Date: 09/08/2008

Seems counter-intuitive but a student team from the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering has designed a device that harnesses solar power to make ice cubes. A scene from the film "The Mosquito Coast" starring Harrison Ford inspired the project, which was recently featured in the Dvice blog. Here's how faculty advisor and Associate Professor Jinny Rhee described this very unusual and perhaps unique clean tech endeavor.

"The solar icemaker is an electricity-free alternative to refrigeration and air-conditioning," Rhee wrote. "It uses the heat from the sun to drive a chemical reaction that separates a liquid refrigerant from a solid absorbent during the day. The solid absorbent stays in the solar collector, while the liquid refrigerant is driven away and stored in a separate component called the evaporator. At night, the chemical reaction runs in reverse, and the solid absorbent sucks all of the liquid refrigerant back into the collector; without pumps, valves, or any mechanical components. In the process, the liquid refrigerant evaporates and gets very cold and any water touching the outside of the evaporator is frozen to ice."

Also advising the students are Mechanical Engineering Lecturer James Mokri and College of Business Professor Anuradha Basu. The project, dubbed Solar Ice, is a finalist in the 2008 California Clean Tech Open. Winners will be announced in October.

Read more on the solar icemaker from Dvice.

Read more on the California Clean Tech Open.