Microbial Fuel Cells - a Way to Generate Clean Electricity From Waste Water
- Summary. Lack of electricity in many less developed countries prompted us to perform this project to submit to the Google Science Fair.
- A Little Bit About Us. We, Austin Simonson, Frank Zhang, and Willy Ju, are juniors (11th grade) attending Mira Loma High School, located in Sacramento, CA.
- Research. ...
- Our Method. ...
- Results. ...
- Conclusion. ...
How is water used to generate electricity?
Water is involved at many points in the process of producing electricity: Electricity Generation: Around 65 percent of US electricity comes from power generators that need cooling. These types of power plants, called thermoelectric or “thermal” plants, boil water to produce steam for generating electricity.
Can human waste be used to generate electricity?
Many folks are surprised when they hear that human waste (and animal waste) can be used to generate electricity. Wow. How is this done? You see, human waste comprises mainly two components – water and organic materials – apart from some amount of inorganic materials, micro-organisms (mainly bacteria).
How does wastewater become energy?
How Does Wastewater Become Energy? When organic waste decomposes in an oxygen-free environment—such as deep in a landfill —it releases methane gas. This methane can be captured and used to produce energy, instead of being released into the atmosphere. Sewage treatment systems begin treating wastewater by collecting the solid sludge.
What is wastewater and how does it affect the environment?
Increasingly, this wastewater—as well as other organic waste from sources like gardens and kitchens—is being used to heat homes, provide electricity, and even power cars. This year’s World Water Day focuses on the problems and possibilities posed by wastewater. Wastewater is water contaminated with human, agricultural, or industrial wastes.
How can wastewater be used to generate electricity?
Whilst effectively treating the sewage, anaerobic digestion generates a high grade of gaseous fuel – sewage gas. The methane produced can be utilised for generating electricity – renewable energy – through a biogas engine thereby making the sewage treatment plant meet its electricity requirements.
Can energy be generated from waste water?
How Does Wastewater Become Energy? When organic waste decomposes in an oxygen-free environment—such as deep in a landfill —it releases methane gas. This methane can be captured and used to produce energy, instead of being released into the atmosphere.
How can water be used as electricity?
At the plant level, water flows through a pipe—also known as a penstock—and then spins the blades in a turbine, which, in turn, spins a generator that ultimately produces electricity. Most conventional hydroelectric facilities operate this way, including run-of-the-river systems and pumped storage systems.
How is electricity made from waste?
How waste-to-energy incineration works. Waste-to-energy plants use household garbage as a fuel for generating power, much like other power stations use coal, oil or natural gas. The burning of the waste heats water and the steam drives a turbine to generate electricity.
How much electricity does a wastewater treatment plant use?
Across the country, municipal wastewater treatment plants are estimated to consume more than 30 terawatt hours per year of electricity,1 which equates to about $2 billion in annual electric costs.
How much electricity does a sewage treatment plant use?
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) consume large amounts of energy, estimated at between 1% and 3% of global energy output. State-of-the-art facilities consume 20-45 kWh per population equivalent (PE) connected.
How do you produce current from water?
0:082:45PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY FROM WATER ENERGY - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipMaking it rotate the turbine rotates the shaft of are generated to which it is connected. This makesMoreMaking it rotate the turbine rotates the shaft of are generated to which it is connected. This makes the generator produce electricity.
How much water does it take to generate electricity?
”That translates to an average of 95 L of water to produce 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity,” says Tamim Younos, associate director of the center and a professor of water resources at Virginia Tech, where the center is housed.
How do we convert flowing water into electricity essay?
In an impoundment facility, a dam is used to control the flow of water stored in a pool or reservoir. When more energy is needed, water is released from the dam. Once water is released, gravity takes over and the water flows downward through a turbine. As the blades of the turbine spin, they power a generator.
Can you make electricity with garbage?
0:182:34Turning Trash into Electricity - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipMore one man's trash is another man's energy at least in Alexandria Virginia the local governmentMoreMore one man's trash is another man's energy at least in Alexandria Virginia the local government they are partnered with Covanta Energy Corporation to power more than 20,000 homes with a process
Which country generates electricity from waste?
