Hola! The first semester of PUC has ended and we are so happy in regards to where we stand in our project. Thanks to our 106 Donors, we were able to achieve our fundraising goal of $15,000. That is INCREDIBLE. From selling mesquite cookies, reaching out to all friends and family members, and sharing the community’s need on social media, we have enjoyed sharing our project and its goal for our community to everyone. We really appreciate everyone’s generosity and support! With these funds we can now focus on the prototyping stages of our project.
Before preparing our second milestone for our class we analyzed the functionality and suitability for each of our potential designs. Our first design, was an extended version of the current solar dryer ovens in hopes to increase the capacity of mesquite pods. The second design, was a much simpler design to ensure easy construction and also increase capacity for drying. Contrary to the first two designs, our third design was a Polyhouse Solar Dryer (PSD) which is essentially a larger structure similar to the design of a green house. The PSD would greatly increase the drying capacity and protect the mesquite pods from external weather. After talking with our NGO contact, Richard, and our Technical Advisor, David, we came to the conclusion that the PSD might be the most suitable design to decrease the drying time and greatly increase the capacity of the mesquite pods. The pictures below are drawings and a model of the PSD we plan to experiment with next semester.
(Left) Drawing of Polyhouse Solar Dryer (Right) Kit for Prototyping and Implementing
The green model is a kit which can be purchased from the Home Depot in Oaxaca, Mexico. It serves as a good foundation to incorporate a heating element to increase temperature. Over the winter break, we plan to further research and finalize a ventilation system, clarify our design for the drying racks, research insulation concepts for the PSD, and determine a solution for implementing the PSD on the roof. Along with this research for the PSD, we are also looking into vacuum bags to enhance their current storage system. We have been able to get into contact with Sandeep, the owner of Miche Bread Austin, to understand his vacuum system for storage and to incorporate his ideas to the project for the community. We will be looking into purchasing large and small size vacuum bags. With these projects in mind, we have a lot of work ahead of us but we have confidence that we can attack it all in time!
Furthermore, in concluding the semester, we have also defined new roles in our team! Archik will now serve as the Technical Lead for the Vacuum System, Hannah Ilan will maintain her role as the Communications and Logistics Manager, Ryan will serve as the Technical Lead for Prototyping and Research, Hannah Myers will serve as the Technical lead for the PSD and Gaby will serve as our new Project Manager! We are excited to grow into these roles over the winter break in order to hit the ground running next semester.
Thank you all for checking in on our team and reading our updates. We wish you and your families’ happy holidays and a happy new year!!
Yours truly,
PUC Team Mexico ‘19
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