Designing the Sugar Cane Charcoal Extruder

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005."June 2005."Includes bibliographical references (leaf 32).The Sugar Cane Charcoal Extruder compresses carbonized sugar cane into charcoal briquettes. that are environmentally-friendly and comparable to wood charcoal in burn performance, cost, and durability. Originally developed in the fall semester of 2004 in the MIT course 2.009, Product Engineering Processes, the extruder is designed for use in Haiti where wood charcoal constitutes up to a seventh of a family's expenditures. For a nation without a widespread electric grid such as Haiti, a locally manufacturable, affordable, and family-operated charcoal extruder is an effective method to introduce alternative energy into the economy. This thesis documents the past developments of the extruder and presents an improved design that is more portable, more robust, and less expensive to build than the original versions. The new design loads the bagasse and binder directly into the feedscrew and compresses the mixture using threads of decreasing pitch. Evaluations of design successes and failures are provided as well as recommendations for future development.by Dexter W. Ang.S.B

Study of the Staebler-Wronski degradation effect in a-Si:H based p-i-n solar cell

Conversion of solar energy into electricity using environmentally safe and clean photovoltaic methods to supplement the ever increasing energy needs has been a cherished goal of many scientists and engineers around the world. Photovoltaic solar cells on the other hand, have been the power source for satellites ever since their introduction in the early sixties. For widespread terrestrial applications, however, the cost of photovoltaic systems must be reduced considerably. Much progress has been made in the recent past towards developing economically viable terrestrial systems, and the future looks highly promising. Thin film solar cells offer cost reductions mainly from their low processing cost, low material cost, and choice of low cost substrates. These are also very attractive for space applications because of their high power densities (power produced per kilogram of solar cell pay load) and high radiation resistance. Amorphous silicon based solar cells are amongst the top candidates for economically viable terrestrial and space based power generation. Despite very low federal funding during the eighties, amorphous silicon solar cell efficiencies have continually been improved - from a low 3 percent to over 13 percent now. Further improvements have been made by the use of multi-junction tandem solar cells. Efficiencies close to 15 percent have been achieved in several labs. In order to be competitive with fossil fuel generated electricity, it is believed that module efficiency of 15 percent or cell efficiency of 20 percent is required. Thus, further improvements in cell performance is imperative. One major problem that was discovered almost 15 years ago in amorphous silicon devices is the well known Staebler-Wronski Effect. Efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cells was found to degrade upon exposure to sunlight. Until now their is no consensus among the scientists on the mechanism for this degradation. Efficiency may degrade anywhere from 10 percent to almost 50 percent within the first few months of operation. In order to improve solar cell efficiencies, it is clear that the cause or causes of such degradation must be found and the processing conditions altered to minimize the loss in efficiency. This project was initiated in 1987 to investigate a possible link between metallic impurities, in particular, Ag, and this degradation. Such a link was established by one of the NASA scientists for the light induced degradation of n+/p crystalline silicon solar cells

Early childhood curriculum policies and practices in Singapore: The case of glocalisation

Globalisation has been transforming early childhood care and education worldwide since the turn of this millennium. The early childhood sector in Singapore is no exception. Its early childhood curriculum has inevitably been influenced by Eastern and Western cultures and has developed into a unique hybrid over the years. This special issue collects six articles covering topics on inclusive education, curriculum frameworks, infant–toddler care, curriculum-based teacher research, social-emotional learning, and bilingual language and literacy. A book review about early childhood curriculum in Chinese societies is also included. All these articles have jointly presented a snapshot of the ‘glocal’ situation of early childhood curriculum in Singapore, with a focus on the challenges and suggestions for policy and practical improvements

Transport across nanogaps using semiclassically consistent boundary conditions

Charge particle transport across nanogaps is studied theoretically within the Schrodinger-Poisson mean field framework and the existence of limiting current investigated. It is shown that the choice of a first order WKB wavefunction as the transmitted wave leads to self consistent boundary conditions and gives results that are significantly different in the non-classical regime from those obtained using a plane transmitted wave. At zero injection energies, the quantum limiting current density, J_c, is found to obey the local scaling law J_c ~ (V_g)^alpha/(D)^{5-2alpha} with the gap separation D and voltage V_g. The exponent alpha > 1.1 with alpha --> 3/2 in the classical regime of small de Broglie wavelengths. These results are consistent with recent experiments using nanogaps most of which are found to be in a parameter regime where classical space charge limited scaling holds away from the emission dominated regime.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps figure

Locating the ‘radical’ in 'Shoot the Messenger'

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below, copyright 2013 @ Edinburgh University Press.The 2006 BBC drama Shoot the Messenger is based on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale, accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. The allegation triggers Joe's mental breakdown which is articulated, through Joe's first-person narration, as a vindictive loathing of Black people. In turn, a range of common stereotypical characterisations and discourses based on a Black culture of hypocrisy, blame and entitlement is presented. The text is therefore laid wide open to a critique of its neo-conservatism and hegemonic narratives of Black Britishness. However, the drama's presentation of Black mental illness suggests that Shoot the Messenger may also be interpreted as a critique of social inequality and the destabilising effects of living with ethnicised social categories. Through an analysis of issues of representation, the article reclaims this controversial text as a radical drama and examines its implications for and within a critical cultural politics of ‘race’ and representation

Semi-Insulating Polysilicon Hetero- and Isotype Junctions on Silicon

The effects of nitrogen trifluorideinthe gas stream during deposition of semi-insulating polysilicon (SIPOS) on the electrical characteristics of undoped (SIPSO)/p-Si, and n+-SIPOS/n-Si isotype junctions were investigated. The current-voltage characteristics of undoped SIPOS/p-Si heterojunctions exhibit a strong dependence on the oxygen content of the SIPOS film and depart from a hyperbolic sine behavior as the refractive index of the SIPOS increases.. The addition of nitrogen trifluoride decreases the current density of these undoped SIPOS/p-Si heterojunctions due presumably to the oxidation/hydrolysis of SiF species intoSiO2. The n+-SIPOS formed a rectifying isotype junction o n-Si. The forward current voltage characteristics exhibit two distinct activation energies separated by a kink in the forward semi-logarithmic characteristics; one below the cut-in voltage and one above the cut-in voltage. The two activation energies result from the presence of interface states in the structures. However, the forward current-voltage characteristics of the fluorinated SIPOS isotype junctions exhibit no kink and only a single activation energy due, presumably, to hydrogen passivating the interfacial traps during the hydrolysis process