SwedenSweden is not only saving money by replacing fossil fuel with waste to produce energy; it is generating 100 million USD annually by importing trash and recycling the waste produced by other countries.
How much electricity does waste produce?
The typical range of net electrical energy that can be produced is about 500 to 600 kWh of electricity per ton of waste incinerated. Thus, the incineration of about 2,200 tons per day of waste will produce about 1,200 MWh of electrical energy.
What is sewer energy?
A large heat pump will transfer heat from the wastewater to a clean-water loop that is pumped to buildings around the city. This recovered energy can be used to heat water, heat indoor spaces in buildings, as well as power air conditioning units. The wastewater system operates similarly to geothermal energy.
How can sewage be used to generate biogas?
The sediment is called activated sludge. Activated sludge is pumped into anaerobic sludge digesters. In the digesters, heterotrophic microbes anaerobically digest bacteria and fungi in the sludge producing a mixture of gases which form the biogas.
How is wastewater produced?
Wastewater comes from ordinary living processes: bathing, toilet flushing, laundry, dishwashing, etc. It comes from residential and domestic sources. Commercial wastewater comes from non-domestic sources, such as beauty salon, taxidermy, furniture refinishing, musical instrument cleaning, or auto body repair shops.
Does sewage create methane?
Untreated wastewater may also produce methane if contained under anaerobic conditions. The organic content, expressed in terms of either biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) or chemical oxygen demand (COD), determines the methane producing potential of wastewater (IPCC, 1997).
How much electricity is used in wastewater treatment plants?
water treatment plant. “In the U.S., about 3% to 5% of electricity is used for water and wastewater activity,” He said.
What is the primary source of energy that we can recover from wastewater?
“Bacteria love them and can convert them into things we can use,” He said. “Biogas is the primary source of energy we can recover from wastewater; the other is bioelectricity.”.
What happens when wastewater is pumped into anode?
When wastewater is pumped into the anode, the bacteria “eat” the organic materials and release electrons, creating electricity. To filter that same water, however, requires a different system. He’s lab combined the systems, developing a permeable anode that acts as a filter.
How does a bacterial battery work?
The system is set up like a typical microbial fuel cell, a bacterial battery that uses electrochemically active bacteria as a catalyst where a traditional fuel cell would use platinum. In this type of system, the bacteria are attached to the electrode. When wastewater is pumped into the anode, the bacteria “eat” the organic materials and release electrons, creating electricity.
Can bacteria produce energy from wastewater?
There already exist ways to capitalize on bacteria to produce energy from wastewater, but such methods often do so at the expense of the water, which could be filtered and otherwise be used—if not for drinking—for “gray water” purposes such as irrigation and toilet flushing.
Why is waste heat good for the Earth?
Heat generated from waste to create electric power is a great benefit to the earth because it can eliminate materials that ruin the ozone layer. Molecular thermoelectric devices can help harvest energy directly from the sun and reduce the need for photovoltaic cells that are used in solar panels.
What is waste into wonder?
One of these is to convert waste into electricity. There are many items around us that can generate heat, and surprisingly waste products are one of these.
How to transfer biogas from a digester to a boiler?
Cut the hose into two pieces, with one piece being longer than the other. The long piece will be used later to transfer the biogas from the reservoir to the boiler or cooker. The second piece will transfer the biogas from the digester to the reservoir.
How to get biogas from a reservoir?
Make sure that it is surrounded by water completely. Put a tap in the end of the long hose that will transfer the biogas from the reservoir to the boiler.
How to control how much biogas can exit?
This will control how much gas can exit. Put the digester on a stand so that it is higher than the reservoir. You can place trash in the digester with the use of a cone. Place organic trash into the digester and wait for it to be consumed by bacteria. This is where the biogas is produced.
How is biogas made?
Biogas is a gas that is produced from organic matter. It is created by being broken down biologically to create electricity. It is a commonly used form of renewable energy, mainly used in domestic and industrial spheres. Biogas is a blend of carbon dioxide and methane, and it’s created by plant as well as animal waste.
