scholarly journals Low-Cost Multi-Effect Solar Still: Alternative Appropriate Technology for Personal Desalination

Desalination ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pak Hunkyun
2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 357
Author(s):  
Pedro Moura ◽  
José Ignacio Moreno ◽  
Gregorio López López ◽  
Manuel Alvarez-Campana

University campuses are normally constituted of large buildings responsible for high energy demand, and are also important as demonstration sites for new technologies and systems. This paper presents the results of achieving energy sustainability in a testbed composed of a set of four buildings that constitute the Telecommunications Engineering School of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. In the paper, after characterizing the consumption of university buildings for a complete year, different options to achieve more sustainable use of energy are presented, considering the integration of renewable generation sources, namely photovoltaic generation, and monitoring and controlling electricity demand. To ensure the implementation of the desired monitoring and control, an internet of things (IoT) platform based on wireless sensor network (WSN) infrastructure was designed and installed. Such a platform supports a smart system to control the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems in buildings. Furthermore, the paper presents the developed IoT-based platform, as well as the implemented services. As a result, the paper illustrates how providing old existing buildings with the appropriate technology can contribute to the objective of transforming such buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) at a low cost.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 330-347
Author(s):  
Thofiqur Rohman

This paper focuses on the process of empowering rural Muslim communities by improving the quality of life through the development of appropriate technology to be renewable. Renewable technology is an effort to develop simple technology that is needed by the community, and the practice of using potential in the community environment, so that it can be updated at a low cost. The research setting is the Muslim community of Sokawera Village, Cilongok District, Banyumas Regency. The background of the problem is to find public poverty and general school dropouts, the abundance of manure waste, the lack of funds to buy fertilizers, and the imbalance between low economic capacity and the ownership of abundant potential in the form of community culture raising livestock. This type of research is qualitative research by conducting exploration through interviews, observation and forum group discussions. Data analysis is done by searching and compiling data systematically from the results of interviews, observation and forum group discussions. The findings of this study are in the form of a model of empowering rural Muslims through the development of appropriate technologies for renewable. The model is named after the House of Empowerment. Rumah Empowerment is a concept in carrying out the empowerment process from the beginning to the end. In this concept, there are five processes. The five processes must be carried out coherently so that the target of empowerment is maximally achieved and can be sustainable. The five processes referred to, namely; 1) Mapping the subject of empowerment, 2) Coordination, 3) Expansion of Empowerment, 4) Evaluation, 5) Improvement.


Leonardo ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Verzola

The author provides examples of low-cost information and communications technologies (ICTs) and suggests five major strategies for their low-cost deployment in developing countries: (1) appropriate technology, (2) free/open software, (3) compulsory licensing, (4) pay-per-use public stations and (5) community/public ownership of ICT infrastructure. Aside from the problems of affordability and universal access, the author identifies the Internet's built-in biases for (1) English, (2) subsidizing globalization, (3) automation and (4) the technofix, and explores the implications of these biases. The challenge is not only to design affordable and accessible technologies or to redesign technologies to be consistent with our deeply held values, but also to make ourselves less technology dependent.


Appropriate technology, defined here as a low-cost technology aimed at helping to meet the most basic needs of the world’s poorest people, can only be a viable proposition if its proponents succeed in making the transition from the first to the second generation, i. e. from the small-scale experiments and pilot innovations of today, to the massive applica­tion of new devices (hardware) and new forms of organization (soft­ware). The main agents in this second generation are national planning institutions, government ministries, established research centres, development agencies, financial institutions and industrial corporations. Some of the ways in which this transition can be facilitated are exam­ined, as well as a number of specific issues such as intelligence policies in appropriate technology, the structure of decision-making mechanisms and the linkage between appropriate technology and overall development strategies.


Author(s):  
Alan W. Eberhardt ◽  
Richard J. Lesley ◽  
Tina G. Oliver ◽  
Rosalia N. Scripa

EGR 200, Introduction to Engineering Design, provides transfer students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham an introductory engineering experience, including a 5-week design project. This year, the authors led a project that involved the design of crutches for use in a developing nation that featured the use of “appropriate technology” regarding materials and construction techniques. The target country was Zambia, Africa, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. In Zambia, the majority of the population lives on less than $2 USD per day [1]. Lack of medical facilities and doctors leads to many serious health issues. Infection often leads to amputation, creating a need for low cost crutches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 830-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenyuan Xu ◽  
Lenan Zhang ◽  
Lin Zhao ◽  
Bangjun Li ◽  
Bikram Bhatia ◽  
...  

Passive vapor generation systems combining interfacial solar heating and vaporization enthalpy recycling enable high-efficient low-cost desalination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 3980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saowanee Wijitkosum ◽  
Preamsuda Jiwnok

For an agricultural country such as Thailand, converting agricultural waste into biochar offers a potential solution to manage massive quantities of crop residues following harvest. This research studied the structure and chemical composition of biochar obtained from cassava rhizomes, cassava stems and corncobs, produced using a patented locally-manufactured biochar kiln using low-cost appropriate technology designed to be fabricated locally by farmers. The research found that cassava stems yielded the highest number of Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area in the biochar product, while chemical analysis indicated that corncobs yielded the highest amount of C (81.35%). The amount of H in the corncob biochar was also the highest (2.42%). The study also showed biochar produced by slow pyrolysis was of a high quality, with stable C and low H/C ratio. Biochar’s high BET surface area and total pore volume makes it suitable for soil amendment, contributing to reduced soil density, higher soil moisture and aeration and reduced leaching of plant nutrients from the rhizosphere. Biochar also provides a conducive habitat for beneficial soil microorganisms. The findings indicate that soil incorporation of biochar produced from agricultural crop residues can enhance food security and mitigate the contribution of the agricultural sector to climate change impacts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 812 ◽  
pp. 14-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malaiyappan Prakash ◽  
Elumalai Natarajan

A solar still is efficient and attractive application of renewable energy (solar) in the distillate production. In this work, the solar still with different basin materials viz; plastic, glass, and galvanized iron (GI) with basin area of 1m x1m and slope of 13○ were fabricated and tested in Anna University, Chennai. The basin materials are taken according to the low cost that is easily available in the local areas. The bottom and side losses of the still are considerably reduced, due to the low cost insulation material (thermcol) beneath the basin liner. The stills are experimentally investigated on a clear day (03/04/2014). Comparison of the various basin materials under the same weather conditions is done. A model economic analysis calculation for the asymmetrical single-basin and single-slope solar still is verified.


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