Tesla Engineering Charter School InvenTeam

Appleton, Wisconsin
2017-2018

The Tesla Charter School InvenTeam Ignite invented a new method of making fuel for cooking and heating in the Village of Hope located in Zambia. The Village currently uses wood charcoal and spends $4,000 per year on wood charcoal which is becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain due to massive illegal deforestation. The InvenTeam developed a sustainable alternative by designing a process to transform locally available elephant grass into a usable biofuel. The grass is charcoalized in a 55-gallon steel drum and then mixed with boiled cassava flour. Briquettes from the mixture are then pressed and dried. One single-arm stacked lever press outputs over 890 N to form one briquette which burns for up to 2 hours when dry.