What is biogas used for?
Biogas is a blend of carbon dioxide and methane, and it’s created by plant as well as animal waste. In the home, biogas is mainly used for cooking. It creates less pollution than traditional cooking gas.
What is waste heat used for?
Waste heat can also be used to generate steam, which can be used to drive mechanical processes or generate electricity . Cogeneration facilities are designed to use one energy resource to create both heat and electricity, taking advantage of the thermal energy produced in the generation of electricity.
How is waste heat captured?
Use the diagram to describe how waste heat can be captured from an industrial process, such as a glass-melting furnace, and used to heat water to create steam. That steam can then be used to turn a turbine and generate electricity.
How to increase efficiency of a system?
One way to increase a system’s efficiency is to capture the heat that is wasted and repurpose it. Recaptured heat can be used to heat a building or to heat water. It can be sold to nearby homes or industry for use. The water can be used on-site in industrial processes or as hot water for general purposes.
How can efficiency be improved?
Since a percentage of energy is converted to heat, the overall efficiency of the system is reduced. Increasing the system’s efficiency can conserve energy, as fewer energy resources are required to do the same work. One way to increase a system’s efficiency is to capture the heat that is wasted and repurpose it.
What is the term for the simultaneous generation of electricity and heat from the same fuel?
simultaneous generation of both electricity and heat from the same fuel, for useful purposes. Also called combined heat and power, or CHP.
Can waste heat be used to heat a factory?
Waste heat could also be used to heat the factory directly. Explain that cogeneration is a type of waste heat capture that takes advantage of the wasted thermal energy from thermoelectric power plants to intentionally generate both electricity and useful heat from a single source.
How does municipal solid waste generate electricity?
There are a variety of technologies for generating electricity from municipal solid waste, but in the US the most common system involves mass burning of MSW in a large incinerator that has a boiler that produces steam, and a generator that produces electricity. Another entails processing MSW into fuel pellets for use in smaller power plants.
How much electricity does a power plant generate?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2018 a total of 68 U.S. power plants generated around 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from 29.5 million tons of combustible municipal solid waste (MSW).
How does burning MSW help the environment?
Burning MSW is not only a sustainable way to produce electricity, it also reduces the volume of waste that would inevitably end up in landfills. Instead, the EIA estimates that burning MSW effectively reduces waste volumes by about 87%.
How much of the waste in landfills is food?
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fact sheet on sustainable materials management published in November 2019, the total MSW generated in 2017 by material, comprised: Indicating tremendous human waste in its worst form, 22% of the material that ended up in landfill was classified as food.
What is biomass energy?
Biomass, which comes from plants and animals and is a source of renewable energy, was responsible for more than half (about 51%) of the electric ity generated from waste. It also accounted for about 64% of the weight of the MSW used. The rest of the waste used was from other combustible materials including synthetic materials made from petroleum ...
Do electrical engineers process waste?
While this comes with pressing challenges, there are also opportunities for professionals including electrical engineers to process at least some of the waste to produce much-needed renewable energy.
Does the USA use waste to energy?
Of course, the USA isn’t the only country that uses waste-to-energy plants to generate electricity from MSW. And in fact, when compared to a lot of other countries, the percentage of MSW burned with energy recovery in the U.S. is minimal.
How can waste be used to generate electricity?
First up, combustion. This is where heat produced by burning waste produces heat, driving a turbine to generate electricity. This indirect approach to generation currently has an efficiency of around 15-27%, albeit with a lot of potential for improvements. Whether any approach to generating energy from waste can be considered sustainable depends on the ‘net calorific value’ of the waste going into the process. Where incineration of waste is concerned, that figure must be 7 MJ/kg, meaning the likes of paper, plastics and textiles are best suited to the combustion method of generating energy from waste.
How can plastic be converted to energy?
Converting plastic waste to energy certain makes sense from a chemical perspective, given plastics come from the same origin as fossil fuels. We’ve already looked at the two main techniques involved: pyrolysis, where plastic is heated in the absence of oxygen, and gasification, where air or steam heats the waste, creating gases that either produce petrol or diesel, or are burned to generate electricity.
