We could not be more pleased to have been named as one of the three overall winners at the 2017 USA ASME ISHOW Finals in Washington DC on June 22nd!
It was a very strong group of hardware innovators and to have been selected as a winner from such a cohort was quite the honor.
The Evaptaners team could not be more proud to have won gold at this year's Food + City Prize. The cohort of 18 finalists was top notch and we made incredibly valuable connections that we will be able to take advantage of as we move forward with the next phase of our rollout. At the confrence, we also unveiled the new EV8 unit. This will be coming soon to the website so keep an eye out for updates.
Thank you to the whole Food City team for a truly wonderful event!
We will be traveling to Berlin to participate in the conference and vetting process for the award and could not be more pleased. Before then we need your help, As part of the event there is a community voting component. Here is a link to our voting page, as always we would so appreciate your support. Stay tuned for updates as we ramp up to Berlin!
Evaptainers is proud to announce that we have won a Stage 1 grant from the US Agency for International Development through their Development Innovation Ventures Lab (USAID-DIV). The Stage 1 seed-funding grants allow organizations, universities, and individuals to refine and improve their ideas.
USAID DIV grants are the gold standard in development funding and we could not be more proud to be a recipient of this prestigious grant. The grant will fund our upcoming large-scale partner field trial that we will conduct in Morocco in the 2016 growing season and give us a runway to commercial launch.
The entire Evaptainers team wants to thank USAID and the DIV program for this huge validation and support in bringing our innovative technology to market.
- The Evaptainers Team
The Evaptainers team is excited to announce that we have been named by National Geographic as a Great Energy Challenge grant winner!
The Challenge, seeks to “hasten the growth of promising, global energy solutions as a response to climate change, energy resource constraints and environmental limitations.” National Geographic provides support to Evaptainers and the other Energy Innovators as we work to provide sustainable solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. For Evaptainers the grant will help us continue our ongoing field tests in rural Morocco and support the development of our next-generation prototype. One of the greatest parts of being awarded this grant is learning more about the other awardees work, check it out here.
We are thrilled to be supported by such a wide-reaching and impactful organization and look forward to working closely with the National Geographic team as we move into the next phase of development. Find out more about us and the Challenge here.
To download a press release about the award please click here.
We here at Evaptainers have been waiting for this moment for a long time - two years in fact. Last week we started receiving our first feedback from rural users in Morocco. Our Moroccan team visited one family who have been using an Evaptainer in their home for over a month to get their reactions.
The family lives in a rural area without electricity outside of Ifrane in northern Morocco. During our visit were happy to learn that they are proudly keeping the Evaptainer in their kitchen and are using it to extend the life of the tomatoes, cauliflower and herbs they buy at their local souk (open air market). They confirmed for us that produce lasts much longer when stored in the Evaptainer - for example, tomatoes that would have lasted 6 days previously, now last 10. Not only are they spending less money on food but one of the unexpected benefits has been that the family is also saving money by reducing the number of trips to the souk. Because of the less frequent trips Hamid has more time to tend his crops and take care of his livestock. Hamid estimated that the Evaptainer had saved his family, on average, 40-50 DHS (US$4-5) per week. This is significant when you think that their income is around $100 USD per week.
Seeing the hours spent prototyping, puzzling through problems, and conducting thermal tests to finally have a real-world effect on a rural household is an incredible feeling. We’re thrilled that our device has been able to help Hamid and his family reduce their food spoilage, allowing them to save more money, improve their productivity and quality of life. This is the first family of so many that we plan to positively impact with the Evaptainer.
Our team is currently building resources in Morocco where we are preparing to launch the next phase of our field trial. This week our Moroccan team visited COPAG, one of Morocco's premier dairy cooperatives, to learn more about their milk sourcing operations. COPAG works with 14,000 diary producers throughout the country, which range from large dairy farms to individual families with only 1 or 2 cows. COPAG is in the Souss Massa Draa region of Morocco, the country's leading producer of tomatoes and dairy products, but also one of the least economically developed regions in the country. Experiences like our visit to COPAG give us a better sense of community needs and afford us opportunities to forge partnerships with organizations seeking to improve the lives of the rural poor.
The Evaptainers team is busy working on our field test prototype for deployment this fall.
At this stage of development our work is organized along two main tracks. The first is materials testing. The efficiency of our product will largely depend on the make up of the evaporative medium we use to draw heat out of the unit and dissipate it via evaporation. We are testing fabrics, granulates and foams to find the perfect balance of evaporation rate, weight and stiffness.
The other work track is 3d modeling. Our design team is creating the unit in 3D space and defining how the various elements of the unit will interact to give us the best possible product. It is an exciting process to watch and to see where concept and execution meet.
While this work on the product is progressing we are also laying the ground work for our first Coop field trial in Morocco that will take place in the next 6 months.
Stay tuned as we continue to finalize the form and function of the Evaptainer.
A big part of what we are doing while at MassChallenge is working on the design and function of our prototype.
On the Design front our Chief Designer is sketching out the bones of the unit before we create it in virtual space using the suite of services that AutoDesk has donated to our team as MassChallenge finalists. Here is a sneak peak at what some of the sketches looks like.
While the design process is moving along we also at engaging in materials testing to hone in on the best construction elements to maximize the cooling potential and durability of the unit. This is a dirty process that can lead to a case of "Smurf Hands" (technical term)
Stay tuned for updates and progress reports!
The Evaptainers team had been selected as a MassChallenge finalist and are getting settled into our new offices here at MassChallenge. We have big plans for the coming months so please keep an eye on our blog and we will keep you updated as we continue our work to bring our technology to market. We are very excited and look forward to sharing our journey with you!
