Design of an off-grid refrigeration system for the rural population of Cambodia

Design of an off-grid refrigeration system for the rural population of Cambodia

Hegger, M.

Diehl, J.C. (mentor)
Neger, A.J. (mentor)
Eppens, R. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

Master of Science Integrated Product Design

2012-05-07

Refrigeration is an important factor when trying to improve rural live in developing countries. A refrigerator is important for a lot of aspects in order to improve the standards of life. The most well-known one is the preservation of food, but also preservation of medicines can be improved by the use of a fridge. The problem is that people in developing countries do not have access to an electricity infrastructure. Therefore a solution has to be identified, which makes effective use of an alternative energy source to empower the refrigerator. On top of this challenge one of the main problems that has to be tackled is the fact that most of these people are very poor. Therefore the initial product costs as well as the costs of use have to be as low as possible in order to develop an affordable solution. Because of the tropical monsoon climate, the region is very warm and moist. These circumstances on one hand favour the growth of bacteria that spoil food and medicine and on the other hand make it more difficult to create the desired cooling effect. This climate barrier needs to be conquered in order to achieve the best result. When designing a product for the rural population in Cambodia, the cultural beliefs and conventions should also be taken into account. These can be an obstacle when designing a product that originates in Europe. However when using them proper they can also become a design advantage which might convince the local people to accept and use the product.

refrigeration
adsorption
BOP

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:df9bf427-a712-47a2-b623-7bfcc942ff86

2013-05-07

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Hegger, M.