Paraffin lanterns to charge batteries

Charging phones in a new innovative way is the core of a research and development company in Fourways called Off Grid Innovations who has developed a new invention of a silent, efficient power generator.

According to the operations manager of the company, Daniel Custodio, the unit is called an iHarvey and is based on widely used paraffin lanterns. “iHarvey burns paraffin at a rate of one litre for 29 hours of use and produces close to 20 times the light of a lantern whilst simultaneously allowing users to charge any USB device.”

He added that they hope to implement the product throughout the off-grid rural and informal settlements. “We hope that this invention will help reduce shack-fire incidences and reduce carbon emissions, as well as providing clean and safe lighting and charging to the people who need it most.”

Custodio briefly explained that their story was one of the heart – brought to life by science. “It all began in 2011, we were involved in a project that would introduce tablets as a replacement to textbooks for children in schools across South Africa. We soon encountered the very real and hard reality that the majority of these children do not have access to electricity and would not be able to charge these devices.”

He further added that they then investigated the idea of using photovoltaics [solar] but soon had to discount it, because of the panel size required to provide any reliable functionality in all weather conditions.

“We also realised that it would be costly to set up and maintain, as well as not being particularly user-friendly. While all of this had been going on, Allan Goldberg, our founder and the brains of the operation, had been playing around with thermoelectric power-generating modules.”

Goldberg decided to approach Paul van Lingen with his idea. “Paul immediately suggested that we adapt a paraffin lamp to be the heat source,” added Custodio.

“After 18 prototypes and variations on the theme, we decided to design our own wick-based burner as the heat losses incurred in the standard wick holder and chimney were too great to allow us to produce useable electricity.”

Custodio explained that Van Lingen’s experience in control of combustion came into play and he produced a burner of exceptional quality which reduced emissions by 83 per cent and the soot from 40 mg/m3 down to 0.01 mg/m3 and thus iHarvey® was born.

“Rather than a yellow flame for light as is standard in a normal paraffin lantern, this burner provided the sufficient amount of heat, due to the optimisation of the burn for heat.”

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