Project Summary | Project Information |
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The Ithaka Institute is a non-profit organization based on the research of carbon sequestration through the use and treatment of biochar, a coal substitute now being looked at as a possibility in housing materials. It is fairly new in research as it can produced from biomass via pyrolysis. The Ithaka Institute is in a pure state of research and in very premature stages of development. This project is to design and test a testing rig to characterize biochar in housing materials and compare it to standard housing materials, with a focus on temperature and humidity changes. The primary test goal is to run heated, cooling and humidity tests to see if the test rig can record the data, which will lead to conclusions on the effectiveness of biochar. Some of the constraints for this project include the following: a budget of $500, it must be portable, it must accommodate different wall materials and types, it also must be able to accommodate quick changes in test materials as well as be self-powered. |
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Team Members

From left: James Reitano, Lakeishia Brown, Prasanna Parthiban, Kimberly Eklund, Domenico Colati, Sari Houchaimi
Member | Role | Contact |
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Domenico Colati | Team Lead | dac4732@rit.edu |
Kimberly Eklund | Mechanical Engineer/Purchasing | kae4786@rit.edu |
Prasanna Parthiban | Mechanical Engineer/Design | pxp3933@rit.edu |
Sari Houchaimi | Mechanical Engineer/Critic | sxh4088@rit.edu |
Lakeishia Brown | Electrical Engineer | lab6984@rit.edu |
James Reitano | Electrical Engineer | jmr8607@rit.edu |
Table of Contents
MSD I & II | MSD I | MSD II |
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Integrated System Build & Test |
Acknowledgements
We would sincerely like to acknowledge Kathleen Draper for her support and guidance, as well as for sharing her knowledge of Biochar. We would also like to thank Sarah Brownell for the amount of information she has provided as well as explaining exactly what needed to be done. Additionally, we want to acknowledge Dr. George Slack for making us always ask "Why" to obtain all of the information we needed to undergo this project successfully. Lastly, we want to thank the MSDII team that clarified for us how biochar can be used to making housing materials!