Thailand – Purification Week 2 Winter ’12

Present:
Patrick Charles
Peggy Ip
Michelle Tang
Erik Hauenstein
Alex Ty
Wendy Cheung

Went over research goals from last week

UVC Filter
Pros:

• Effective particulate and pathogen filtration
• Energy efficient compared to boiling
• Can be used for flowing water
• Provides steady water suppy

Cons:

• Bulbs must be replaces yearly (~$60)
• Each filter must be purchased pre-assembled
• Need constant energy source

Electrolysis
Pros:

• Requires less energy than UVC?
• Don’t need to replace bulbs, only electrodes, which are cheaper
• Simple, easy to maintain design

Cons:

• Less effective than UV overall (in research study, 80% max effectiveness was achieved)
• Not ideal for use in flowing water systems

Patrick will purchase pre-assembled UV filter (0.5 gpm capacity) for use in prototype.

Timeline for rest of quarter outlined:

• Completed rough draft of report done by week 5 meeting
• Demo done by week 5
• Prototype completed by week 9
  • Have majority of parts we need, just need to find space to place it (very heavy, can’t be moved once assembled)
• Spring quarter will be spend fundraising and testing/refining prototype

Thailand – Bioenergy – Week 2 Winter ’12

Meeting minutes from 17 January 2012:

-Matt read up on blog to catch up since he wasn’t able to attend meetings last quarter

-Jordan found professional signer for TGIF (Ebonee Williams Chemical Engineering Phd the Supervisor of the Gordon Learning Center in EBU-I)

• needs application, designs, and prototype

-Ryan M can’t make it this week

-Ben can’t make future meetings at Tuesday 5pm

-Josh hasn’t finished AutoCading designs yet, due to computer lab being closed on Monday

• will finish by Friday, January 20

-Ben sent out TGIF info, has link for company with used containers, will get AutoCad designs from Josh and send them + TGIF app to Jordan by Friday afternoon.

-Went over timeline

• should start building ASAP:  just need a few people (including Jordan) to get materials and start building —  on weekends

-Design feedback: Ben is representing BioE at “design bootcamp” w/ Delson

-roster: Verena, Ben, Matt, Josh

Thailand – Irrigation: Week 2 (Winter ’12)

1.    Winter Timeline Review – set dates

   We need to accomplish our project by the end of this academic school year.  In order to do that, we must adhere to the timeline that is attached.  The updated copy of the timeline delegates tasks we need to do in chronological order.  Once we have completed this timeline, we will begin a new timeline to work on.  If we keep our focus and accomplish our tasks, we should be able to finish this with a bang!

Major Milestones to complete by February 14^th:

•    Determine how much water coffee trees need                        (January 24^th)
•    Components needed for Drip Irrigation                                    (January 24^th)
•    Design filtration system for water leaving the reservoir    (February 7^th)
•    Design water collection reservoir                                                (February 14^th)

2.    Project Design and Proposal

   We are going to design a very minimal irrigation system so that it is completely sustainable.  We are going to build a “theoretical” coffee plantation of specific dimension (m by n), we are going to have a 100% manual drip irrigation system watering the coffee plantation, and we are going to design a water collection reservoir to provide the water to our filtration system.  Everything is going to be right next to each other so that our design is as simple and efficient as possible.

   This design is still in its preliminary stage.  Over the course of the next 3 weeks, it will change.  However, I still want the basic design to be there.  This minimal design is perfect for the villagers because it requires little to no energy, they already have an irrigation system set up (we will add to their current design with this minimal design), and it will be cheaper to build and maintain than our previous efforts.
3.    Delegate tasks

There are two major milestones we are working on this week that need to be finished ASAP.

Milestone 1: Determine how much water coffee trees need.

• Katie – Determine root system of coffee tree and soil fertility.
• Becky – Determine water quality and send out minutes to team.

Milestone 2: Components needed for Drip Irrigation System.

• Efrain – Diagram/schematic of irrigation system and of plantation and drip system layout.
• Adriana – Size of drip irrigation tubing and filtration needed for the tubing.
• Alive – Read about sustainable projects, sustainability, and environmental challenges so you can become more familiarized with some of the ways we, ESW, think and implement our projects and team up with another person and help him/her with his/her tasks for the week.

4.    Propose weekend meetings

We are going to meet on Sunday around 4pm in S&E to work on our tasks for the week.

