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On tour

Trips, visits and collaborations abroad, newest first: who went, what they saw and who the lab worked with.

Four men talking between grow beds of lettuce in the greenhouse of an aquaponics farm in South Africa
The aquaponics farm, South Africa, 2019

Where the lab has been

Trips, visits and papers presented abroad. Press a pin to see what happened there; every place is also listed under the map.

The lab in Delft A place the lab visited or presented a paper; the number is how many

Every place

South Africa

DC Power Lab On Tour: South Africa

2019 · Pretoria and Cape Town

In 2019 Diëgo Zuidervliet and Johan Woudstra travelled to South Africa to meet universities and local initiatives. In Pretoria they visited Tshwane University of Technology (TUT); in Cape Town they met the Energy Institute of Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

On this trip the lab’s paper “Requirements on Power Electronics for converting Kitchen Appliances from AC to DC”, by Peter van Duijsen, Johan Woudstra and Diëgo Zuidervliet, was presented at DUE, the conference on the Domestic Use of Energy.

When
2019
Places
Pretoria, Cape Town
Eight people standing together in a meeting room at CPUT, with the South African and Dutch flags and the CPUT Energy Institute logo added to the photo
The meeting at the CPUT Energy Institute, Cape Town

The visits

  • 2019 · Pretoria

    Tshwane University of Technology (TUT)

    A visit to Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria.

  • 2019 · Cape Town

    Energy Institute, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)

    A meeting at the Energy Institute of CPUT; its logo is on the meeting photo above.

  • 2019

    An aquaponics farm of local farmers

    The farm has a shed built from pallets, with solar water heaters (evacuated tubes) on the roof that, as far as we know, keep the fish water warm. Next to it stands a greenhouse where plants such as lettuce and celery grow in beds fed by the fish water. Dutch students were already working on local projects.

A shed built from stacked wooden pallets with solar water heaters on the roof, beside a white polytunnel greenhouse under a blue sky
The shed of pallets, with solar water heaters on the roof
Green and red lettuce and celery growing in a gravel bed, with a blue water pipe above it
Lettuce and celery in a bed fed by the fish water

How aquaponics works

  1. The fish

    Fish produce waste water that contains ammonia.

  2. The bacteria

    Bacteria in the grow beds turn the ammonia into nitrate.

  3. The plants

    The plants take up the nitrate as nutrients and so clean the water.

  4. Back to the fish

    The clean water flows back to the fish. A pump keeps the water moving.