Stoves & Heat Exchange

The last few days have been frustrating and time consuming. I have been experimenting with different configurations of heat exchange plates in the dryer (to take heat from a biomass stove and transfer it to air in the drying cabinet) as well as different stove types, including gasifier stoves and rocket stoves. A uniform temperature of around 50 degrees is required to get a good quality product with a short drying time. This is difficult to achieve as wood burns at different rates. I even burnt a hole in the dryer when the temperatures were too high!

Another problem is controlling the smoke. To test this (without a smoke alarm) I tried to dry my sock, which was wet from the monsoon rains. The dryer did dry successfully, but I was left with a very smoky smelling sock. More design changes were needed.

After several experiments and modifications I was able to partially dry some bananas.

Dharmastala

About 12km away from Ujire is the town of Dharmastala which is home to the Manjunatha Temple - visited by over 10000 pilgrims every day. Yesterday I visited the town and the temple. Luckily I met up with one of the local SELCO interns and was able to skip the 3 hour queue and enter the temple directly. After walking around the temple amongst the thousands of people, we were able to have have the free lunch provided by the temple in the enormous dining hall. Rows of small marble plinths spread 100m across the floor. After each row was seated, everyone was given a banana leaf plate, and piles of rice were ladled onto it from a trolly. After most people had finished eating, a man clapped his hands signalling everyone to move out so the next 100 people could be fed.

Other highlights of the town included a museum, featuring displays of everything from artifacts from past civilisations to a whale skeleton, and a huge statue at the top of a nearby hill, with stunning views across the tree covered mountains.

The New Dryer Prototype

I have now been able to put together the flat packed dryer and test its performance, obtaining temperature profiles when heated by the biomass stove. It seems like it has taken a long time to get to this stage, however every small problem normally requires a journey into the town to buy another component and this takes time.

The costs of the project have been about twice as high as expected, but switching certain components for cheaper ones and bulk producing it will significantly reduce the costs. Previous SELCO dryer designs have caused food to spoil by allowing smoke to enter the drying compartment this design does not. Dryers are certainly required in this area of very high rainfall. It has taken from Monday evening to today to get my clothes laundered – it takes a long time to dry clothes!

The project is well on track, and in a couple weeks the dryer will be ready to be tested by local community groups.

New Arrivals & A SELCO Installation

On Monday, I was able to collect the pieces of plywood from the carpenter, which could then be assembled into a flat-pack dryer. This took longer than anticipated because holes had to be marked and drilled in order for it to be assembled correctly. Just like flat pack furniture in the UK, the dryer proved notoriously difficult to assemble, and I hadn't gone 5 minutes before I broke into a sweat, and stripped the heads of countless screws with a screwdriver too small for the job. I will try again later in the week.

Another arrival was an intern into the lab from the USA, who would be staying just a few days to visit some SELCO installations and make notes of peoples energy needs.

Yesterday, myself and another intern, joined a couple of local SELCO technicians, who were installing a small PV system in a small house / hut. A solar system was suitable for this location as a grid connection would have required the owner pay for the erection of five electricity poles. We traveled there with five people and all the equipment, crammed into an auto. The equipment had to be carried across the paddy fields and up a hill to the house before the technicians set to work. The farmer kindly showed us is plantation of rubber trees and led us across his beautiful fields in the rain. Check out the pictures! (click the slide show above)

The mess opens.

For the last 10 days I have been eating out, either at restaurants (known as hotels) or local canteens. Today the engineering college canteen opened, where I will probably be eating most of my meals for the rest of my time in Ujire. I am still unsure about the names of a lot of the foods which has made it difficult when ordering, and it has taken a bit of time to learn the correct technique for eating with my fingers. Most meals consist of a form of carbohydrate, either rice, idli, rotti, buns, dough balls or pancakes, which are dipped in various sauces and vegetable dishes.

Smaller dishes (served with a spoon) include chats, soups, spiced chips, and gobi manchurian - the South Indian interpretation of Chinese. I certainly have not been going hungry! The one meal I am not enjoying much is breakfast, probably because I'm not used to eating anything remotely spicy so early in the morning.

Mangalore and Pananbar Beach

On Sunday myself, Joice and Jitendra (other interns at SELCO) took the 2 hour bus ride to Mangalore. Having not eaten breakfast, we had a massive lunch, which was by far the most expensive meal so far. We visited one of the shopping malls, before taking a local bus 15 minutes along the coast. We got off the bus where the conductor said... which appeared to be in the middle of no-where. After a 15 minute walk past a huge cement factory, we got to the beach.

It was a beach unlike any I have ever seen, mainly due to a lack of any women in bikini’s, and everyone sitting, not lying on the sand. We headed back after the sun set, and took a very sweaty, bumpy bus journey back to Ujire. A fantastic day out.

After visiting the carpenter who will make the solar dryer, I found out that the material costs for the dryer are still too high for it to be economic for small scale producers to purchase. More design adaptations are required!

