The need to encourage low-cost, clean technologies in developing countries is critical from both a public health and quality of life stand point as well as from a global energy and environment perspective.The EIA predicts that by 2010 energy consumption and greenhouse gas production from non-OECD countries will surpass that of the OECD countries. Meanwhile, over 1 billion people in developing countries suffer from adverse health impacts from burning resource intense and environmentally unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene, dung, coal, and wood burning for lighting and cooking. The UC Davis Program for International Energy Technologies was established to address energy security, environmental degradation, and public health concerns in developing countries. We work in four key areas: Off-grid lighting and micro-power, agriculture (including pumping, irrigation and post harvest), renewable energy, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

Current DLab II projects of Spring 2012 include:

Small-scale High-efficiency Charcoal kiln - Haiti

Fuel from the Fields (a collaboration of students and faculty from UC Berkeley, MIT) has been working with small-scale farmers in Haiti to refine a low-cost, locally-produced suite of technologies to make charcoal briquettes from agricultural wastes rather than trees. While the briquette press and binder have been through many iterations, the kiln design has not been improved significantly. A student group at UC Berkeley is currently building a gas-retort kiln and hopes that this kiln will improve the yield and efficiency of the ag-waste charcoal production process. UC Davis D-Lab students will be working on developing assessment criteria (cost, durability, efficiency etc) and testing methodology to evaluate the charcoal gas-retort kiln and come up with suggestions\improvements and suitable prototypes to improve the existing kiln.

Appropriate Biochar production in small farm setting - Honduras

Partner: Zamorano University, Honduras
Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis (burning with minimal oxygen) of biomass (e.g. agriculture and forest wastes) and is considered as an effective way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Generally, micro-gasifiers are utilized for the production of biochar in developing countries. However during this production process, numerous issues one of which being pelletizing biomass, the process of compressing or molding a material into the shape of a pellet needs to be resolved. An affordable pellet machine would enable any farmer or other entrepreneur to market pellets made from their own biomass and to generate energy at local level. For the D-Lab we propose to work on the design of two critical aspects of the pelletizing process in the context of a third world country like Honduras: a) Chopping and grinding to uniform and reduce the size of the raw material. b) compaction/densification of the raw material (pelleting) to increase in the net calorific content per unit volume.

Off-grid cool room using Zeolite beads - Honduras

Partner: Zamorano University, Honduras
In villages without access to electricity, there are no affordable ways to cool agricultural produce during transport and storage. Providing a non-electric cooling system to those remote communities is one way to increase their income by reducing postharvest losses. The proposed cooling system will use water as the refrigerant and zeolite beads as the adsorbent. DLab students will work on designing an affordable construction model for the zeolite bead cooler and arrive at a business model that works in the developing world.

Transformation through the Accessible Recycling of Plastics - Nigeria

Partner: Niger Delta Wetlands Centre [NDWC]
A method for effectively recycling these thin film plastics is to utilize a heat press, such as that used in making heat transfers onto t-shirts, to remold the plastics into sheets of thicker plastic. These can be joined together to make plastic sheeting with various applications, ranging from agriculture to temporary housing. However these hot presses consume large amount of energy which is not feasible for small production, as access to electricity is expensive and unreliable, and running the machine off of a generator is neither cost-effective or environmentally sound. Thus, it is proposed that an altered hot press be developed, preferably one that can run with little or no expensive energy input. The NDWC team will collaborate with the UC Davis design department to design products using this technology.

Design low cost truck mounted horticulture cooler for farmers in Thailand

Partner: Kasetsart University, Thailand
There is no existing cool chain technology for farmers and small/medium enterprise in Thailand to transport their product to customers or wholesale market. A dedicated refrigerated truck would be expensive for this purpose. The project involves designing a low cost cool room\container (with temperature adjustable between 10 to 20 degree celcius) that can be mounted on the back of a 1 ton pickup truck. DLab team will design a low cost cool room\container for cooling agricultural produce (with temperature adjustable between 10 to 20 degree celcius) that can be mounted in the bed of a 1 ton pickup truck.

