Latimer Energy Lab 2015

Goals

The Latimer Energy Lab (LEL) Scholars Program is a program that provides, education, research, and hands-on project opportunities in renewable or sustainable energy generation and use. The objective of the program is to develop students who upon graduation are among the best educated students in the world in the area of sustainable energy. For the past two years, twelve students have been selected to work on different projects under the guidance of the director of the laboratory and Electrical Engineering Professor, Dr. Tim Healy, as well as a mentor to the lab, Greg Smestad. Last year, the team of twelve students created a model autonomous vehicle along with a charging station that would charge the car wirelessly. This year, the new team of twelve students broke up into three groups of four students and tackled three different projects which include building a solid state thermal power generation stove, developing a pay-as-you-go electricity micro-grid system, and creating a solar powered condensation-based irrigation system. In addition of having the pleasure to work with Dr. Tim Healy, the students were honored to be able to work with Robert Van Buskirk, Ph.D Harvard University and Founder of Medicine From Heaven, in order to eventually see their engineering projects tested in the continent of Africa. Overall, the students worked hard throughout the eight week period to design, develop, and test their projects, and this website is designed to showcase their projects.

Generation

In many developing nations around the world, people still use indoor stove fires in order to cook their food. A lot of these residences do not have an adequate ventilation system to displace a lot of the poisonous gases that build up in their homes. Not only do indoor stove fires release dangerous chemicals such as carbon monoxide, it also reduces the oxygen levels in a room. Reducing the oxygen levels from 21% to 17% can cause impaired judgement, and at 9% can cause unconsciousness. The generation team designed, implemented, and tested a viable solution to this worldwide problem by essentially taking the excess heat from the fire and turning it into electrical energy to power a ventilation system. The cost effecient system developed could save over one million lives per year in the developing world. In addition to help filter the air, the generation team also incorporated a water pasteurization system that would use the heat generated to kill pathogenic microbes. The final report produced by this team can be found here.

Pay-As-You-Go

The goal of the Microgrid design is the bring electricity to rural areas that do not have access to a conventional power grid. The microgrid design uses a central station which transfers power to distributed stations from energy generated by solar panels and stored in batteries. The Latimer Energy Lab’s engineers focused on the distribution of power by developing a smart system to control power distribution.

Solar Condensation

As of the beginning of May in 2015, the US Department of Forestry has estimated that over 12 million trees have died due to the California drought, with the majority of these trees located in the forests of the Sierra mountain range. The location of the Sierras makes it unfeasible to have an involved irrigation system to save these historically important trees, however if an autonomous irrigation system can be devised, thousands of these hundred year old trees may be preserved. The application of an autonomous irrigation system is not only limited to preserving trees and instead may be used for irrigation of high value plants and vegetation without maintenance. In an attempt to create a practical and cost-effective solution, the solar condensation team has designed a viable desiccant solar still which uses calcium chloride to collect water from air, purifies the collected water through evaporation, and condenses the water vapor into water usable for irrigation. From empirical data, the desiccant solar still has produced .3 Liters per 0.25 meters squared. The still is theoretically scalable to one's needs if a larger amount of water is needed. With the creation of an efficient desiccant solar still, the solar condensation team hopes to relieve the devastating effects of the drought on not only California's vegetation, but also in any areas which suffer from extreme water shortages. The analysis and experimental tests of the desiccant solar still may be found in the comprehensive report found here.

The twelve students working with the Latimer Lab, would like to especially thank Dr. Healy, Robert Van Buskirk, Mike Wagner, Greg Smestad, and Bereket for all their help and support throughout this project. Without their insight and mentorship, these projects would have been much more difficult to complete.