Or the end of the beginning? Both could be argued. On the one hand, IPPD is almost over with our Final Design Review (FDR) presentations tomorrow (Tuesday, 4/25/23); however, on the other, the greatest journey comes after graduation, and IPPD is just a stepping stone in our careers. You’re welcome for some more sentimental senior-year thoughts from EvapoGATOR.

Anyway, the semester is not over yet!! No matter how much we want it to be.

As I’m sure you can guess, the team has been very busy finalizing everything for FDR. This event allows all IPPD teams to showcase their functional prototypes and all the work accomplished during the two-semester program. The coolest thing about EvapoGATOR’s project is that ours is not just a prototype; it’s a functioning system that will be used for laboratory exercises in the Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) department for many years.

If you have been following our project, you’ll know we’ve been having some issues with optimizing the final system. One of the biggest issues we’ve faced is not having enough natural circulation in the evaporator HEX to form an effective bubble pump for the liquid product to turn into a superheated vapor, devoid of water after evaporation occurs. This is the main reason we switched from Evap 2 to Evap 1, since Evap 1 is a shell-and-tube configuration, meaning the inner diameter is reduced, allowing for better natural circulation. Please refer back a few posts ago to see a more detailed explanation of why we chose to use Evap 1 over Evap 2.

EvapoGATOR is happy to announce that Evap 1 works great! When testing last week, we discovered that the HEX actually evaporates a bit too effectively, but that’s not the worst problem to have. The team discovered this after replacing the 6″ tri-clover gaskets around the phase separator tank, which luckily fixed the leaking issues. It’s so interesting how something as small as a gasket (or o-ring) could create such big problems (see the tragic Challenger explosion to understand this on a bigger scale).

Okay, I definitely started that paragraph in a fun, optimistic way and ended it in a depressing way. Let’s talk about more good things! Here are some tasks EvapoGATOR completed during the past week:

• presented during PR FDR, received constructive criticism, and responded to that feedback
• finalized the lab and operations manuals as well as the FDR draft
• completed designing the steel nameplate and made plans for manufacturing next week
• attached final components and tested system
• continued preparing for FDR by working on the final report and presentation

Now, here are some tasks the team wants to complete before and after FDR this week:

• finish manufacturing and assembly of steel nameplate
• attach pipe labels, NPT connections, and any other final components to the system
• test the system + collect pressure and temperature data
• finalize FDR presentation and report
• present our super awesome system at FDR on 4/25!!

Here are some pictures from the last week! Be sure to stick around because there’s a bit more after these.

It seems like we have a lot of work left to do, but really, we’re almost done and ready to hand the vacuum evaporator off to Dr. MacIntosh in the FSHN department. While testing last week, Dr. Mac (our liaison) mentioned how happy and impressed he was with the apparatus we designed and built and said he believes we’ve been underselling our achievements. It’s a good feeling to know that EvapoGATOR completed our project, addressed every technical specification and metric, and optimized the machine to the best of our abilities. It’s a bit surreal to look at all the work we’ve done in the last two semesters and accept that we did this.

To address the fact that Dr. Mac thinks we’re underselling our accomplishments, the team wanted to mention some impressive things about our project that sets it apart from other senior designs:

1. We had a budget of $10,000 (while other teams only received $2000 to work with)
2. Similar systems on the market cost $80,000+ and don’t contain features that enhance students’ educational experience like our design does
3. We enhanced the new system in many ways, giving Dr. Mac and students the ability to read multiple temperatures, easily record steam/vacuum pressure and mass flow rate, reliably control the pressure in the system, move the system more conveniently, and more clearly see the process
4. We, three senior-level engineering students at UF, designed and built a vacuum evaporator with the needs of FSHN students at the forefront of our minds

This has been an amazing experience, and EvapoGATOR is incredibly proud of ourselves for all the hard work we’ve put in and the amazing feats we’ve accomplished! To understand a bit more about our project in its entirety, below is a copy of our final poster that we will be presenting at FDR tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Additionally, here is a link for our final video! Enjoy!