PortaTherm

PortaTherm is a portable incubator designed to be lightweight, affordable, and usable where electricity is unavailable and unrelieable. The current prototype (shown on the right) is an insulated box, about the size of a picnic cooler, filled with thermal packets. Designed for flexibility, it can accept a wide range of samples bottles, petri dishes, or vials.

The technology

PortaTherm exploits the fact that materials maintain a constant temperature as they change phase from liquid to solid. We have developed a phase-change incubator suitable for water quality testing by choosing a material that, with insulation, changes phase and maintains a temperature of 37.5°C over 24 hours.

Typical PortaTherm performance over 24 hours.
Average ambient temperature 25.5°C.
Boston, August 2006

The current prototype uses hollow plastic balls that are filled with the phase-changing material. For incubation, the balls are heated with hot water or by placing them in the sun, until the material inside melts. The balls are then placed in an insulated container and are ready to incubate samples. This simple and revolutionary design eliminates the need for both electricity and skilled maintenance. Moreover, our current prototype costs around $100, making it significantly cheaper than current incubators.