Mexican students create ‘Iktan’, a vehicle to pick up sargassum from the beaches

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The vehicle, called ‘Iktan’ and created by IPN students, will collect more than one ton of sargassum in just a few hours.

The sargassum that you reach to the coasts of the Mexican Caribbean has become a plague that transformed the beaches into stinking swamps. So to clean the sand of that macroalgae, students of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) developed a vehicle that will collect a ton and a half of that organic waste … and in just three hours!

It is called ‘Iktan’, it is a Sargacero Sustainable Electric Vehicle and its name means “ingenious” in Maya. It was designed by IPN students and will be compact, ecological and light, while it will have conveyor belts that deposit the aquatic plant in an interchangeable container, without causing erosion of the beach sea.

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(Photo: CC News)

The idea of ​​the prototype responds to the need to clean the Mexican Caribbean, where some 19 beaches in the state of Quintana Roo have been affected by the arrival of the macroalgae, according to data from the Sargazo Cancun Monitoring Network. The Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) collected just over 57 thousand tons of this aquatic plant between last May and July.

It will reach a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, will work with two electric motors, will have disc brakes, tires or six-wheel drive, as well as a 12-volt battery tandem to power the engines.

Being friendly to the environment, it will generate zero carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, as well as make no noise, and will have a maximum weight of 500 kilograms to avoid flattening the beaches.

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(Photo: UANL)

The creators of Iktan, students José Antonio Garfias González, Alan Fernando Ruiz López and Johan Matías Velasco, pointed out that the objective with this project is to provide a solution to the sargassum problem.

“It is an initiative for a comprehensive project against sargassum, it is an electric and sustainable vehicle for the collection and treatment of macroalgae, which will be built with recyclable materials and silent motors with a useful life of 10 years and that will withstand weather conditions adverse events that occur in the region, ”Garfias González said in a statement.

Graduated from the Interdisciplinary Professional Unit of Engineering and Social and Administrative Sciences (UPIICSA), he explained that in the short term, innovation will provide a comprehensive solution to the cleaning of Mexican beaches, since sargassum releases toxic such as methane gas, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

Source: culturacolectiva

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