A classic engineering mistake

Thursday I spent trying to get the ideas I had for the solar dryer out of my head and onto paper. The problems I have identified with the previous dryer designs are: they are all heavy and immoveable, they do not work well in biomass mode because of a lack of thermal energy storage, the flow of air through the dryer (and across the food) is insufficient.

My solution to these problems is to make it flat packed, add an aluminium heat exchanger and add a chimney.

Yesterday, I created a model of my new design of dryer in Google SketchUp. I tried to understand the construction materials available by speaking to one of the interns who speaks the local language. Several hours later I had a model of a new dryer, however only now was I able to speak to the local carpenter who would be making the design. The preferred measurement system for the carpenter is inches. My design was in millimeters, and I had even got the widths of the plywood wrong!

Hopefully on Monday I will be able to get the design made by the local carpenter so it can be assembled, but I am not getting my hopes up as it takes a long time to get anything done here.

SELCO, Ujire (oojeray), and Solar Dryers

I have spent the last few day settling into Ujire and catching up with the progress of the Solar Dryer project from the other interns in the SELCO lab. Most of my time has been spent reading the reports from other interns and the experiments they have completed. As well as this I have been reading about different dryer designs and efficient ways to dry food.

Previous interns have already managed to get the solar collector working reasonably well. What is not working so well is the biomass part of the dryer. A stove heats the drying compartment, taking moisture from the food with it, however the stove only burns for a short period of time. One of my tasks is to retain the heat in the dryer for longer, so the biomass burner does not have to be lit as often.

Yesterday was particularly exciting as I travelled to a local aluminium workshop in the next town with another SELCO intern to collect a heat exchanger (yes – a HEAT EXCHANGER) for the dryer. Getting this complex shape was not an easy task for the craftsmen in the workshop.

Over the next few days, I'm going to be coming up with some new ideas & designs for the dryer and hopefully conduct a few experiments to test it.

The food has been fantastic (even if I would occasionally like something non-spicy for breakfast) and so far I have not become ill!

The SELCO Interns

Busses, Auto's and Ujire

The last 2 days have been such an experience.

On Saturday lunchtime, I visited the SELCO Head office and saw their examples of the solar lighting systems which they install in areas all over Karnataka State. Some of the financing mechanisms which help people gain access to solar lighting was also explained to me.

On Sunday morning after a very good nights sleep, I took an auto-rickshaw to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens before navigating my way through Cubbon Park and to the MG Road area. I have found Bangalore is very difficult to navigate through, but the backup is to jump on board one of the many auto's which hurtle up and down the cities streets.

I was conned by one of the rickshaw drivers who initially said he would show me to some of the tourist sights and then drive back to my hotel. After taking me to a few sites he insisted on taking me to a number of shops and once you've entered a shop it is expected that you buy something.

Bangalore's 'Majestic' bus stand was huge. It took some time to find the right platform as it was not signed. I travelled in a Rajahamsa Executive overnight bus (sounds more comfortable than it was.) Once again, I had no real idea where to get off but knew it would be about 5.45am when I should have arrived in Ujire.

This morning, I got off the bus in the dark and in the rain after I had seen the engineering college from the road. Kiran, another intern at SELCO picked me up on his moped taking me to the lodge.

I have now settled in to where I will be working for the next few months, and am trying to learn everything I can about Solar Drying from the previous interns I have a lot of reading to do over the next week.

Arrival & First Impressions

I am not quite sure what time it is as I am writing this. I took my flight from Terminal 5 yesterday. After a 9 hour flight in which I did very little except sleep, I landed. Apart from the enormous queue, passport control was quick and easy. I spent half an hour waiting for my bag, wondering if it would ever come.

I decided to take the public bus from the airport to my hotel. After battling through the taxi drivers all wanting to give me a lift, I found the right bus. It cost 180 rupees for the 55 minute bus ride, about £2.50. The one thing which has hit me on arrival is the behaviour of the traffic. The bus seemed to weave it's way along the road, dodging motorcycles, trucks piled high with stuff and blaring the horn at any moment another vehicle obscured its path. How I found the hotel I am not really sure, however the bus seemed to drop me off within 100 metres of it. I even found the SELCO head office before the hotel. All it took was a little help from the conductor, who waved his hand in the right direction.

The poverty is visible: The houses, the women washing clothes and cooking on smoky fires open fires, the cows on the street, the large number of stray dogs and the rubbish. But strangely, this is a place I will get used to and I have been prepared for the culture shock. When I arrived the roads were mainly clear however as its got later the traffic has got heavier, and I have had to re-learn the way to cross a road safely, without being run over by a rickshaw, motorcycle or moped (there are no pavements)

I am being shown around the SELCO head office later today, and am taking an overnight bus on Sunday night to Ujire, where my placement is based. I am hoping to spend some of the day tomorrow exploring Bangalore city centre.