Burn Design Lab Newsletter
Summer 2018
BDL Returns to Ghana
Exactly one year after their scoping trip to Ghana to evaluate the potential for a new and unique BDL project, Paul Means and Brian Gylland returned to Ghana from June 23 to July 13, 2018.
After meeting up with the Burro team – our local partner in Ghana –, we quickly jumped into field testing. The primary parameters that we were concerned with gathering were fuel consumption, emissions, and productivity. Testing took place in parallel with Burro’s market research, so the team travelled together for nearly 3 weeks, visiting 13 sites around two major cities in Northern Ghana. We met with 6 cooperatives and 7 individual processors; all of our hosts were very receptive and supportive of the work we are trying to accomplish. It was that much more motivating to see the inefficiencies of the current roasting methods so that we can begin to design prototypes to address these pressing issues.
In addition to the testing sites, BDL and Burro visited a large industrial shea processing factory called PBC. This visit provided key information into the technical ins and outs of shea butter processing and quality control, as well as some key time and temperature information related to roasting. Next steps include compiling the data we gathered and designing some of the concepts that were generated towards the end of the trip by members of BDL and Burro. It was great to return to Ghana to gather this information, and we’re looking forward to returning in the coming months with improved prototypes!
– Brian Gylland