April Announcements

We began our April by meeting with John Simon, an experienced engineer. He advised us to rethink our idea and introduced us to an antifreeze system. Due to a lack of equipment to make the necessary pressure and heat for a steam accumulator, we were unable to continue the idea given our time constraints. Thus, our new idea centers around the cycling of antifreeze through a system. The invention would work as following:

1. A line of antifreeze runs from the engine to the radiator which cools the antifreeze and sends it back to the engine.
2. There is a cutaway fuel line from the engine that is connected to a fuel pump, which collects fuel from the fuel tank and measures how strong the fuel is flowing through.
3. Another line connects the fuel pump to an Arduino that reads its output.
4. If the Arduino reads a high amperage, it signals the solenoid valve to open.
5. The solenoid valve opens and allows the heated antifreeze to divert from the radiator, run around the fuel tank, and warm the biodiesel up.
6. Gelling up of the biodiesel is therefore prevented.
7. Cutting out the fuel tank, so that people can visually see the prototype working on the inside.

On April 21, the InvenTeam attended Bay Day, a fun-filled public event that teaches about the Galveston Bay ecosystem and the environmental effects of pollution in the air. As EurekaFest draws closer, our team must continue to raise money for our trip to MIT. Currently, our team has overcome the financial burden of raising enough funds to pay for individual flights to EurekaFest!!