Grantee Research Project Results

2017 Progress Report: Wind-Actuated Vibrating Electrochem (WAVE) Digester

EPA Grant Number: SU836778
Title: Wind-Actuated Vibrating Electrochem (WAVE) Digester
Investigators: Pisciotta, John M
Institution: West Chester University of Pennsylvania
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Phase: I
Project Period: October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017 (Extended to September 30, 2018)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2016 through September 30,2017
Project Amount: $14,490
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2016) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , P3 Challenge Area - Safe and Sustainable Water Resources

Objective:

Cost effective coupling of renewable energy storage with water disinfection.

Our project seeks to address business needs in the water energy nexus. Many rural agricultural areas around the world lack access to an electric power grid or clean water supply. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that the roughly 1.2 Billion people in want of grid access spend an estimated $27 Billion per year on electricity; often in the form of batteries which may end up in landfills. Because energy is used to treat wastewater, clean water is a related resource that is not always available in developing nations. Waterborne pathogens including bacteria, viruses and various parasites cause 2.2 million deaths per year with most occurring in the developing world.

Although renewable energy, like solar, is abundant and freely available to developing nations, it is not available on demand, for instance at night. Storage of renewable energy in batteries is costly and disposal of old batteries can result in toxic heavy metal contamination. Pumped hydro storage is the leading large-scale energy storage method but is not cost effective at the household to village level. Water electrolysis provides yet another possible means of storing renewable energy as hydrogen. Water electrolysis requires expensive precious metal catalysts (ex. platinum) for high efficiency and therefore is not a viable option for much of the impoverished world lacking access to the electric grid. Our device oxidizes scrap metal as the electron source.

Progress Summary:

After Phase I identification of limitations to our initially preferred bio-electrochemically operated embodiment of the WAVE Digester, (e.g., temperature sensitivity, low biogas production, slow start up, difficulty maintaining strictly anaerobic conditions, etc.) the WCU team devised and tested an improved electrochemical system for storing more renewable energy while quickly disinfecting water. Our new design provides unskilled workers with a simple to implement solution to the problem of how to store intermittent renewable energy, like solar. This electrochemical embodiment is well suited for developing
nations and developed countries since it can be constructed largely from society’s waste materials. The electrochemical version, unlike the bioelectrochemical version, does not require strictly anaerobic conditions. Therefore, it is less prone to failure and can be operated in a “plug and play”
manner. The system eliminated 99% of fecal coliforms in 10 min at 15 V while storing energy as hydrogen gas and forming Cu2(OH)3Cl product.

Three advantages should propel adoption and use of our “CrystalLogic” WAVE Digester embodiment as a lead-in product. These include instant startup of hydrogen production upon illumination plus the fast and effective disinfection of waterborne fecal coliform bacteria (99% reduction in 10 min). The third benefit is this system produces useful, valuable mineral products (e.g., atacamite, paratacamite) resulting from its primary energy storage function.

Our business can serve developing as well as developed markets in multiple ways. Our long term goal is to empower the poor while promoting public health. However, to generate early revenue to demonstrate profitability, for our initial customer base we plan to target US schools and continuing educational facilities, like those dedicated to the training of solar and other green collar workers. Today jobs in the solar field number around 300,000; significantly greater than jobs in the coal industry. It will be important to recruit this portion of the work force as customers and advocates. For the young demographic, we plan to sell educational kits and packaged lessons and labs that teach and demonstrate concepts in sustainability. These include clean energy capture, energy storage and manufacturing through green chemistry. Drs. Mbuy and Pisciotta are well suited for this as they are professional educators with experience in lesson design and educational outreach.

Future Activities:

We have a specific set of research objectives for Phase II that are collectively designed to optimize system efficiency and increase our range of profitable products. These are specified in the phase II proposal and timeline. Our main Business Objective is to generate initial income during the initial 1-2 year  phase of our business startup through sales of the introductory “CrystalLogic” model WAVE Digester to educational facilities.

It will be sold as an educational tool to foster knowledge and understanding of sustainability. This is urgently needed as there is currently a dearth of understating of sustainability in many US demographics. However, only by reaching the young with interesting and interactive practical demonstration devices like this can long term improvement be affected. Wealthy US counties, like Chester County PA, are well suited for such product test marketing. Our strategy is to advertise through word of mouth, mailings and the internet. To this end we will set up a company LLC, webpage and build a customer mailing list. After fully developing a field system by year 2 we will branch out to local home gardeners. In year two we will deploy the system to the Democratic Republic of Congo through Dr. Mbuy’s non-profit EHOBO.

Once perfected, over the longer term (3-5 year) we will market CrystalLogic a distributed, domestic production platform for TBCC and related nano-products. As shown in Fig 1, the global market for TBCC is currently growing at a combined annual growth rate of 4.4% and is predicted to reach US$ 333 - 343 Million by 2023. The global market for TBCC was $248 Million in 2015. Most of these sales (90%) are dominated by its application as a fungicide to prevent crop losses and bolster yields.

One of the fastest growing applications for TBCC is as a growth promoting feed supplement for poultry and livestock. As companies are increasingly distancing themselves from conventional agricultural antibiotics, safe and effective alternatives like TBCC increasingly embraced.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 5 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Water disinfection, energy storage, fungicide, nanomaterial

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

Final Report