Descripción de Port-e-garden - 1st Place - Technical/Geek Category - 2010 Int'l eWaste Design Competition:

eWaste Competition website: http://ewaste.illinois.edu/ Team's School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Project Description: My old refrigerator broke. In January, the fridge tech from EagleHead (Urbana) determined the R134a gas leaked out during operation. Instead of throwing it out Jessie and I decided to embark on a manufacturing process to recycle it into what we call the Port-e-garden. The Port-e-garden is an outdoor unit that grows up to 20 plants using aeroponic technology and compressed air. The plants are situated in PVC elbows placed on the door. The 10 gallon air tank sits inside the freezer shielded from the weather and sunlight. The condenser coil is re-purposed into piping for the 16 nozzle mister assembly. The compressor shell is cut open, redesigned with a one way valve/float system and re-welded together to become the pressurized water/air delivery system. The reciprocating compressor is then re-purposed/machined to mechanically compress air for the air tank. The reciprocating compressor is geared into the wind turbine (vertical axis) to continuously recharge the unit (low impulse, long duration) with the 6 minutes of air it requires per day. The unit is de-rusted/repainted. The Port-e-garden opens to reveal the backside of the door where the plant roots hang in open air. Between this and the shelves, the repurposed condenser coil is mounted on hinges and attached to the automated valve and air tank by flexible high pressure hose. On the shelves behind this, a significant amount of gourmet mushrooms can be grown. The air compressor will be run off of wind power and the entire unit requires at the very least an incredibly small power input (we hope to reduce this to 0) to reliably automate the misters. The plant roots have extra space to grow into the perlite shelf, and the shelf itself is on rollers. The garden is automated and self watering, only needing a reservoir refill every 2 days with very efficient water use. The unit has a drain and drain reservoir, this waste water can also be used to water other plants. The location and action of the misters inside of the refrigerator, combined with careful engineering creates a high humidity, low temperature growing environment conducive to the growth of many gourmet mushroom species. These mushrooms can be grown off a pasteurized mix of used coffee grounds, pet bedding (certain woods) and bulk waste paper (soy inks, or old homework assignments ) and give the Port-e-garden an ability to further incorporate recycling practices into the owners daily routine. Not only that, but even the compressor oil will be bioremediated by the Pleurotus Ostreatus (Oyster) mushroom growing inside the actual unit. The reason we went so "geeky" with the plant watering system was to compare performance with some of the claims that aeroponic technology facilitates larger yields and faster harvests. we plan to make this into our permanent portable urban garden.