Day 11 - Biogass and Itaipu Dam

11th Day in Brazil--- Biogas and Itaipu Dam in Iguassu

   Today we visited the last two places, cow farm and Itaipu Dam. In the cattle farm, most power is from biogas which is produced from the waste of cows. I was not surprised by the high efficiency of their biogas tank.The interesting thing is that the tanks are built as half underground. I asked them why not build an underground one which has larger bulk and can last longer.The answer was that this whole area is abundant in underground water which was an obstacle for any kind of underground tank. The total cost of the whole biogas system is $25,000 which is relatively lower than others. They did a good job on that.

Itaipu Dam, the largest hydraulic facility in the world.

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Day 10 - The Great Fall

10th Day in Brazil---Foz do Iguassu

Parque das Aves, the heaven of birds.

Iguassu Fall, one of the seven wonders in the world. It's so beautiful.

Day 9 - Sugarcane Factory

9th Day in Brazil---Renuka Plant in Sao Pedro do Ivai

   Today we visited Renuka Plant which is a sugar and ethanol plant. Renuka is one of the largest sugar company in Brazil. Their products are sent to companies which is familiar to us like coca-cola. As a sugar factory, they tried their best to reduce the pollution. Perfect water recycle system.The residual from sugarcane are burned as fuel. Low quality sugarcane are used to produce ethanol. You can not find any kind of high pollution area in this factory. They did a good job on maintain the sustainability. What surprised me is their managing system, collecting centers are distributed in this province, and managed by individual farmers or company. In that way, the company minimize the cost. It's a difficult thing to manage these centers, while you may find trucks from each center are following the same rules made by Renuka. That's a kind of succeed.I was trying to recommend them to use microbial fuel cells. Maybe I have found a customer for our project.

Day 8 - Trip to University Lab

8th Day in Brazil---University Federal do Parana 

Today we went to visit the labs of University Federal do Parana. We visited several labs, including hydraulic lab and biological lab. The hydraulic model of Itaipu is great. Researchers introduced the whole process of how to model one of the world largest dams in detail. They still running the model, which means that there are still some parts need to be improved. I really interested in their biological project which is using cellular microalgae to consume Carbon Dioxide and produce biodiesel. The recycle process they designed is perfect. No wastes output in the whole system which is a breakthrough in the area of biological treatment. For any environmental engineer, microorganism is the most mysterious creature in the world. It can be shaped, trained and even transformed. It's a kind of art.

Day 7 - Brazilian Art

7th Day in Brazil---Museu Oscar Niemeyer in Curitiba

   After 6 hours journey, we reached Curitiba. We visit Museu Oscar Niemeyer there. This museum is designed by Oscar Niemeyer who is one of the most famous architects in Brazil.The building looks like a huge black eye from the outside which attracts me at the first sight. This kind of design is really rared even in the whole history of architecture. It requires a series of complicated assessment and calculation in order to build such a kind of building. I admire Oscar Niemeyer. She must be a person master in both mechanics and arts. The exhibitions are mainly about native music, history and art. I'm not that interested in Brazilian music, because I don't know the language and can't understand what they are singing about. In my opinion, lyrics is important which may help singer express the emotion and information. The paintings are beautiful. What I like most is the old magazine, Brazilian girls are so beautiful.

Day 6 - Rafting and Hot Spring

6th Day in Brazil---Rafting and Hot Spring in Santo Amaro

   It was my first time to go rafting. I was so excited. It feels like roller coaster. We boys did a good job by carrying the raft onto the slope by just three people.That made me feel like I'm a strong man, while the truth is I'm too slim...Then we went to a hot spring hotel which was awesome. Warm water pool, sauna, bar, all the things you need were there. The hotel even have a game room. We enjoyed a good time there.

Day 5 - Free Time!

5th Day in Brazil---Free Day in Florianapolis

   Today we had a free time. I investigated the city with Shangkun. We tried to find some jewery shops to get some gem stone as gifts for our girls. Besides world cup and forest, Brazil is also famous for its high quality gem stone. It is much cheaper in Brazil than in other place.It was a good experience to walk around in Florianapolis's downtown. Singer played guitar, singing songs in a totally different language. Buskers played a show and tried to sell their moisture oil to us. Luckily, we enjoyed the show and ran away...

Are they Indians?

The Knife Circle and Buskers