How does anaerobic digestion work?
Anaerobic digestion can be used to generate energy from organic waste like food and animal products. In an oxygen-free tank, this material is broken down to biogas and fertiliser. It’s an approach with big potential.
What are the new technologies that can be used to create fuels?
New techniques such as cold plasma pyrolysis, provide the potential to create fuels such as hydrogen and methane, as well as useful chemicals for industry.
Is waste to energy preferable to landfill?
It places energy generation (recovery) below reducing waste, re-use, and recycling and composting, meaning it’s those options that should be considered first when managing waste; but above waste disposal meaning that waste-to-energy is preferable to landfill.
Will waste management in the UK increase?
Novel approaches to waste management in the UK will surely rise in the coming years. Recycling rates seem to be plateauing, with only minor increases seen. While generating energy from waste has a lot of promise, we need to focus on making products last longer, and when they really can’t be fixed, finding ways to recycle and reuse them. Only when those options are exhausted should we turn to waste-to-energy.
Is pyrolysis energy renewable?
It’s worth noting, however that Friends of the Earth doesn’t consider the energy generated through either gasification or pyrolysis as truly ‘renewable’ due to the fact that they release CO 2 from both fossil fuel origins such as plastics and synthetic textiles as well as biological materials. Tackling organic matter.
How does water produce electricity?
Water is involved at many points in the process of producing electricity: 1 Electricity Generation: Around 65 percent of US electricity comes from power generators that need cooling. These types of power plants, called thermoelectric or “thermal” plants, boil water to produce steam for generating electricity. Water is also central to hydroelectric power plants, which use dams and other approaches to capture the energy in moving water. 2 Fuel Extraction and Production: Water is a critical resource for the drilling and mining of natural gas, coal, oil, and uranium. In many cases, fuel extraction also produces wastewater, as it does in natural gas and oil wells, and coal slurry ponds. 3 Fuel Refining and Processing: Oil, uranium, and natural gas all require refining before they can be used as fuels, using substantial amounts of water. 4 Fuel Transportation: Water is used to transport coal through slurries—pipelines of finely ground coal mixed with water—and to test energy pipelines for leaks. [ 1] 5 Emissions Control: Many thermoelectric power plants emit sulfur, mercury, particulates, carbon dioxide, and other pollutants, and require pollution control technologies. These technologies also require significant amounts of water to operate.
What is the water used for in hydroelectric power plants?
Water is also central to hydroelectric power plants, which use dams and other approaches to capture the energy in moving water. Fuel Extraction and Production: Water is a critical resource for the drilling and mining of natural gas, coal, oil, and uranium. In many cases, fuel extraction also produces wastewater, ...
What percentage of electricity is generated by power plants?
Electricity Generation: Around 65 percent of US electricity comes from power generators that need cooling. These types of power plants, called thermoelectric or “thermal” plants, boil water to produce steam for generating electricity. Water is also central to hydroelectric power plants, which use dams and other approaches to capture ...
How hot is water in a power plant?
Water used to cool electricity-generating steam exits the power plant at substantially higher temperatures—up to 18º F hotter at power plants in summer. [ 4] . This "thermal pollution" can harm local aquatic ecosystems, especially during the summer months when species are at or near their heat tolerance thresholds.
What are the pollutants that thermoelectric plants emit?
Emissions Control: Many thermoelectric power plants emit sulfur, mercury, particulates, carbon dioxide, and other pollutants, and require pollution control technologies. These technologies also require significant amounts of water to operate.
What is recirculating cooling system?
Power plants using other cooling systems, known as recirculating or closed-loop systems, withdraw only a fraction of the amount that once-through systems do, but consume most or all of it. Power plant water consumption becomes a large problem in water constrained regions where competition among users is high.
How does fuel mining affect water quality?
Minerals unearthed during fuel mining and drilling can contaminate groundwater, which in turn affects drinking water and local ecosystems. Known as “ acid rock drainage ,” the pollution can change the pH of nearby streams to the same level as vinegar.