5.    Update on NC Garden Project

  Efrain will be meeting with Eric from the compost team this week (either Thursday or Friday) to discuss details on the NC Garden Project.

6.    Q/A

Katie asked to discuss if they already have coffee plants and/or other crops.  If so, she wants to know if they need help with the other crops as well.

   They already have coffee plantations set up.  They get a coffee harvest once a year.  They would like us to help them develop an irrigation system that would allow them to have two harvests per year.  Also, they are growing other crops in the plantations.  At the moment, they would like to help for those other plants.  They want us to focus on the coffee trees because the coffee beans are providing them (the villagers) with jobs.  They do use food, but the trees are of more importance at the moment so they can provide for their families.

Roster: Katie, Becky, and Efrain

Thailand – Bioenergy – Week 8 FA 11

Accomplishments: Next quarter, Ben will be stepping down as Project Leader, and Verena will fill his place. At the meeting this week, we addressed the issue of pressurizing our digester. Ben had the idea of adding an extra tank in between the digester and sequester in order to isolate the digester from the pressure gradient needed. This would solve potential issues from messing with the pressure inside the digester itself, and the gas would be hand-pumped from the digester to the extra tank. We also found out that acquiring sodium bicarbonate needed for our current sequester design in Thailand is very feasible and inexpensive. We also found out that methane burns at a concentration of 5-15% and the slurry inside the digester is best kept at a pH of ~6.5 – 8 for optimal digestion rates.

Problems: Potential problems that we foresee in the near future are our current design possibly not working as well as we would like. However, our new design is compartmentalized, making it simple to single out problems areas and fix impending issues.

Goals: In the next week, Ryan will work on creating our current digester design, along with the sequester, in AutoCad. Pule will figure out the logistics of the extra tank, and the biogas collector tank. Ben will also work on creating a six-month plan to ensure the completion of this project by June 2012, which will ultimately be finalized by all group members. Verena will prepare to take on the duties of team leader.

Composting–Week8 FA11

It will  be Pule’s last time to write this blog as the team leader of ESW garden composting project. In today’s team regular meeting, Erik was elected to be the new teamleader due to his amazing self-motivation, enthusiasm, and perseverance. We believe that Erik is absolutely qualified as an ESW team leader who is highly responsible for his project and capable of making all team members united and devote to more sustainable projects in NC garden.

And Pule (me…) decided to assign himself to join Preuss School Team, and work with the team to develop the garden in Preuss School. I wish I would have a great time there working with Michelle and her teammates!! At the same time, Pule will still stay in the Garden Composting Team and work with the lovely composters!!

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Today Erik showed us some bottle bricks (bricks with waste glass bottle inside it and make it super solid). We thought it would be a good idea to make bottle bricks ourselves and use them to support our water sink in the garden. This plan may not be applied since we’re not sure how long it will take to make the brick, and we have to finish the sink as soon as possible. But the bottle brick is definitely

an interesting point and can be researched on later.

We also sorted a pile of waste in the garden and picked up many useful materials from them (wood planks, metal poles and chicken wire). It will save us a lot of money to build the sink if those materials can be used.

Hydroelectricity – Thailand Week 8 FA11

NEW DESIGN.

What we accomplished.

New Direction:

The team found out about a new development in part pricing last week, when we found out that the wiring for our current design was going to cost about 30,000 dollars. Since this is an insurmountable obstacle, we have come up with a design and direction to eliminate long strings of wire. Instead of lighting a school, we have identified a new need for this project. We are now trying to provide power for a UV water filter that will eliminate salmonella and fecal coliforms . This will save lives. We still need a new alternator and we are trying to sell our old one.

Credit: Eric Michelsen. The 30,000 is in dollars!

The prototype:

We have discussed 2 locations for our prototype.

NC Garden: We want to address the problem with thieves stealing from the garden behind UCSD’s Che Cafe. A motion activated light can be powered by our engine by attaching it to the bottom of a sink that they turn on and off periodically. It will be difficult to generate enough head to turn a wheel.

 

Water park: We can make a water park “green” by using our pelton wheel to help power some aspect of the park.

 

UCSD: Dave Weil  has been in contact with the team in the past regarding implementing the system on campus or at birch aquarium.

