The clay refrigerator that works without electricity

In our country, more than 5 million inhabited private homes do not have a refrigerator, which can complicate food preservation and generate some diseases, according to the Mexican company Depresa. To address this problem, the company designed a one hundred percent ecological cooler, made from clay and stone materials. This will allow rural populations to increase the preservation time of their food and medicines, as is already happening in communities of San Luis Potosí. Ecoplanet, as this ecological cooler is called, maintains a low temperature of up to eight degrees Celsius as its operation is based on classical physics. It consists of two containers between which a wet mixture of sand, marble dust, soil, gravel, and water is deposited; and it must be placed in partial shade so that ultraviolet rays do not make direct contact. As the water from the mixture evaporates, the heat from the food or drinks placed inside the Ecoplanet is extracted. That is, “it steals the heat from the food inside the cooler and turns the water into vapor; a phenomenon that is possible because the reaction requires energy and takes it from the food,” details Óscar Chávez Macías, co-founder of the company. To operate, it only requires three liters of water per day and should be placed in partial shade in a ventilated area, fulfilling its cooling function in a couple of hours. As Chávez Macías explained, this system is very practical and economical, as it resembles a traditional water jug and has already been tested in communities of the municipality of Villa de Reyes in San Luis Potosí and in a town in Guanajuato. Depesa was registered in March of this year, allowing it to already market the cooler. However, to carry out artisanal production, three weeks and an approximate cost of 680 pesos are required, and to be profitable, it must be produced on a large scale. This is why their strategy consists of approaching state governments so that through social programs, they can be distributed in communities without electricity. See original article.