My Story: Niranjan Karagi

Posted on Thursday, May 21, 2015 by LEAD

Niranjan Karagi (B. E, Angandi Institute of Technology and Management)

“To be successful and to grow in life, one has to move out of their comfort zone and should be ready to feel awkward and uncomfortable”


I was a NCC cadet during my school days which taught me to be disciplined even during the toughest times. The skill of focusing on the goal developed during training of NCC got me “Best Firer Award”. I gradually got inclined towards technical domain which led me to pursue engineering for my under graduation. The knowledge gained in the classes of engineering got my brain thinking to solve the problems of society through technology.
 


I had several innovative ideas which I wanted to implement but didn’t know where to begin. During this time I got to know about LEAD through few of my friends. I found LEAD to be the ideal platform to express my ideas and turn my ideas into working models.

The first project that I implemented was Hydrogen kit. It was designed by combining the knowledge of chemical engineering, thermal engineering and material science engineering. In this kit, hydrogen and oxygen of water are separated continuously by electrolysis process. KOH solution acts as an electrolyte. When electricity is passed, the molecules of the water get separated. The positively charged hydrogen ions is collected at the cathode and negatively charged oxygen is collected at the anode. Then hydrogen and oxygen is passed through a series of piping system, valves, filters, and flow meters into the engine cylinder through inlet valve. Inside the cylinder, hydrogen combustion also happens along with the fuel. (Hydrogen combustion is the process by which hydrogen reacts with an oxidizing agent and burns). Hydrogen combustion is exothermic combustion, which means it releases heat and energy. Hydrogen gas is highly flammable and will burn in air at a very wide range of concentrations between 4% and 75% by volume so it helps to produce the power required to run the engine. 

Benefit of using hydrogen as a fuel is that a complete combustion take place as compared to the gasoline engines. This results into increase in engine efficiency and 30% more output from the engine. It also reduces the pollution due to complete combustion of the fuel.

This project was a great success. I exhibited this model at Yuva Summit held at Deshpande Foundation. It won me BEST LEADer Award from Kailash Satyarthi. I presented a paper on this model and was certified as Speaker at the Eleventh International conference on "eLearning for knowledge–based society" held at Bangkok, Thailand. 

Along with providing support, LEAD set me thinking in entrepreneurial direction. Hence, I decided to take my model further ahead and prepared a business plan with this model. I presented this model at techno entrepreneurial event “TALAASH” held at KLE Institute of Technology and got a seed fund of Rs 1,00,000/- to establish my start up with this model. Thus my journey of becoming an entrepreneur has begun.


After the success of this project, I designed Hydrogen Wielding device applying the learning of my first LEAD project. This uses hydrogen as fuel and reduces the dependency on LPG gas and acetylene. The additional challenge that I faced during this project was controlling the hydrogen flow and fire. To overcome this challenge, I used transformers to control the electricity in electrolysis process.

Thus my journey with LEAD has made me innovative, bold and confident. It has taught me that when faced with a challenge one has to look at all directions for the solution and there will be surely a solution for all problems.

LEAD has given me the courage and confidence about my capacity of turning my dreams into reality.

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