Anands Farm and Sam's Arrival

,This week I was finally able to collect the Heat Exchanger I'd had designed. On Tuesday I bought the glass for the solar collector and packaged the dryer securely in cardboard boxes.

Sam, the other EWB placement volunteer arrived on Wednesday morning at 5.45am. I went to meet him at the bus stop, but we somehow managed to miss each other, only to meet up half an hour later after I had walked to the town and back.

In the afternoon, we packaged the dryer into the back of Anand's (the managers) jeep and drove to his farm. His farm was a half hour drive along tarmacked roads. 4-wheel drive was needed for the last 20 minutes of the journey, up a steep bumpy track leading to his farm. The farmhouse had fantastic views across to the steep, waterfall covered western ghats on the opposite side of the valley. The fields were terraced into the hill, with rice paddy, ginger, onions and coconuts being some of the main crops grown on the land.

The dryer was built by two of the local farm workers following the instructions I had given them. They had a few problems identifying which piece fitted where, but an hour and a half later they had constructed the dryer – a successful result, proving that the design was sound and my instructions were clear.

Yesterday, went to his farm by bus, walking the last part of the journey up the track. The two local farm workers helped light a fire underneath the dryer, and prepared several trays of coconuts to dry. At first a simple fire was built, which proved to be far too smokey, and quickly smoked most of the coconuts in the dryer. A better, more contained stove was built which gave a much improved result with most of the smoke going out the chimney.

Jog Falls

Over the weekend I visited Jog Falls, the highest waterfalls in India with 4 others from the hostel. The falls were about 300km away, and we took 9 separate buses to get there and back again; a total of about 16 hours spent on bumpy, potholed Indian roads.

We left at noon Saturday and stayed at a lodge in a town overnight, costing 80rs (£1.20) each! The falls were well worth all the traveling for. A viewpoint on one side of the valley overlooked the falls. There were 4 main waterfalls, but in every other corner of the valley smaller waterfalls could be seen. The weather was typical, bright sunshine one minute and heavy rain the next, forcing all the umbrellas to come out.

The steps to the bottom of the falls was closed, but we went to the top of the falls instead, where hoards of people stepped across the slippy rocks to get a closer look at the waterfalls. We traveled back a different, and much more comfortable route, taking only 3 buses, including a night bus, arriving back in Ujire at 4.10 this morning.

Indian Time

In my last post, I said I would have successfully dried smoke-free bananas. This is not the case!

The aluminum workshop rather reluctantly agreed to make my design of heat exchanger on Monday. By Tuesday they phoned requiring clarification on the design. I am still waiting for a phone call to let me know that it is ready to be collected.

On Monday, I also sent a sheet of plywood to be cut out to make the dryer. Unfortunately, the carpenter struggled to read the dimensions on the print out, and as such, when I returned yesterday he had not measured or cut out anything. I spent a good hour yesterday afternoon standing next to him telling him where to put the tape measure.

At this prototyping stage, these problems are not a major concern, but they do delay the project. I suppose I've just got to appreciate that the designs are not conventional, and work done according to Indian time, and not as fast as at home.

This weekend I'm looking forward to visiting Jog Falls – the highest waterfalls in India, which should be a spectacular sight during the monsoon.

House Hopping

On Sunday, I went with two other SELCO interns to a really rural area, in order to interview a number of different farmers about their lives in order to help deliver technology which meets the needs of the customers. The landscape & views of the Western Ghats was stunning!

We were trying to get their thoughts on two products, the solar dryer, and a mobile phone service that would send up to date market prices for produce, preventing them from being ripped off by middle-men. All of the households were very welcoming, and were keen to greet us with snacks and tea. After visiting a few houses I felt very full!

The mobile phone service was perceived as a good idea by most farmers, however the the capacity of the dryer was often too small for their use. A possible future project will be to make a dryer with a capacity of 50 - 100kg rather than 5kg. It was difficult discussing drying when everything around is damp from the monsoon rains. Being able to dry products in the monsoon was definitely perceived as a benefit.

The most incredible experience I had, was staying the night at one of the farmers houses, a friend of one of the local interns. They made us feel so welcome in their house (4 rooms) and fed us a non veg feast. Fish at 5pm, and chicken for dinner at 11. They kept 4 cows, a dozen chickens and owned just over an acre of land, which they grew coconuts, areca, and bananas. Their family lived a very happy, subsistence lifestyle; but a lifestyle which leaves them very vulnerable to outside influences like market price fluctuations and climate change. Only when I woke up, to the sound of a cockerel, did I really appreciate how rural their house was – I had to walk through 2 streams to get to their house.

I've designed a new smoke-proof heat collector and sent the design to be constructed. By Thursday I hope to have dried smoke-free bananas.

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.