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For those who dread their winter heating bill, a more affordable, green solution may be around the corner. This fall’s senior design presentations from the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering included the Solar Owl, a heat storage system that collects free thermal energy from the sun during the day and releases it after the sun sets.

The Solar Owl senior design team included Will Wilson, of Edwardsville, Morton native Michelle Zdanowski, Gerardo Rojo, of St. Louis, and Brandon Koyanagi, of Highland. Wilson originated the idea after researching emerging technologies in green energy.

“It was important to me that we design something with applicability, which had the potential to save both money and energy while utilizing environmentally-safe materials,” Wilson said. “There are other ideas out there using phase-change materials, but our design represents a significant improvement in the efficacy and serviceability of the chemical’s encapsulation container.”

According to Wilson, this type of technology has been around for some time, but it usually requires storing hot water in a tank on the order of 1,000 gallons. The Solar Owl utilizes hot water in combination with a benign chemical that stores additional heat by changing phase from solid to liquid. The heat is recovered when the chemical changes back to solid form.

“The Solar Owl promises to reduce the size of the heat storage tank by 40-percent while keeping costs low,” added Wilson. “Heat is delivered to the home through standard baseboard radiators.”

“This original idea is a smart way to reduce CO2 emissions and utilize the most abundant energy – solar energy – to heat a house,” Rojo said.

“This project was quite interesting starting from the white paper phase,” remarked senior design instructor Serdar Celik, PhD, who guided the team through the design process from concept to feasibility study, to analysis, construction and testing. “I was concerned that the group may experience some difficulty with the theoretical analysis as undergraduate students since the topic partially pertains to graduate level work. However, they handled it in an organized, professional manner. I was delighted to see the group’s progress at our meetings.”

As senior projects are self-funded, a project of this scale presented a financial challenge. Several sponsors made the prototype possible, including Preferred Pump of St. Louis, Great Plains Industries of Wichita, Skolnik Industries of Chicago, Lizotte Sheet Metal of Edwardsville, Ace Hardware of Troy, Essenpreis Plumbing and Heating of Highland, Midas of Glen Carbon and the SIUE Department of Chemistry, chaired by Leah O’Brien, PhD.

 In-kind donations of parts included chemicals, pumps, flow meters, the inner steel drum and outer metal sheathing, as well as the use of specialized tools and heating equipment, and the use of a chemistry lab on campus.

“This project motivated us to reach beyond our textbooks and acquire advanced information from academic articles and experts in these fields of study,” Koyanagi said.

“I learned how research and analysis are the true drivers of design,” Zdanowski added. “It was rewarding to apply knowledge gained through coursework to create this finished product.”

Photo: The Solar Owl senior design team included (L-R) Brandon Koyanagi, Will Wilson, Gerardo Rojo and Michelle Zdanowski.