Second Week in Hawaii

Near the end of the second week here I have made some progress on that question of water scavenging of contaminants in fuel cells. I have come up with a simple model that describes how much contaminant the water absorbs as you go down the fuel cell channel and the concentrations of the contaminant in the water and what is left in the air. You just need a few physical parameters for the solubility of the material in water that you may (or not) find in the experimental literature.

This past Sunday, my host, Jean, took me on a couple of local hikes. The first was a rainforest hike up the local Manoa valley to the Manoa Falls. The valley opens up nearer the ocean to the district the University is in. Lots of rainforest trees, orchids and other interesting plants. A thin layer of slippery mud coated everything, making it pretty hard going.

Not native to Hawaii but there were groves of bamboo in one area. Think of what you could build out of that if it were growing in your back yard. Also, there are many feral chickens on the island, I got a picture of one below. 

We then went on to a hike near Hawaii Kai to the East of Honolulu, near where Jean lives (after having a nice lunch and beer at a brew pub there). This time it was up the Mariner's Ridge trail. Even just a few kilometers away, the climate here was quite different from Manoa valley. It was much dryer, although you can't necessarily see that from the pictures below because it happened to be drizzling a bit on this hike. 

Wild chickens, bamboo, orchids, a nice beer and a panoramic view. Pretty nice combination of things for me!