₦airaland Forum

opeey:
My project report. FarmTech

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Nice. Can you get the electrode material from it?

Bobbiee:
You're not very good at explaining things, are you huh?

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Are my not trying? What didnt you understand there?

Adakintroy:
Aside if You coming to a third world under develops countries come with working practicality. Not with theories. We not educated to relate that way. you said it yourself. If we were that intelligent in the first place we will be Europeans .

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Do you know that whites were once undeveloped?

WantsandMore:
How many watts can this generate at a go?

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By connecting the outputs in parrallel and series, you can boost the power. The li k below said that 1 kW/m3 (reactor volume) has been achieved. But there are still challenges for commercialization. But that doesn't mean that an individual cannot produce and use it comfortably. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323907651000174

Allanoba:
Nice
I work in a research organization I m really excited about what you are doin maybe we can share tots about certain things in future

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I sent you a PM.

Bobbiee:
1. You still didn't address my point in (1).
2. My point in (2) where I talked about the low power output isn't addressed either

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Flow through system minimize volume. The anode chamber that contains the dirty water is anaerobic, meaning it is enclose to prevent air from entering.
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Yes the output is small, but you are reducing the harmful effect of wastewater while getting sth out of it.

SolarEngr:
I meant this post.

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Ok.

drimzsmoke:
I didn’t abandon it actually,I used it as a stepping stone and its knowledge also helped me somewhere along the line but I’d rather be what I am now than settle for being a microbiologist

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That is good then.

drimzsmoke:
Sir,I like what I’m doing now better....thanks for the advice though,I sincerely appreciate it

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Welcome. Just that I dont like it when people spend years to study sth and at the end they just abandone it.

Bobbiee:
First problem: this setup doesn't work in urban settlements where most people live in flats and have to follow the rules of the landlord. Carrying in tank load of dirty stinky water definitely counts as breaking the rules. So it's only suited for house owners.

Second Problem: the electricity output especially based on the large volume of input doesn't make it a viable option in the least. Solid bio energy is even better but the power output is still low

Third Problem: a lot of Nigerians don't have the means to get the required equipment needed for this. How and where can we get the equipment to do this and is it something one can easily install in his backyard without any major technical know-how (seeing as this is a new technology, it's not something your average street technician would be able to do).


Basically, in all things, make it applicable to the fellow country man.

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1. You don't need a tank laod of water to generate some electricity. It can be a small flow-through system where the water flows in and then out. Most home wastewater end up in gutters. If you can treat it and also get energy out of it, it is a good achievement.
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2. The large volume input is wastewater. You are not buying it.
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3. This is not meant for every nigeria. It is suitable only for people who have the zeal to figure it out. Most Nigerians are not like that. A simple MFC can be made from earthenware pots and pencil leads as the electrodes.

seaenergy:
I am sure you are using generator to charge your phone, not to talk of you creating 1 hour light for your self. too much theory no good for you

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This is one major problem blacks have. But don't worry. You will hear from me in the future.

opeey:
This exactly my project in school in 2017.
Generation of electricity using microbial fuel cells. We were 3 in the group that did the project. We test for the voltage ⚡ in the cell then. We did this project in sub division of civil and environmental Engineering which is water and wastewater engineering.

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Interesting. Can you remember the result you got (voltage and current)? Which electrodes did you use?

drimzsmoke:
Sir,enipe....I used microscope only once before my project in final year....course wey I don abandon since 2015,I’ve moved on to greater things!!!

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So unfortunate . But I will advise you not to give up. Search for bizness ideas and try them out. If you can produce probiotics economically, you can sell it to livestock and poultry farmers. So long as you know theory, you can figure out the practical aspect using google and youtube.

blueAgent:
Nice writeup.

But unfortunately threads like this do not make front page or attract ppl, what ppl like is threads on dating,Bbnaija, celebrity gossip,entertainment and all sorts of crap.


Thumbs up OP.

I learnt a lot today.

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Thanks man.

