Welcome to the project page for P15483, a Rochester Institute of Technology Multidisciplinary Senior Design project attempting to build a low cost, low power fruit drier for use in Haiti.

The Republic of Haiti is a small Caribbean nation, occupying the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. The country suffers from both extreme poverty and a barren, deforested landscape. Though more than half of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, the country relies on imports for roughly half its food needs.

Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food plants in the world. It is a staple in many tropical regions where it picked from it’s trees and roasted or boiled. Breadfruit trees are resilient, and plentiful in Haiti, which struggles with depleted soil and erosion as a result of deforestation. The problem with breadfruit is its limited shelf life. In Haiti, trees produce two crops a year in spring and fall, but an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of the fruit goes to waste because there is simply more than people or can eat. When ripe, fruits must be consumed within 24 to 72 hours before the fruit breaks down and is no longer appetizing.

Two MSD teams are working with the KGPB, a farming cooperative in Borgne, Haiti, to design a system for turning the breadfruit into flour. The system has to work within the region’s physical and economic limitations, so it must be low cost, low power, and easy to use and maintain. Our group is working on a system to dry out the breadfruit to the point of being suitable for milling into flour. In the form of flour, the fruit has an indefinite shelf life. It also allows different foods to be made from the breadfruit, as well as eventual export.

For an updated project description, click on the following link for the Project Readiness Package.

To navigate the project documents, click on the following link: directory structure.

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Project Name

Breadfruit Dryer(s) for the KGPB in Borgne, Haiti

Project Number

P15483

Project Family

Sustainable Technologies for the Global Marketplace

Start Term

2014

End Term

2015

Faculty Guide

Sarah Brownell, sabeie@rit.edu

Primary Customer

Francius D. Estimablo, fdestimablo@yahoo.fr

Sponsor (financial support)

Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Senior Design Office Staff

Photo Gallery

Planning & Execution

Gate Reviews

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Detailed Design

Build, Test, Document

Publications & Presentations