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SEWAGE OFF-GAS-DRIVEN FUEL CELLS TO STIMULATE RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
Impact/Purpose:
The present investigation addresses the important challenge of protecting environmental resources while expanding the increased quality of life that accompanies access to electric power. Specifically, the proposed investigation seeks to optimize a coupled waste-treatment-to-power system, suitable for use in rural areas, which recovers methane gas produced during a waste digestion process and provides it to a fuel cell that in turn generates electric power. In addition, because both the waste digestion process and the fuel cell are temperature-sensitive, a combined waste-treatment-to-power system provides an opportunity for heat regeneration between the two systems. The advantages of such a coupled system grow increasingly important for rural, poorly electrified regions at mid- to high- latitudes (e.g., central and northern Asia, southern and southwestern Africa) and higher altitudes where seasonal temperature variations can challenge the thermal equilibria of both waste digestion processes and fuel cells.
Description:
Literature reviews confirmed the feasibility of the system relying on methane to supply the fuel cell and the waste heat from the subsequent fuel cell operation driving the decomposition process. A batch bioreactor and a proton exchange fuel cell at the lab scale are used to construct a physical system that is tested at various temperatures to determine the optimal operating conditions, both individually and separately. Furthermore, system-level thermal and flow analysis is performed after experimentation to establish a final configuration in coupling the two devices. With streamline data collection still in process, it is expected that a complete energy self-sustaining module at the lab-scale will be achieved. Measurements obtained from data acquisition systems combined with analytical models will be utilized to determine the actual energy performance of the constructed design.
Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:
Upon successful completion of Phase I, laboratory studies and model simulation based on the Phase I design will be used to examine the viability of a full-scale implementation of a regenerative waste treatment-power generation system. The actual process of waste treatment-power generation will be thoroughly investigated and changes will be made in the lab model to accommodate large-scale operation.