Feature: Colombia researchers develop solar-powered ice maker for remote areas

Colombian researchers have designed a solar-powered ice machine that can help remote and off-the-grid communities store food and medicine.

A team at the National University of Colombia developed the prototype 14 years ago, but secured a patent for the invention in February 2016.

Improvement was made on their original design, and the machine is embarking on the manufacturing phase.

The machine is capable of freezing up to 5 liters of water for refrigeration purposes using solar power and methanol.

Project director Farid Chejne Janna said the ice machine is for regions with very few people, where there is no electricity and probably no opportunity for development.

Northern Colombia's Isla Fuerte is one such region. The small island community of 2,500 inhabitants will be the first to benefit from the invention, which helps preserve the daily fishing catch for local consumption or sale.

"What we were initially after was to freeze water. By making ice we could conserve food and vaccines in areas that are not connected (to a grid)," said Janna.

It will also be used to cool enclosures similar to the effect of air conditioning in hot days, said the director.

The machine, made of solar panels and as many as 20 2-meter-long tubes, stands four meters high and two meters wide. The team is working to make it more compact and striving to find more economic materials to make it more affordable.

The team said it needs more financial support for further innovation. "Innovating in the use of materials can raise costs, but mass producing will lower costs," said researcher Carlos Andres Gomez.

In the meantime, the team said it is also working on a machine that can produce electricity from the gasification of rice hulls, sugarcane chaff or even coffee waste, material that can be found in abundance in remote rural regions.

Using 24 solar panels and biomass, it could generate 35 kilowatt of energy, enough to power some 25 homes, said team member and chemical engineer Robert Macias.

"The idea is to make it versatile so that it works in isolated communities. That's why it's based mostly on biomass, though it can also work with carbon," said Macias. Endi