The biodiesel plant rises!
BUSY, BUSY!
The site has gotten busier with the construction of the biodiesel plant underway. We also got a large oven to use to process our feedstock.
POOP BROWNIES!
Yum, right?! We think so. Someone has to be the first to make more than one liter of biodiesel from human feces. If not us, who?
This is where it all starts – drying the incoming material.
ALPHA & OMEGA
As far as the sludge ponds at Kumasi go, here they are. Incoming delivery and outgoing effluent. Designed to be 120 days residence time through the system before heading toward some downstream farms.
JLAB 2.0
We’ve definitely taken the lab space we use at KNUST up a notch. OUT with the bunk bed and the ancient, largely non-functional lab equipment that appeared to have been nesting there for a couple of years. IN with new cabinetry a couple of months ago, and now workbench for people and laptops – away from the “contaminated” zone. No gloves on at the bench please! Check out that ventilation!
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Heated stir plates, burettes, gloves, autoclave, mico-pipetter tips, and an analytic balance – add to that a COD reactor and some samples (in the centrifuge tubes) and you have a good start at what you need to get to work. We also now have full battery back-up for the times the power goes out (which are many.)
ON TOUR – or – CHECK OUT WHAT”S UNDER THE HOOD!
We’ve given a number of lab tours over the project’s life. This month is was Mark (in the fabulous print shirt!) and Philip who will be assisting us with some helminth work. Wilson knows his way around the lab and never fails to impress. He has been doing a lot of lipid extraction from FS these days (note flasks in process under the hood.)