A New Methodology for the Development of Appropriate Technology: A Case Study for the Development of a Wood Solar Dryer

Abstract

This paper introduces a new methodology for the development of appropriate technology that allows satisfying energy needs in rural communities. The methodology integrates the technological development, taking particularly into account the assessment of environmental impacts as well as evaluation of the functionality of the technology. Therefore, it is implemented as a case study in the development of a solar wood-dryer in an artisan community in Mexico. Relevant issues were identified for the success of the methodology, which includes identifying key participants in the community, as well as the use of specialized simulation- and computer-based design tools, and a prior evaluation of the potential environmental impacts through Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the solar wood-dryer. Three geometries of a solar wood-dryer prototype were proposed and analyzed with computer-based simulations, which showed better interior heat transfer than the traditional wood brick-dryer. LCA revealed that the new solar wood-dryer prototype has environmental impacts in all analyzed categories that are 5% or smaller than those of the traditional dryer. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the solar wood-dryer developed with our introduced methodology leads to less environmental impacts compared to those of the traditional wood brick-dryer previously used by the rural community.

Exploitation of Wood Waste of Pinus spp for Briquette Production: A Case Study in the Community of San Francisco Pichátaro, Michoacán, Mexico

“…According to standard UNE-IN 14774-1 (2010) [35,41], the final moisture content of the briquettes made in this study ranged from 11.52-13.26% ± 0.57, a value that is within acceptable parameters compared to other results reported in the literature, where moisture content was 14-16% [38,53], and 8-10%. Those projects, however, employed electric machines to produce the briquettes, which accelerated the drying of the raw material [38].…”

“…This research has shown a methodology to determine the potential for energy use of wood waste. This methodology contrasts with similar works to evaluate energy use in rural communities [41]. Similar studies do not include social aspects that help determine the potential for energy use [17].…”

“…They represent 30% of the artisans that operate workshops in the community based on family production. Contact was made through visits to their homes, since previous studies on timber consumption consider this percentage [41].…”

“…We applied a multi-criteria methodology to evaluate the indicators of the parameter of sustainability [70]. This approach, which has been used in integrated evaluations of technologies that utilize renewable and ecotechnical energy sources [71,72], took parameters of energy, physicochemical properties, and economic-environmental factors into account to generate the quantifiable indicators presented in Table 7. For each one of the above indicators we considered maximum and minimum values (Table 8) to define the best-and worst-case scenarios.…”

Use of design thinking in the proposal of a multi-compound solar dryer applied to processes of traditional P'urhépecha Medicine

“…Solar dehydrators are a viable and economical option that contributes to the reduction of harmful emissions to the environment (Sharma et al, 2009), which also as ecotechnologies represent a technological milestone for the satisfaction of needs and are possible to adapt to the user requirements in a multi-scalar way (Ortíz-Moreno et al, 2014). It is also highlighted that solar drying technologies can in some cases be adaptive, participatory, and respond to sustainability criteria, as has been demonstrated in previous research for the drying of various products in an optimized way (López-Sosa et al, 2019). However, despite various efforts, some designs of solar dehydrators have been proposed and discussed in the literature, but users often do not adapt to them, and the technology stops being used because it is not developed together with the user to meet the particular needs.…”