Project Details

PROBLEMS

1.About 2 million litres of waste oil is discharged into the environment monthly in Nigeria. This waste oil is not biodegradable and has continually damage the ecosystems.

2.High cost of alternative power generation which has resulted in high cost of local goods, thereby hindering their competitive ability in the market.

3.Many Nigerians have luost their jobs due to below capacity production of the industries which is as a result of poor power supply or the very high cost of alternative power generation.

4.Many lives have been lost due to carbon monoxide poisoning from conventional fuel based generators.

PROJECTS OBJECTIVES

I.To reduce the problems generated due to irregular power supply in our society through generation of power from water /urine and waste oil.

II.To produce a generator that can produce cheap and sustainable electric power without releasing any large amount of obnoxious substances to the environment associated with conventional carbon based fuels.

HYPOTHESES

1.Waste oil can be cracked into gases to be used to fire generator.

2.It is possible to electrolyze ionized water/urine (96% water, 2% NaNO3 and 2% Na2SO4) to produce hydrogen-oxygen mixture to fire generators.

3.Hydrogen-oxygen mixture can be used as an alternative fuel to replace conventional carbon based fuels.

METHODOLOGY

The project is divided into four stages:

1.Adjustments to the generator engine through the retardation of the spark timing by 11⁰

PROCEDURE

a)Removal of the tank of the 1.9KVA generator. This allows access to the carburetor and the spark plug.

b)Construction of a pressure release valve mechanism that is joined to the carburetor.

c)Retardation of TDI (Top Dead Injection) in order to set the new spark timing. Determination of Top Dead Centre

Diameter of the flywheel is 140mm

Therefore the circumference of the flywheel (2πr) = 440 mm

To achieve this delay in spark timing, the TDI moved 9.77 mm in the direction which the flywheel rotates.

2.Construction of the Catalytic andProcessing Chambers

a)An upper layer consisting of two ceramic layers, each measuring 5mm sandwiching 5mm of grounded banana peels. A stainless steel cylinder of diameter 80mm and height 30mm was encased in glass fibre and resin as insulator. Underneath the filter is vanadium spunch which acts as a catalyst.

b)The exhaust pipe of the generator directed into the catalytic chamber to supply the heat needed for the cracking.

3.The Ionized Water chamber: Pipe A and B contains ionized water (containing 96% water, 2% Na2SO4 and 2% NaNO3). Two stainless mesh each measuring 18cm X 30mm were folded in a concentric form to form the anode and cathode.

4.Testing the Efficiency of the Generator

The workability and the efficiency of the generator was tested over a repeated 6 hours period, varying the load and the results are stated in Table 1

RESULTS

When the generator starts working, it starts charging the ionized water/urine electrolytic cell which in turns now produces the hydrogen-oxygen gas fuel for its continuous running.

Similarly ethane/propane gases are produced through the thermal catalytic gases which power the generator. Only one of the gas production systems can be used at once.

Anode

OH^- → OH + e^-

OH + OH →H2O + O

O + O → O2

1 mole of oxygen is released at the anode.

Cathode

H⁺ + e^- → H

H + H → H2

2 moles of hydrogen was produced at the anode.

Summary of Reactions

Cathodic half cell reaction

4H⁺ +4e^- →2H2

Anode half cell reaction

4OH^- → 2H2O + O2 + 4e^-

Over all reaction

4H⁺ + 4OH^- → 2H2 + 2H2O + O2

Merits over higher carbon content fuel

The engine has higher pulling power and runs smoother. Inside petrol/diesel engine, carbon deposits builds up, thereby reducing the engine efficiency. The only emission when only ionized water is used is water, hence no carbon content to affect the engine (Ganrot, 2005), when waste oil was used, the carbon(ii) oxide emitted was significantly lower, hence engine performance is higher.

All the results were subjected to Analysis of Variance Test at α level of 0.05. (95% confidence level) and where significant differences exist, it was tested using Duncan Multiple Range Test.

Testing the Efficiency of the Generator

Table 1: Volume of Fuel Used at Zero Load

Boldened/^{a, b, c} indicates significant difference at α level 0.05

Table 2: Volume of Petrol/ Waste oil/Volume of Ionized Water with Varying Load

Boldened/^{a, b, c} indicates significant difference at α level 0.05

TABLE 3: QUANTITY OF FUEL WITH INCREASING LOAD/6 HOURS

Boldened/^{a, b, c} indicates significant difference at α level 0.05

TABLE 4: AMOUNT OF CARBON (II) 0XIDE IN THE EXHAUST OF THE GENERATOR (parts per million, ppm)

Boldened/^{a, b, c} indicates significant difference at α level 0.05

Carbon monoxide composition

The waste product from the exhaust of the generator was water/urine which is not toxic compared to carbon (II) oxide produced from conventional carbon based powered fuel generators (Morgan, 2004). The Carbon (ii) oxide composition of the exhaust gases of the generators were measured using the Carbon monoxide detector 640b-0b70 Professional Equipment. The results are stated in Table 4 and Fig. 4.

TABLE 5: VOLUME OF CARBON (II) OXIDE IN THE EXHAUST GASES

Boldened/^{a, b}, and ^c indicates significant difference at α level 0.05

NOISE LEVEL OF THE GENERATOR

The noise level for the two generators was also recorded using Standard: BSEN 60651 Sound level meters.

TABLE 6: NOISE LEVEL OF GENERATOR AND GASOLINE GENERATOR

CONCLUSION

The project has demonstrated that waste oil and ionized water/urine can also be used as an alternative source of clean energy, saving the environment from pollution and providing cheaper energy for sustainable development. The project, if utilized, will go a long way towards producing cheap, clean and sustainable energy.

REFERENCES/BIBLOGRAPHY