The market
The global refrigeration equipment market in 2010 is estimated at $ 27.1 billion. It is expected to increase by almost 5 % per year until 2012 to reach around $ 30 billion. The strongest progressions are observed in Latin America and Asia, China coming to the lead. However, the manufacturing industry remains a European, American and Japanese affair. Global demand for household refrigerators is expected to exceed 90 million units this year. The Asian market (to the exclusion of Japan) is 2.5 times greater than the North American market in number of units, and 20 % larger than that of Eastern and West Europe gathered. The electricity produced to supply refrigerators in the United States contributes each year to more than 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions. While developing countries make progress in the cooling area, this advance is only used by the middle class where the property of a refrigerator has become a symbol of status. But the real need for refrigeration concerns drugs and food conservation, and refrigeration promotes the development of agriculture and guarantees public health. Milk and fish can be kept for several days at a temperature of 4 to 6 degrees, although they are clearing in less than 24 hours at room temperature. A continuously cold environment preserves the effectiveness of vaccines. The industry has worked on solutions, including the solar refrigerator. However, solar systems need a minimum of 5 hours of direct solar light to function properly. This is why designers include a rescue battery to guarantee performance. The main drawback of this system is its cost. At a minimum of $ 5,000 per unit, this solution is not within the reach of Third World Communities. It depends on help or subsidies and is therefore not durable.
Innovation
Colding with hot is easy. The key to a predictable results in cooling is the exchange of energy when the steam turns into liquid and the liquid turns into vapor. The most common approach is to compress a gas and transform it into liquid, which warms it. When the pressure is released, the gas cools and condenses again in cash. When the liquid moves to a low pressure zone, it expands faster and vaporizes while creating cold, absorbing the heat of the environment. Many research has been done to use solar energy for refrigeration. Einstein was the pioneer of this idea. The sun increases the temperature, which causes an increase in pressure. At high pressure, the refrigerant gas condenses in cash. If the heat is reduced, the pressure drops and the liquid evaporates again in a gas, thus cooling the environment. Direct use of solar energy to cause this condensation and evaporation cycle is more effective than its conversion to electricity using photovoltaic panels, and then feed a compressor that transforms the refrigerant gas into liquid. Emily Cummins, a 24 -year -old British student, pushes the logic of evaporation cooling to a simple, inexpensive and ingenious system. Emily does not use photovoltaics, electricity, chemical refrigerants, or mobile parts to produce the desired cooling effect. This is one of the most fundamental applications of the laws of physics, and an excellent example of the principles of innovation of the blue economy, "substituting something with nothing". Emily applies the well -established evaporation system based only on the heat generated by the sun. It is an ideal installation for the villages of the Third World without electricity and without money to spend in costly photovoltaics. Its refrigeration device is made up of two cylinders, one inside the other. Emily studied the geometry and the impact of the realization of holes in the exterior cylinder to allow the best possible access to the direct sun. While the interior cylinder is made of metal, the exterior cylinder can be made of wood, plastic or even cardboard. The space between the interior cylinder and the exterior cylinder is filled with compacted wool, cotton, sand, raw earth, everything that is available locally. It even works with shredded newspaper. Food or medication is placed inside the cylinder in the center. The water is poured into the space between the two cylinders, until filling (cotton, sand, raw earth, etc.) is saturated. It is not necessary that they are pure drinking water. Seawater and gray waters are also doing work. When the sun heats the exterior cylinder, the water evaporates, which eliminates heat, and as the filling affects the metal from the inner cylinder, it absorbs its heat. The more the filling and the inner cylinder are compact and conductive, the more the heat is extracted from the interior of the cylinder. The inner room becomes very cold. A single water infusion keeps the interior at 5-6 degrees for days.
The first cash flow
The system is shiny, because it is simple and has a predictable performance. No backup is necessary. By goring the filling with water (cotton, sand, earth, etc.), which will absorb the heat of the inner cylinder, the cooling continues. Emily first put her invention in practice in Namibia and concluded that with an average of 10 hours of sun per day, places that would be the ideal candidates for a solar energy refrigerator at $ 5,000, offer ideal conditions for its invention. The main criticism is that sunlight is rarely guaranteed, and that this ecological low -technology refrigerator depends only on nature to keep the interior cold. We propose to integrate the know-how of Las Gaviotas to substitute the heating effect of the sun in light (see case 15). This would make it possible to design a refrigeration system that would work all year round, especially where the luminescence is at its best.
The opportunity
The association of two fundamental knowledge makes it possible to obtain the expected result, based on the practical experience of the way in which two elements are cooling and warming up. Emily's refrigeration system preserves drugs and foods, it could even create ambient comfort in houses, while comfort heaters provide comfort such as floor heating while controlling bacteria by heating the water . Since Las Gaviotas refined water heating by luminescence in the past 35 years, to the point of offering a 25 -year warranty, now imagine its applied luminescence at the external cylinder of Emily's invention. In this case, and with the appropriate choice of materials for the interior cylinder, a large platform for the entrepreneurial spirit is created which redefines once and for all refrigeration in the tropics. It is simply not logical to consider other solutions - even if they are given - which cost thousands of dollars, while the same effect can be obtained - as you would expect - with only $ 10 ! Emily has proven herself in southern Africa, then decided to offer her ideas as an open source solution, that is to say to publish the data so that anyone can use her ideas to create a cheaper and competitive solution to a fraction of the cost. It is not surprising that Emily was recently elected by the Junior International Chamber as one of the ten exceptional people in the world for her business and entrepreneurship leadership.
