Pedal-Powered (Vacuum) Zeolite Refrigerator

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  Ramani Aswath

  Prof.Victor Papanek described this in his book Design for the real world:
  Quote:
  At Cal Arts one of my graduate students, Jim Hennessey, and I were more concerned
  as to how Third World people could keep part of their perishables fresh for a week
  or two, starting now. We developed a hand-cranked, modular produce cooler.
  There is a baseboard unit that includes a tyre pump, a heat exchanger, a pump, pump
  valves, and a metering valve, as well as a hand crank. This is surmounted by a 50 cm.
  styrofoam cube with a lid. It forces hot pressurised air through a heat exchange which
  returns the air to near-ambient temperature. The air is then metered back into the
  cooler, where, as it expands, it produces a temperature drop. Other modular cubes
  can be added. Certainly this is no way to keep two bottles of milk, some Coke, and a
  roast of beef freezing cold. But twenty minutes of cranking will ensure that, say, a
  bushel of mangoes will be kept cool enough not to rot (40° F.) for twelve hours.
  More importantly, the units can be built in villages in the Third World with existing
  tools and used valves. Since this problem was solved, we have begun doing re- search
  into substituting a sandwich panel (made of two outer layers of used newspapers and
  a core of dried native leaves) for the styrofoam. The design will be given to
  UNESCO.
  Endquote
  Design for the Real World (idesign.blogfa.com)