ETHOS Technical Reports
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
9-7-2011
Abstract
Monica Guisfredi, Chelsea Miko, and Charles Weikert worked on appropriate technologies at the research company Proleña in La Paz, Bolivia, for ten weeks this summer through the Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities for Service-learning (ETHOS) program at the University of Dayton (UD).
Monica investigated past and current processes of essential oil extraction from orange peels. After much experimentation with cold press systems, distillation systems, and solvent extraction, an appropriate small scale distillation setup was designed and built that was technologically feasible and sustainable for La Paz, Bolivia.
Chelsea worked on the prototyping of a new design for a rocket stove because the original design needed improvement; two of the big problems were that the combustion chamber cracked over time with thermal cycling and that the pumice rock used as insulation was very difficult to acquire. Since the new stove was designed before she came, time was spent building the design and testing the efficiency. Conclusions drawn from the result of this work have shown that the new design does not meet the required efficiency; the brick formulation needs to be reviewed and new ratios of the ingredients need to be tested.
Charlie Weikert helped design and build a 5000 foot capacity industrial wood dryer with a versatile transportable design to ensure its use in urban and very rural areas of Bolivia, where wood dryers are most heavily in demand. Although significant changes were made to the original design to improve building and transport, Charlie did not get to see the final result before leaving.
eCommons Citation
Guisfredi, Monica; Miko, Chelsea; and Weikert, Charles, "Bolivia: Oil Extraction, Rocket Stove, and Wood Dryer" (2011). ETHOS Technical Reports. 64.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ethos_reports/64
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