A Journey to Preserve Bee Pollen in Colombia Part 3 by Alex Dunwoody

We finally finished both of our prototypes! The prototype below is a passive solar in-trap dryer, which means that it dries bee pollen as it’s collected. The plastic covered sides of the trap fold down to let radiation from the sun in during the day, which heats the metal air duct on the interior.. The sides of the dryer can additionally fold up to make working with bees on these types of hives easier.

My passive solar dryer, my baby.

Our other trap is a hybrid solar dryer, which means that it uses energy from the sun to passively heat air and to actively move air over the pollen using solar powered fans.

My passive solar dryer, my baby.

A few days ago we installed both of these traps in the apiary and are measuring moisture content reduction in pollen as well as trap temperature and humidity levels. Sadly, I am leaving the project at this point to explore more of South America, but Salomon will continue with these experiments and present the results to beekeeping campesinos in the greater bogota area. If one of these designs causes a significant enough decrease in pollen moisture content, it will increase the quality of pollen and decrease the post harvest drying costs. Campesinos will have access to international markets, which require a higher grade pollen quality than local markets, and increase their pollen profits.

Installing the pollen dryers in the apiary

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Welcome to the UC Davis Blum Center Blog!

Here you will find updates on our organization, and blog posts written by each of our Blum Fellows about their experiences abroad. Make sure to check out our website at blumcenter.ucdavis.edu, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCDavisBlumCenter to get regular updates and see our upcoming events.

Manufacturing in Phnom Penh by Purva Juvekar

During winter and spring quarter 2017, my teammates and I (Team WASHOut) designed a sanitation station using a Biosand Filter. This was our effort towards providing clean water to students in floating schools on the Tonle Sap lake. We were provided with the opportunity to go to Cambodia and implement our project in person through the Blum grant, and we worked with Wetlands Work!, our clients for the senior design class. Figure 1 Rendering of Sanitation Station We spent our time at UC Davis designing the station – sketches, CAD models, renderings, dimensions, engineering analysis and testing. We made a prototype in Davis, which we showed during the Senior Design Showcase in June, to test flow rates and water quality standards. The next step was to take the design to Phnom Penh and manufacture it there. We got to work as soon as we got there. My teammate and I were introduced to people on the WW! team who could help with translation, and we began scouting the city to fin...

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UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

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