We did it
We finally dried food with the energy waste of a solar façade usually used for building heating in cold periods💡
Just to remember, the building and food sectors are two major actors in the world energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The building sector is still representing 36% of the final global energy consumption and about 33% of GHG emissions, being critical to reduce the energy consumption of the building sector in the coming years. On the other hand, reducing food losses is an essential approach to continue to feed the growing human population. 1/3 of the food produced for human consumption, around 1.3 billion tons per year, is wasted ⚠️
Solar façades (in our case, solar air collectors) are usually implemented on large scale buildings for ventilation and space heating during cold periods, and during warmer periods the heated air from the system is usually by-passed. This observation has led us to the concept of a solar dryer using the wasted energy of the solar façade during summertime ♻️
This summer we conducted the first test of drying for sliced tomatoes and it was a success. We have extracted more than 90% of the water in tomato samples 🍅
In conclusion, the energy waste of one system can be the fuel of another one and this kind of system could make our cities resilient and carbon neutral 🌍
You can see in the picture below my colleagues Abraham Tetang Fokone and Clément l'Harridon. And behind us you can see a prototype of Solar Façade integrated into a container 😊
Team members : Cristiana Croitoru, Florin BODE, Ilinca Nastase, Catalin-Ionut Sima, Alexandra Ene, and Mihnea Sandu.
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