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This program is to support an ongoing project for Kenya Africa and serves as an outreach program for AASHE. In order to better understand ourselves and how we can improve, it helps to look at our less fortunate neighbors in the world who have learned to live more happily with less. This year, this project is being partially funded by a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under their People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) student design competition for sustainability.
This program started as a simple team building exercise. Can we build a power generation system out of only junkyard parts? The exciting answer is YES. In the spring of 2008, a dedicated group of AASHE members built a Savonius Rotor using waste barrels and old car parts. The system had the potential to produce enough power for the average home in Kenya.
This program is continuing during the 2008-09 academic year and expanding into four distinct programs. To ensure the success of the program, a team of 4 senior engineering students will lead the program as part of their senior design course. Other members of AASHE will assist in the building and testing of the prototypes. To ensure that anyone can use the manuals, Freshmen and Sophomore members of AASHE, who have had no experience with the project, will test the manuals for thoroughness at the completion of the project. Students in this program will be traveling in April to present their designs at the EPA-P3 conference in Washington DC. In May, the students will be taking their designs to Kenya as part of a new educaitonal facility. The four projects are:
1.1 Sustainable Windmill Designs for 3rd World Application
In Kenya Africa, electrical power is available at most villages, but is unreliable at best. Power is maintained only several days a week, and shut off due to over demand on a regular basis. The regions growth is tied to the availability of power. We were contacted in the fall of 2007 to see is a design could be created out of local scrap material that could produce power for individual homes. Currently, each family carries an automotive battery around 3 miles each day to get power to run lights at night so that their children can study their school books. In the spring of 2008, a design and prototype was completed that could meet this goal. The current project is to continue the project by testing the prototype and finish the design. The current project is to also fully analyze the design for the Savonius rotor windmill, given the permutations of available materials, terrain, and technologies available to the various regions of Africa. The result is a manual, in a number of languages, for wide distribution. This manual is to be simple in construct, giving the reader step-by-step instructions for the building of power in a rural environment. Each of the various permutations in available barrel size, soil type, and maximum wind speed will be taken into account. The reader simply chooses each option within the manual for his/her site.
1.2 Sustainable Solar Water Heaters Designs for 3rd World Application
Fuels are a limited commodity in most third world environments. After many years, deforestation is becoming a major problem, this results in a only a small amount available to each family for use as home cooking fuels. It is a tremendous luxury to be able to heat water or boiling for bathing, cleaning, etc. Yet this simple act can dramatically reduce some forms of diseased. Our team has been asked by Bishop Crowley of Kenya to find a solar means to provide boiling water for individual families. Solar concentrators have been used extensively in the US for years as part of many off-the-grid homes. The goal of this project is to review how US systems can be build using the local materials in Kenya, then again, produce an instruction manual in the local language for distribution.
1.3 Sustainable Grain Dryers Designs for 3rd World Application
This project also came at the request of Bishop Crowley. Maize (called corn in the US) is the primary staple and cash crop for the farmers in Kenya. When harvested, it’ moisture content is too high, resulting in the crop spoiling during storage. The Kenyan peoples currently spread their crop out on the ground for several weeks while the hot sun dries the maize. The problem with this is someone must stand guard over the crop to prevent thieves and animals from stealing the crop, which is typically several miles from their home.
Grain driers are in common use on by US farmers, and are used for the same purpose as that of the Kenyan. Like the solar water heating program, this project is to again look at available technology that can be simplified and build by the local farmers of Kenya. Preliminary designs show that the crop can be moved next to the home for safety and dried using wind power in only a few days. This project again will produce a manual for the local people to help them with their need.
1.4 Sustainable Project Identification in the 3rd World
The exciting part of the visit to Gonzaga by Bishop Crowley is the number of simple project that GU students can be involved in that will make a big impact on the peoples of Africa. The last project being proposed for the AASHE group is to continue the conversation with our contacts in 3rd world countries and find more ways that we can help. Creating water heaters, grain dryers, and electrical power generators for individuals is only a start.
