SOLAR STERILIZATION UNIT

Engineering World Health Design Project

Dates: September 2016 – May 2017

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Groups involved: Engineering Community Development (ECD) design project that was on Engineering World Health’s (EWH) Projects that Matter List.

ECD - https://www.facebook.com/wluECD/                    EWH - http://www.ewh.org/

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Background:

Sterilization is the elimination of all living organisms (bacteria, spores, viruses). Sterilization of medical equipment like scalpels, syringes, and needles prevents the spread of diseases when reusing equipment. Using a Wet Heat sterilization method like an autoclave, our device does not require a reliable electrical supply nor chemicals that are unavailable in most developing countries.

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Project Details:

Led product design of a low-cost device for developing country clinics to sterilize medical equipment like scalps, needles, and more. The World Health Organization reports sterilization  should reach 121 degrees Celsius and 15 atmospheres (atms) of pressure for at least 15 minutes to ensure sterilization. Although unsuccessful in reaching the required temperature during testing, the design process outlined other solar heating mechanisms for future testing.

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The device composed of a pressure cooker for maintaining pressure while heating the device, a pressure gauge, a thermocouple and Arduino Uno device to ensure proper temperature, and a reflective solar array. The solar array was built using aluminum tape and cardboard shaped into a parabolic reflector. As president of club, I led design team in communicating with possible users while also creating project objectives, constraints, and functions. The project served as a teaching experience to first-year students on engineering design principles and ethics.

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