Adam Grosser: A mobile fridge for vaccines

譯者: Calvin Chun-yu Chan 審譯者: Bill Hsiung

This is a work in process,

這項還在進行中的工作

based on some comments that were made at TED two years ago

是基於兩年前

在 TED 得到的一些

有關疫苗儲藏問題的寶貴意見。

about the need for the storage of vaccine.

(Video): [On this planet

（音樂）

（影片）旁白：地球上

1.6 billion people

有16億人口

過著沒有電、

don't have access to electricity

無法冷藏

refrigeration

或儲存燃料的生活。

or stored fuels

this is a problem

這是一個問題。

這個問題造成的影響包括：

it impacts:

the spread of disease

疾病的散佈、

食物和藥物的儲藏，

the storage of food and medicine

and the quality of life.

還有生活品質。

我們的計畫是設計一個毋需電力、

So here's the plan ... inexpensive refrigeration

that doesn't use electricity, propane, gas, kerosene or consumables

丙烷、汽油、煤油或 消耗任何能源的平價冷藏技術。

現在來說一些有關熱力學和

time for some thermodynamics

間接性吸收冷凍機的故事。

And the story of the Intermittent Absorption Refrigerator]

在 29 年以前，我遇到一位熱能學老師，

Adam Grosser: So 29 years ago, I had this thermo teacher

who talked about absorption and refrigeration, one of those things

他講過一些關於吸收作用和製冷的相關知識。

這是少數幾件，我一直詺記於心的事情之一。

that stuck in my head, a lot like the Stirling engine:

它就好像斯特林發動機，

它很酷，但是你不知道它能用在甚麼地方。

it was cool, but you didn't know what to do with it.

Ferdinand Carre 於 1858 年發明了它，

It was invented in 1858, by this guy Ferdinand Carré,

but he couldn't actually build anything with it

但是他沒辦法利用它，製造出甚麼東西出來，

因為當時沒有適當的工具。

because of the tools at the time.

This crazy Canadian named Powel Crosley commercialized this thing

後來有個叫 Powell Crosley 的瘋狂加拿大人

called the IcyBall, in 1928.

在 1928 年將這個東西商品化，命名為 Icyball，

這是個絕妙的想法，

It was a really neat idea, and I'll get to why it didn't work,

我會告訴大家為甚麼它沒有成功，

但讓我先講解一下其運作原理。

but here's how it works.

There's two spheres and they're separated in distance.

這裡有兩個半球體，中間有一定的距離。

One has a working fluid, water and ammonia,

一個裝有工作介質，含水和氨，

and the other is a condenser.

另一個是冷凝器。

You heat up one side, the hot side.

當你將一側加熱時，熱的這一側，

The ammonia evaporates and it recondenses in the other side.

氨開始蒸發

然後它會在另一側重新凝結。

You let it cool to room temperature,

你讓它降到室溫，

之後，當氨重新蒸發時會與水結合

and then, as the ammonia reevaporates and combines with the water

back on the erstwhile hot side,

回到先前熱的那一側，

它會產生很強大的冷卻效果。

it creates a powerful cooling effect.

So it was a great idea that didn't work at all.

這個想法雖然很好，但是不可行：它會炸掉。

They blew up.

因為如果你的加熱不當

(Laughter)

Because you're using ammonia, you get hugely high pressures

if you heated them wrong;

氨會產生很大的壓力。

it topped 400 psi.

壓力會超過每平方英吋 400 磅，有毒的氨會四處飛濺。

The ammonia was toxic, it sprayed everywhere.

But it was kind of an interesting thought.

但這個想法很有趣。

到了 2006 年事情有了進展

So the great thing about 2006,

there's a lot of really great computational work you can do.

我們現在可以用電腦來做計算研究。

So we got the whole thermodynamics department at Stanford involved --

我們得到史丹佛大學

熱動力學系全員的參與，

a lot of computational fluid dynamics.

利用電腦作出大量與流體力學相關的模擬運算。

We proved that most of the ammonia refrigeration tables are wrong.

我們證明了大部分關於氨冷卻的數據是錯的。

我們發現了一些無毒的冷媒

We found some nontoxic refrigerants

that worked at very low vapor pressures.

能於極低蒸汽壓下運作。

這是從英國小組那裡帶來的，

We brought in a team from the UK --

a lot of great refrigeration people, it turns out, in the UK --

他們有很多優秀的冷凍學人才，

最後在英國，

and built a test rig, and proved that, in fact,

我們建立了一個試驗平台，證明了

we could make a low-pressure, nontoxic refrigerator.

我們可以造出低壓力、無毒的冰箱。

So this is the way it works.

以下是它的運作原理。

You put it on a cooking fire.

你可以在爐灶上加熱它。

全世界大部分的人都擁有爐灶，

Most people have cooking fires in the world,

無論燃料是駱駝糞便或木材。

whether it's camel dung or wood.

It heats up for about 30 minutes, cools for an hour.

將其加熱 30 分鐘，之後冷卻一個小時。

把它放入一個容器中

You put it into a container and it will refrigerate for 24 hours.

它就可以保持冷卻 24 個小時。

It looks like this.

它看上去是這樣的。這是第五代原型樣品，還不是太完美。

This is the fifth prototype, it's not quite done.

It weighs about eight pounds, and this is the way it works.

重大約 8 磅，它是這樣用的。

You put it into a 15-liter vessel, about three gallons,

把它放入一個 15 公升的容器中，大約三加侖，

and it'll cool it down to just above freezing --

它就可以冷卻到接近零度，

three degrees above freezing --

大約是高於冰點 3 度，

for 24 hours in a 30 degree C environment.

並可以在攝氏 30 度的環境下保持 24 小時，而且它很便宜。

It's really cheap.

我認為如果我們大量製造，成本可以壓低到約 25 美元。

We think we can build these in high volumes for about 25 dollars,

小量的成本大約 40 美元。

in low volumes for about 40 dollars.

因此，我們認為我們可以讓冰箱變成

And we think we can make refrigeration something that everybody can have.

任何人都能擁有的冰箱。

Thank you.

謝謝

(Applause)

(掌聲)