Heating a Pallet of 9,000 Chicken Eggs in 4 Hours or Less
Problem statement
Imagine living across the street from a poultry farm and watching dozens of truckloads of raw eggs being dumped into massive compost pits. As the liquid egg waste seeps into the soil, you can’t help but worry about the potential of your well water being contaminated. This is the reality when eggs exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) are destroyed via composting, a costly process that harms both public health and the environment. The only other available options for farms which have contracted HPAI cost farmers thousands of dollars per pallet of eggs while these farms are without typical income. Farmers need an environmentally safe and cost-effective alternative to current disposal methods of infected chicken eggs. We intend to deliver a design that farmers across the country can easily buy and construct within a day that will heat a pallet of eggs to HPAI’s deactivation temperature, allowing for environmentally safe disposal. Ultimately, our solution will be a drastically cheaper option for farmers while also protecting public health.
Team members
Charles Luther – facilitator
Ian Malone – accountant
Josef Kloiber – communicator
Ted Seidenberg – admin
Client
Michael Cheadle
UW – Mechanical Engineering