Part I OF I Tamil Nadu.pmd - National Innovation Foundation

PART I : INNOVATIONS FROM TAMIL NADU
18
Crossing in coconut trees & Air energised pressure
cooker
Duraisamy had produced hybrid coconuts crossing tall and dwarf coconut varieties. He
used to keep the seedlings up to three years in the nursery, then put them in sacks filled
with soil for one month before planting in the main field. He claims that if such a method
is adopted, the planted seedlings start yielding within two years by this method.
Duraisamy noticed that a lot of heat was wasted through the exhaust of the engine used
for pumping water. He took an old oil engine and used it as a compressor. The exhaust
of the oil engine used for pumping water was taken as input in the compressor. He took
a pressure cooker and made two holes at the bottom. He then led hot compressed air
through one of the holes in the cooker, which came out through the other hole. The
container in the cooker acted as a heat exchanger. The cooker was thus ready to cook
food through the heat of compressed air.
K R Duraisamy
Erode
He has also made a modified stove with three different heating plates using central
chamber heat, and also capturing wasted heat though oil chambers around the stove.
He was supported under the Value
Addition, Research and Development
(VARD) fund of NIF. He received a
Consolation award in NIF’s First National
Competition for Grassroots Innovations
and Traditional Knowledge Practices in
2001.
TAMIL NADU INNOVATES 29