Ghana citizens face unreliable and unaffordable electricity in their everyday lives that many in the western world take for granted. The team sought to find a cheap, sustainable, and reliable source of electricity. Stirling engines run on any source of heat and can produce a small amount of electricity. Some applications include charging a phone, powering a light, or running a ceiling or desk fan. The purpose of this project was to design a Stirling engine out of e-waste materials to charge cell phones in Accra, Ghana. The team co-designed with students and a professor at Academic City University College in Ghana as well as workers at the Agbogbloshie e-waste site.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Kurdziel, Sophie
• Jankowski, Julia
• DiRuzza, Elizabeth
• Bogdanovich, Marika

Subject

• Inclusion
• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Energy
• Environment

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032422-123307
• 53526

Keyword

• co-design
• Accra, Ghana
• Stirling Engine
• Electronic waste
• recycled materials
• Computer aided design

Advisor

• Krueger, Robert
• Fofana, Mustapha S.

Year

• 2022

Center

• Ghana Project Center: Development Design Lab - MQP

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
• 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
• 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

Date created

• 2022-03-24

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• All rights reserved