG.
• This brings us to the conclusion that every bus needs a minimum amount of
water to save time and prevent potentially longer breakdowns.

5. The basics and numbers of harvesting
Rainwater in Buses
• A Bus typically has 20 sq. meters of Roof space.
• The catchment surface area can be maximized based on the coverage, contour
and depth of the pipes.
• The basics of harvesting are followed here as well. There is a First Flush Filter
and a Sand Bed Filter.
• One Cubic Meter of Water is 1000 Liters
• So, for example, If we have a 3 sq meter catchment area on the bus, and there is
a moderate rainfall of 40mm/hr, in 3 hours, the bus can store and reuse 360 Liters
of Water.
• The use includes pumping it to the Windshield cleaning tanks (after the rain
stops and muck collects), routing it to a battery powered Fire pump or a sprinkler
system or even to irrigate a rooftop garden.

6. Basic Design to Store Water

7. Our Design with Rain Water Harvesting

8. DESIGN DETAILS
1
1
3
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2
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4
Rain Gutter
Water Holding Tank
Windshield Wiper Tank
Rain Water Inlet Pipe
5
65
7
88
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External Water Inlet Pipe
4
9
Vent Pipe
6
Overflow Pipe
5
Pump 2
9 - Outlet Nozzles
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7
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1
2
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4
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Rain Gutter
Water Holding Tank
Windshield Wiper Tank
Rain Water Inlet Pipe
5
6
7
8
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External Water Inlet Pipe
Vent Pipe
Overflow Pipe
Pump
9 - Outlet Nozzles
3

9. Our Design

10. Market Opportunities and Go-To-Market Plan
• The average rainfall in Karnataka for 2013 till date is 1248 mm
• Rainfall in 2010 in Bangalore Urban district was 960.1 mm
• Rainfall in 2010 in Shimoga district was 2478 mm
• Rainfall in 2010 Dakshina Kannada district was 4427 mm
• Proof of Concept is to retrofit 10 buses with the Rain-A-Gain design in moderate
to high rainfall areas
• Retrofit a sprinkler system and a battery powered Fire hose in 5 buses
• Retrofit 10 additional buses in Urban areas with a hydroponic foam for Rooftop
Gardens, to reduce Carbon footprint
• Target 1000 buses in the first year of operation. Savings and reuse potential
would be in 100s of Million liters of water.

11. INCORPORATED FIRE FIGHTING SYSTEM
AFTER
RECENT FIRE ACCIDENTS IN BUS

12. FIRE PROTECTION SPRINKLER DESIGN FOR BUS

13. FIRE PROTECTION DESIGN DETAILS
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6
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4
5
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5
1
2
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7
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2
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4
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Fire Pump
Dedicated Power Supply
Fire Tank
External Water Inlet Pipe
5 - Vent Pipe
6 - Fire Piping
7 - Sprinklers

14. FIRE PROTECTION & RAIN A-GAIN COMBINED DESIGN

15. Fire Safety in Trains

16. Thank You
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Grateful to the following persons
for their valuable suggestions and
improvements to this idea
Mr. M. Chokalingam of Sri Varu
Mr.Armugam Nainar (Arun)
Mr. Mahesh Nagaraj
Mr. Shashikumar
Mrs Chitra Shashikumar
Mr. Rajan Urs
Mr.Jatin Christopher
Mr.Ravitej Rao
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Thanking my teachers of St.Xaviers
School, Doranda, Ranchi.
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Class mates of 80 batch, seniors and
juniors of St Xaviers school, Doranda,
Ranchi