Planning and launching SMART Light distribution in Zambia using a micro-consignment model

Partner: Disacare, Lusaka, Zambia
The SMART Light started as a World Bank-funded Lighting Africa project in 2009. UC Davis PIET designed and built a low-cost solar-powered LED light meant to compete with kerosene and candles in Zambia. The first production run of 1,500 lights was built in China at the end of 2011, and will be shipped to Davis in the next few weeks. For D-Lab II, the SMART Light team will be planning and creating distribution plan and business model for launching the product in Zambia. At the end of the summer, a student team will travel to Lusaka to set up and launch the business. DLab students will design a functional business model for distributing the lights, including operations, marketing, sales, accounting, training, and offer technical support.

Design of pico-hydro systems - Rwanda

Pico-hydroelectric power is projected be the cheapest power generation technology for remote communities and it is an appropriate intermediate technology that locals can understand and easily build, operate and maintain. In an effort to incorporate this technology into the UC Davis D-Lab curriculum and to identify appropriate (consider material availability, cost),pico-hydro systems for Rwanda, a D-Lab II team will review, construct, test, and improve existing pico-hydro solutions. DLab team will identify, design, build and compare different types of low cost hydro electric turbines specific for Rwanda’s community needs.

DLab I projects of Winter 2012 include

Charcoal in Uganda

Partner: Technical Advisor to the District Chairman, Gulu District Local Government, Uganda
Charcoal is the primary fuel used for cooking in Uganda. Heightened demand for charcoal has been caused in Kampala by increased gas costs and irregular electricity supply. Traditional charcoal burning techniques are inefficient and wasteful - probably as low as 40% of cut wood. This also further causes deforestation and other related ecological issues. In order to mitigate deforestation and at the same time help the locals continue the economic activity, D-Lab will focus on more efficient alternate ways to produce charcoal (for example using local agricultural waste or manure.)

Waste to fuel in Malawi

Partner: Likuni Girls Secondary School, Bunda College of Agriculture, and funding from the U.S. Embassy
The region of Lilonwe, Malawi is facing a range of issues stemming from deforestation including land degradation, river siltation and flooding. Deforestation is accelerated due to farming practices as well as wood harvesting for fuel. The D-Lab project will assess the community resources and needs in Lilongwe in order to determine an appropriate community-based energy project that can address these issues. D-lab students will look into compost recycling, biogas and determine if they are feasible in this region.

Irrigation in India

Partner: Samridhi, India
Previous D-Lab teams have initiated lab and field testing of affordable drip irrigation systems at UC Davis. In winter and spring of 2011, D-Lab II students built and tested a low-cost prototype system. In the summer of 2011 the team worked with farmers in Uttar Pradesh to learn more about the agricultural context there. This quarter the students will design and build a demonstration project in India with new local partner Samridhi.

Biogas in Tanzania

Partner: Ilala Municipal Council, Dar es Salaam
D-Lab students will evaluate a municipal slaughterhouse in Dar es Salaam for biogas installation. The slaughterhouse currently processes 300 cattle and 350 sheep and goats daily, requiring 40,000 liters of water and resulting in 86,500 liters of combined solid and liquid wastes. Waste volume is significant, and as it builds up over time there are costs associated with disposal. The slaughterhouse also faces high costs for electricity and heating water that it would like to mitigate.

Lighting in India

Partner: Mera Gao Power, India
In Winter and Spring of 2011 D-Lab completed a feasibilty study on a micro lighting and communications grid appropriate for communities (40-100 homes) in Uttar Pradesh, India. A central banl of solar panels and batteries provide power with wiring to each home that has clean bright LED lighting (instead of kerosene). Mera Gao Power is looking at ways to provide more value for its customers, and customer feedback suggests a detachable LED light. D-Lab students will evaluate the potential for detachable LED light as a part of the microgrid system.

Plastic Recyling in Nigeria

Partner: Niger Delta Wetlands Center (NDWC)
In Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria low density polyethylene the type of plastic used in shopping bags, water sachets is particularly the problematic part of the waste stream. NDWC has done some work to find low cost ways of processing this plastic into re-usable form (plastic tarp). D-Lab students along with NDWC will explore the potential for recycled plastic products as a micro enterprise in the region.