Engineering Lecture hosted by the University of Greenwich School of Engineering

The School of Engineering at the University of Greenwich is hosting a number of “inspiring engineering” lectures and the first of these takes place on Tuesday 5th February at 11 am in the Wardroom (LT129) in Pembroke Building on the Medway Campus.

The lecture is “Developing appropriate technologies to reduce food waste” given by Marcelo Precoppe of the Natural Resources Institute, Food & Market Department.

Dr Precoppe joined the natural Resources Institute in January 2017 as a Crop Postharvest Technologist.  Between 2014 and 2016 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).  Before joining the IITA, between 2009 and 2013, Dr Precoppe worked as a researcher at the University of Hohenheim in Germany and between 2004 and 2006 he worked in Brazil managing the University of Sao Paulo training farm on sustainable agriculture and rural development.

He is currently involved in the evaluation of innovative drying equipment to support the rollout of the technology in five sub-Saharan African countries (funded by HEIF 2018).  Cassava (Manihot Esculenta) is the most important staple food in sub-Saharan Africa.  The shelf life of the crop is short and so the roots are usually processed into more stable products like cassava flour by village-based enterprises.  Most of these enterprises use small-scale locally built pneumatic dryers but their energy performance needs improving and this is one of Marcelo’s latest projects working in Ghana; supporting the design, build and assembly of the flash dryer, troubleshoot and train users.  Marcel says “It’s an exciting engineering challenge and a big step towards capacity building for small enterprises.  Manufacturing the new dryer in Ghana will not lonely benefit the local companies and enable maintenance through local suppliers – importantly, it will keep costs down whilst increasing profits for small companies”.

All are welcome.