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Infrastructure

Mobile Utility Hub: energy, water and food

A mobile unit that combines electricity generation, atmospheric water generation (R410A cycle, 1 L/day in the Tunja case) and NFT hydroponics. I built a reduced-scale prototype with a 1,050 mm tubular frame and an Arduino Nano sensing and control system.

Concept ✓Prototype ✓ 2026

Next: v2 in design

  • SolidWorks
  • CadQuery
  • Proteus
  • Arduino

Three systems in one kit

Version 2 makes electricity, water and vegetables from the sun, the rain and the air, for a community of 3.2 people in Tunja. Pick a system to see how it works and what it is sized for.

The whole kitA pergola with solar panels, a deployable greenhouse and a metal cabinet, on screw anchors, with no concrete. The pergola also catches the rain that feeds both the drinking water and the plants.The full-scale kit is designed and calculated, not built. What I built is the reduced-scale prototype in the gallery below: water capture, NFT piping and a battery with an inverter.

What I built

Undergraduate thesis: design, calculations and prototype.

Stages reached

  1. Concept ✓

  2. Prototype ✓ 2026

Result. Bench-tested at reduced scale. The mission needs 0.77 kg/h of biomass, below the 1.78 kg/h practical minimum of the smallest gasifier, so it would run at about 25% load. I dropped gasification for v2: solar PV, LiFePO4 storage, rainwater treatment and an NFT greenhouse.

Next: v2 in design

Inside the product

Project showreel (23 s).

The idea at full scale

A container that would generate power from sugarcane bagasse, make water from the air and grow vegetables. These are CAD designs: the gasifier was calculated but never built.

CAD of the integrated container
CAD of the integrated container: gasifier, water capture and NFT cultivation in one transportable unit.
CAD of the down-draft gasifier
Down-draft gasifier designed for sugarcane bagasse at 2.5 kg/h. Designed and calculated, not built.

The reduced-scale prototype

What I built: a 1,050 mm tubular frame on wheels that holds the three subsystems. The gasifier was left out, and a battery with an inverter stood in for the power source.

The complete reduced-scale prototype
The complete model: water capture, NFT piping and the power supply on one frame.
The tubular frame of the prototype
The tubular frame, before the subsystems were mounted.
NFT piping mounted on the frame
NFT piping with a slight slope in some sections so the water does not overflow.
Atmospheric water capture assembly
Water capture assembly: refrigerant compressor, evaporator and condenser, and the piping that joins them.
Battery and inverter
A 12 V, 20 Ah battery with an inverter powers the prototype in place of the gasifier.
Inverter output on an oscilloscope
The inverter's AC output on an oscilloscope.

Control electronics

An Arduino Nano reads temperature and humidity and switches a fan and relays. For v2 I designed a control board with a single pin map and milled it on a CNC.

The v2 control board in 3D
The v2 control board in 3D, before milling.
Copper board milled on a CNC
The board's tracks milled in copper on a CNC.
Control electronics on the bench
Bench assembly: an Arduino Nano with an LCD, relays and a fan.
Control box in MDF
Control box in MDF, with the display on top.
Serial monitor during a bench test
Serial monitor during a bench test: two temperature probes and a humidity sensor, 22 October 2026.

Version 2, in design

After a capacity calculation the gasifier was dropped. v2 puts solar panels on a pergola, stores the energy in LiFePO4 batteries and grows in a deployable NFT greenhouse. These renders come from the parts modelled so far.

Render of the greenhouse and the pergola
Greenhouse and pergola, 4 m apart.
Render of the inside of the greenhouse
Inside the greenhouse: NFT channels with six plants per module.
Render of the pergola with solar panels
The pergola holds the solar panels above the ground.

Viability: what is known and what is open

The thesis is an engineering design with a bench prototype. This table separates what the work shows from what it does not.

Viability: what is known and what is open
QuestionWhat the work showsStatus
Where does it sit against alternatives?The closest portable reference sells for more than 10,000 USD a unit and has no agriculture module. The proposed unit uses lower-cost, locally available components, so it could be easier to replicate in rural Colombia. The thesis states this as a possibility, not a measured cost.Literature comparison
Does the design hold up on the numbers?The mission needs 0.77 kg/h of biomass, below the 1.78 kg/h practical minimum of the smallest gasifier, so it would run at about 25% load. I dropped gasification for v2 and moved to solar PV, LiFePO4 storage, rainwater treatment and an NFT greenhouse.Decision from calculations
What was built and tested?A reduced-scale prototype with a sensing and control system, bench-tested. The gasifier was designed and calculated, not built.Bench-tested
Is there a cost-benefit case?Not yet. The thesis lists as future work a cost-benefit study for a community of 134 people and 1,005 L a day, covering manufacturing, installation and operation.Open

From my undergraduate thesis (Universidad de Boyacá). No customer, price or funding model is defined in it.