India: Designing a Solar Dryer and Mud Stoves

Author(s)

• Mike Braman, University of Dayton
• Dan Petit, University of Dayton

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

8-28-2009

Abstract

University of Dayton students Dan Petit and Mike Braman travelled to Pondicherry, India during the summer of 2009 to volunteer at Prakti Design Lab through the Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service Learning (ETHOS) program within the school of engineering. During their stay in India, Mike and Dan completed two primary projects. The first project involved researching designs of solar dryers, developing a design, and construction of a fully operational solar dryer. The second project they completed was the construction of four mud stoves modeled after designs used in Mauritania and Benin. Tests were going to be conducted on these stoves in the hopes of determining an optimum set of dimensions that would results in best stove performance and lowest emissions. Results of the solar dryer project showed that wood placed inside the solar dryer could be dried to around 10% moisture content within one week. Preliminary results of the mud stove projects indicated the stoves with smaller combustion chambers performed the best.

eCommons Citation

Braman, Mike and Petit, Dan, "India: Designing a Solar Dryer and Mud Stoves" (2009). ETHOS Technical Reports. 21.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ethos_reports/21