 

 

Composting–Week7 FA11

Worm Bin: the worm seemed to be less active than last week. Probably more food was needed to keep them excited.

Composting system: The garden volunteer started to put waste into the new compost system, and we’re glad to see that the system became more sturdy as time went by.

 

Sink: Team leader of Thailand Hydroelectricity team RYAN came to join us today. It seemed that it was not economic to install an hydroelectricity generator in the down stream pipe of the sink, because there won’t be that much of water to be used every week, and the amount of electricity generated would be too little… Plus mostly such hydroelectricity generator needs a water fall of about 10 meters, which cannot be satisfied by the ‘tiny’ sink.

We talked about the design of the water storage barrels, which can be used to both store the water, and to pump the water into the fields.

Also, the Thailand Irrigation team is working on the design of the raindrop collection system, and help us draw the sink system on AUTOCAD. We may also need their help to figure out how to bisect the water pipe (which is currently draining water from Che Cafe to the garden plots), and drain the water there to the sink.

Next week: We may not have a regular meeting, but visit the water conservation garden.

http://www.thegarden.org/

It would be a great chance for our team to get more ideas of how to introduce more sustainable technologies into NC Garden.

 

ESW Thailand — Bioenergy — FA 11 WK 7

Accomplishments: This week, we discussed more on the sequester in our biogas digester system, and the reactions involved to remove H2S from the biogas. We figured that if we use sodium bicarbonate as the base to precipitate the sulfur out, we would only need about 1/4 of a standard box per mole of CO2. This means that depending on the availability of sodium bicarbonate to the Thai villagers, this idea is very feasible. We also discussed the possibility of testing for H2S in our biogas with detector strips, which are paper strips dipped in a warm saturated solution of lead acetate. In the presence of H2S gas, the strips will turn black.

Problems: A problem that came up this week was not knowing whether the water with sodium bicarbonate to precipitate out the sulfur can be re-used in the sequester to remove H2S from the biogas. Ideally, the water can be reused so less resources would be needed in the water-scarce Thailand villages. Another problem is that the products formed in the reaction, Na2S and NaHS, are both dangerous chemicals. Also, we don’t know the availability of lead acetate for us to make the H2S detector strips at this time.

Goals: In the next week, Ryan will work on figuring out the valve system with two pipes discussed in Week 5 to allow for depressurization of the biogas container upon attachment and pressurization prior to removal. Pule will research the availability of sodium bicarbonate to Thailand villagers to figure out the feasibility of its usage in our design. He will also research the possibility of reusing the water used to precipitate out the sulfur can be used to remove the H2S from the biogas. Verena will look up the safety of elemental sulfur, more information on lead acetate, and what concentration of methane is needed in order for it to burn. She will also review information of the acidity of the slurry inside the digester to see how much H2S reacts in the slurry, and if it’ll be of concern to us.

Thailand – Purification Team – FA11 Week 7

Hey everyone,

The Purification Team is finalizing on the dam design, hoping to send that out as soon as possible electronically to the staff of ITDP (Integrated Tribal Development Program) in Thailand.

This Sunday, we will be working on the model, and taking a trip to Home Depot! We have some of the supplies, and will purchase the remainder of it this week. We are so excited to get the building part rolling!

Stay tuned,

Peggy Ip

Hydroelectricity – Thailand Week 7 FA11

Last Week:

Fluids and Piping:

We set up a preliminary design for the piping to the box. The design itself is relatively simple: We have two pipes that extend about 3 m above the pelton wheel box that start at about 4 in and decrease down to 1/2 in by the time they enter the box on either side. We are experimenting with a few things. We want to minimize turbulence in the pipes in order to retain the most energy. The first way to do this is to actually heat and bend PVC into the shapes we want. This process is actually very cool.

The second is to use piping like the stuff used here. Its much simpler but its flexible, and hard to find. This is not our engine.

Blue piping looks very promising

The other thing we are experimenting with is decreasing the  corners on a pipe reducer. We are thinking about putting HDPE sheets in a cone shape inside the pipe to make it a smooth decline.

Innovation:

The innovation team dissasembled the alternator and discovered that the magnets inside are extremely powerful. They have two options: buy a new alternator or replace the magnets.

Electricity:

The electricity team is ready to order parts! Design done.

This week:

Dr Eric Michelsen will be attending our weekly meeting this week to look over and approve our designs!