SolarEngr:
I thought it's practical
Until I saw it was just theory

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It is not just theory. It had been used to light up public toilets and charge mobile phones.

Mustiboy:
This technology has — for as long as I remember — been in existence for over a decade. If it were as efficient as projected, more people would be using it by now.

I personally think it’s just a flex of the cool things one can do with waste, not that it solves any real-life problem. How many amps & volts can it even produce per KG worth of waste?

Some instances are those created with public toilets in Asia. Most of them have been repurposed and just used as normal toilets now.

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You remember how it all started? Compare it to now and you will see that there is hope. In fact, the amps and voltage can be increased with capacitors that are charged in parallel and discharge in series.
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As for the Asian eg you gave, it might be that they lack maintenance culture or the zeal to continue using it. I don't know for sure. Nothing is impossible oo. It is only God that can limit science.

ModCaller:
Can it produce up to 10kw of power consistently?

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I don't think so. But scaling up researches are ongoing. Don't forget the waste treatment aspect. Unfortunately, many Nigerians don't know the importance of proper waste treatment.

Nostring:
do one make we see am.. no dey post bunch of theories

Dagger111:
Do make we see am.

Greenscientist:
You don use am?

DeJoeee:
Show us sample of your work

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Don't worry guys. I have it in mind to try out lots of experiments. I will post about them when the time comes.

drimzsmoke:
They taught us this thing in microbiology that year

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I like your course oo. Especially its agric applications like growing probiotics for animals. Can you culture S. boulardii with common waste?

BigBrother9ja:
I am a Big Brother and a Nigerian.

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You know what I'm talking about now. That show is misleading the youths.

A typical MES setup consists of two chambers, namely anodic chamber and cathodic chamber; separated by a proton exchange membrane (PEM) that allows the protons to migrate from the anodic to the cathodic chamber. At the anode, water molecules split into protons, electrons, and gaseous oxygen. The oxygen escapes the anodic chamber, protons are transferred to the cathodic chamber through the PEM, and the electrons are drawn to the cathode through an external circuit. In the cathodic chamber, the electrons and protons or energy carriers such as such as hydrogen and CO2 are combined by biocatalysts (eg acetogen microbes) to produce primarily volatile fatty acids (VFAs) like formate, acetate, butyrate, etc. An external power supply is needed to achieve this.

The world have gone a long way technologically. But it seems like Africa is left behind mainly due to lack of research fundings.

SOURCE: http://farmersjoint.com/thread-30539-post-33548.html

There are other ways to desalinate salty water such as reverse osmosis, nanofiltration etc. But MDC is preferable because of its lower costs, energy and environmental impacts.

3. Microbial Electrosynthesis: This is where microbes are feed carbon dioxide (CO2) and electricity to produce chemical products like acetic acid, ethanol, butanol, butyric acid, hexanoic acid and hexanol. This can be achieved while treating wastewater. This is important because CO2 is the major cause of global warming. Unfortunately, this technology is still at an infancy stage.

[b]2. Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC): [/b]Here, microbes are used to turn salty water into fresh, drinkable water. According to wikipedia, only 0.3% of the earth's water supply is usable for human consumption, while over 99% is sequestered by oceans, glaciers, brackish waters, and biomass. With MDC, these unusable water can be made fit for human use.

Apart from generating electricity, MFC can be used to remove excess nutrients from wastewater and reduced its biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) before releasing it into rivers and streams. Excess nutrient can cause algae bloom in rivers, streams and oceans. This is a situation where algae, a type of water plant, will grow fast and cover the water surface. Then they will die and decay. As they decay, they use up water oxygen and cause fish and other water creatures to die in masses.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is the amount of oxygen required by microorganism to breakdown organic matters. If you release wastewater into water bodies without first treating them, microorganisms will use more oxygen to breakdown the organic matters. This will kill or stress water creatures.

MFCs have also been used to remove pollutants like antibiotics, metal ions etc from wastewaters.

There are 3 other variants of MFC, namely microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), microbial desalination cell (MDC) and microbial electrosynthesis.

1. Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC): In this cell, microorganisms and an external power supply are used to produce hydrogen gas. Part of the electricity comes from microbes and the rest comes from an external power supply like battery. Thus less energy input is required.

Plant microbial fuel cells
This one is similar to soil-based microbial fuel cells. Just that plants are grown in the soil. The plant roots will secrete nutrients that will feed soil microbes. These microbes will release electrons that will produce electricity. As a result of this feeding of microbes, plant MFC will generate more electricity than soil-based MFC.

The anode can be made from graphite, carbon brush (best), carbon cloth, carbon veil, stainless steel mesh etc. The cathode can be made from activated carbon (AC), modified activated carbon, AC mixed with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and pasted on a stainless steel mesh, carbon black, carbon black modified with aerogel, carbon nanotubes (CNT), carbon nanofibers (CNF) graphene etc. Don't let these names scare you though. Some of them are quite simple to obtain. For example, you can use the lead in pencil as graphite. You can make activated carbon by treating charcoal with chemicals like lemon juice, bleach, potassium hydroxide, calcium chloride, phosphoric acid etc.

What happens in a MFC is that microbes attached to the anode surface will eat organic matters and produce:

1. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
2. hydrogen ions H+ and
3. electrons.

The electrons will flow externally from anode to the cathode as follows: from the microbes to the anode; anode to copper wire; copper wire to the load and load to the cathode. This electron flow generate electricity that powers the load.

Internally, the hydrogen ions will flow to the cathode chamber through the separating membrane where it will combine with electrons and oxygen to form water.

One disadvantage of microbial fuel cell (MFC) is their low power output. A MFC with a 1 square meter anode surface area will produce only about 0.4 miliwatt depending on the type and components used. You need about 1 watt (1000 miliwatt) to light up a high power LED light. So a MFC needed to light up this LED will need to have an anode surface area of about 2500 square meter (Roughly one-third of a football field!). But there is hope due to new scientific advances that have been made after years of research. By using specially made electrodes and more effective configurations, power output have been boosted (up to 2 watts per square meter!). By connecting the output of many MFC in series or parallel, MFCs have been successfully used to power LED lights and even charge mobile phones.

Pic of 1w Led
Pic of series parallel

Soil-based microbial fuel cells
In this type of MFC, the anode is buried few centimeters in the soil while the cathode rest on top of the soil (or it is slightly buried), and is exposed to air. The soil must be wet and rich in organic matters like dead leaves, manure etc.

Do you know that any dirty water (waste water) containing micro organisms can be used to generate electricity? The dirty water can be manure slurry, waste water from agro processing, urine, brewery wastewater, kitchen wastewater etc. This can be achieved using a microbial fuel cell (MFC). So how did scientists achieve this feat?

One of the simplest setup consist of a 2 chamber container. The chambers are separated by a membrane which can be a costly material like Nafion or a cheap one like earthenware. Two electrodes are placed in the chambers and connected to a load (such as LED lights, sensors etc) using copper wires. One of the electrodes is called the anode (negative) and the other a cathode (positive). The anode chamber is filled with wastewater and sealed to prevent oxygen from entering while the cathode chamber is open to air.

Any parent that buy phone for your child without proper monitoring, you have destroyed that child. Even if he is 25 years. Porn is just few clicks away.

Chidiebubeoji:
Wow. Thanks for constant replies...
I'm glad to hear that.

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Wlcm

BigBrother9ja:
You must prefer a 23 years old SLÚT that has lost count of her bodycount then.
23 years old that has done multiple abortions and has slept with various married men.
You're indeed a very "smart" dude

And for your unnecessary second question, common sense should have told you already...
Example is the birth of Jesus...
Why didn't God pick a SLÚT to birth him?
Why is Virginity valued in many cultures?

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Very good reply. But I hope you dont support BBN.

Brineharry:
is doing fine

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Thank God.

Farmerakinloye6:
30kg should be More than enough.

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How far Farmerakinloye6. Is naira redesign affecting price your side?