Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Solarclave, a Solar-Powered Medical Instrument Sterilizer

https://www.engineeringforchange.org/news/2011/01/11/how_to_sterilize_medical_instruments_in_off_grid_clinics.html

The Solarclave, a Solar-Powered Medical Instrument Sterilizer

Microbes are survivors. To kill them, the scissors, tweezers, scalpels and other medical instruments used in routine treatment and exams need to be sterilized with heat and pressure. Hospitals usually do the work with large autoclaves that are too expensive for rural health posts in developing countries. To solve the problem, Anna Young, at MIT's D-Lab, is developing a solar-powered sterilizer called Solarclave.

The Solarclave is a bulky kluge of repurposed parts. A reflective satellite-TV dish focuses sunlight onto a modified wine bottle above it. The sunlight heats water in the bottle and forces steam into a pressure cooker below. In field tests in Nicaragua, the Solarclave can reach the CDC-recommended heat and pressure levels—250 F at 15 psi—in an hour.


Read more: 7 Medical Device Upgrades for Developing Countries - Popular Mechanics 

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