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The 3W Idea at the second edition of Aquathon: a water and safe world

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Three strategic resources: water-hydrogen-carbon are the foundation of life on the Earth and a necessary element of the functioning of the surrounding world. Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego noticed their potential and in 2021 announced the 3W Initiative. It is a way to transition to a zero-emission economy and a way to build the competitiveness and innovation of the Polish economy. These three resources will help us build a sustainable future. Thanks to their interdependence, water, hydrogen, and carbon can become a response to global problems, including those related to our security.

It was security that was the main theme of the second edition of Aquathon. The 3W Idea challenge was taken up by people who shared their ideas on how to innovatively manage water resources and produce food, and use hydrogen and carbon technologies in a modern way.

- With the 3W Initiative, we want to educate and increase social awareness about the importance of rational management of water resources. We show that the three resources of life: water, hydrogen, and carbon have a key impact on our security: incl. water, energy, and food security. For such a message we were looking for in the works of participants who took up the 3W challenge - said Magdalena Sopiela, community management expert from the BGK Strategic Initiatives Bureau and jury member of the 3W challenge at Aquathon.

A water world with access to drinking water and food

The 3W challenge prepared by BGK developed the imagination of the participants. They plunged into a vision of the world in which the glaciers melted and turned into one big salty ocean. Thus, they impersonated the heroes of the water world who - after a long drifting - found the mainland. The participants of the challenge were to provide their group with access to drinking water and food. They had to use three resources to come up with solutions: water, hydrogen, and carbon. Participants had 24 hours to be creative and spread the vision of a safe 3W world.

3W panel: How can the interdependence of the 3 resources: water, hydrogen, and carbon affect our security? 

To the world of water, carbon, and hydrogen the participants were introduced by Adam Żelezik - director of the BGK Strategic Initiatives Bureau. He talked about the assumptions of the 3W Idea and how these three strategic resources can ensure security for societies in various areas of life. There were also experts, including:

  • Katarzyna Pala - co-founder of Foods4Future Technologies and Water Science and Technology Institute - a foundation whose mission is to implement projects related to water protection and closed circuit systems,
  • UW dr hab. Tomasz Gackowski - Director of the Industrial Development Agency
  • dr hab. inż. Tadeusz Ossowski from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk

Participants of the challenge could talk to the professionals on Discord. There were also interesting facts about water, hydrogen, and carbon, educational materials, quizzes, and competitions with attractive prizes.

Resources in the life of a community

The jury awarded the first prize to the IChiPowcy team (team from the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology - IChiP). The winners presented a number of solutions thanks to which people in the water world will have access to water and food. The basic source of drinking water are vapor traps, thanks to which - due to the lower temperature at night - it is possible to bring water from a gaseous to a liquid state of matter. In addition, they presented an interesting idea for obtaining fresh water - an evaporative system that is based on solar energy and water condensation on the surface. According to its assumptions, the pipeline system is located under a palm leaf, from which the desalinated water flows down a gutter to the reservoir. All the necessary devices are made of bamboo available on the island.

IChiPowcy also described an irrigation system that is based on wind energy. The windmill drives a mill that carries water from the aforementioned bamboo gutter to the irrigation system - which automatically waters the farmland. The vision of IChiPowcy also includes breeding tanks connected with the ocean. Thanks to this solution, it is possible to capture food from it, and then to raise clams, fish, and sea algae on many levels.

In the first edition of Aquathon, the participants planned the day of the man who lives in the 3W style. Based on the plan, a script was created, the effect of which is the animation “Man in the world of 3W”. This year’s winning work will also be converted into a script and video. Effects are coming soon!