Plastic to Fuel Portable Diesel Lab

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 35 million tons of plastic were produced in the United States while only 3 million were recycled in 2017 (11.7%); these waste plastics wash up on the shores of remote islands and damage marine ecosystems. Organizations, such as Clean Oceans International, have adopted methods to reduce plastic pollution but these methods lack attention to community-specific needs and user/system safety, so our team has designed multiple solar-powered systems for a plastic to fuel (PTF) lab to be deployed around the world. Additionally we implemented a monitoring system to ensure the safety for the PTF machine and the user.

Deployable Plastic to Fuel Lab

Team Members

Calvin Lee is the team’s mechanical lead. He is responsible for creating CAD models and mechanical drawings for the PTF lab and the solar power system. His role also includes looking into how solar panels should be mounted, heat transfer in the lab container, air flow in the lab container, and physical connections of the solar power system.

Ashruf Gubari is the team’s circuit design lead. He is responsible for designing the electrical layout of our system while also ensuring our system incorporates all electrical safety considerations concerning general safety and also the safety of our PV system. This included safety regulations outlined in the National Electric Code document.

Adrienne Coronel is the team’s power systems lead. She is responsible for ensuring each of the multiple solar system designs provide enough energy generation to power the PTF lab and fit a community’s specific lab needs.

Roman Podchernyaev is the team and software/hardware lead. He is responsible for the proper functioning of the PTF machine’s sensor monitoring system and its physical prototyping as well as user safety considerations.

Plastic to Fuel Portable Diesel Lab

Team Members

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