Abstract
MWINDA
(City of Light)
Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you. (African Proverb)
Mwinda, meaning light in Lingala, a dialect of the Republic of Congo, is a new city in an old land. The mission of Mwinda is to ensure opportunity for a good life by providing power, housing, water, food, and transportation. Located on the Fimi River near the Equator, Mwinda is in an area necessary to this mission: access to water, proximity to Lake Mai-Ndombe, settlement both on savannah and peripheral forest lands, and availability of rich mineral deposits.
With innovative technology and modern engineering practices, Mwinda has developed an integrated, interdependent industrial design. Using principally renewable energy resources, the city produces excess electricity which it sells to other cities and countries of what has been called the Dark Continent. In one application, PAFC fuel cells (PAFCs) are powered with hydrogen from phyto-hydrogen generators, genetically enhanced algal cultures which produce hydrogen as a byproduct, and with solar collector hydrogen generators. A second system, TseTse (mythological African goddess of lightning), uses massive lightning containment capacitors, composed of dielectric glass and conductive metals from waste. Third, the Candu Reactor, powered by raw uranium mined robotically, operates in the industrial zone.
Mwinda commercially processes industrial waste in Plasma Gasification Systems. Plasma reforms the waste, producing syngas and inorganic byproducts. Reclaimed metals and silicon are used in industries such as the manufacture of lightning containment capacitors, algal tubes, microchips, and the building of roads and houses. Germanium mined nearby is used to manufacture fiber optic components for the communication system. Reclaimed platinum is used to manufacture PAFC membranes cheaply.
Industry brings other benefits to Mwinda. For example, over one-half of Africa’s population lacks adequate water. Potable water is produced by fuel cells, including the microbial fuel cells which process human waste. Protein-enriched algae from phyto-hydrogen generators feed a protein-starved nation. Excess algae are harvested, dried, the protein extracted and added into cassava, a starchy staple of the African diet. This simple food source eliminates the need to kill large animals, “bush kill” being a current problem in Africa. In addition, Mwinda maintains floating algae and floating farms on nearby Lake Mai-Ndombe.
This thriving economy offers many services. The transportation system includes hydrogen-powered hover cars, hover buses, and amphibious cars driven over roads made from refuse from the Gasification System. These amphibious vehicles also navigate the river and lake. An efficient maglev system traverses the city. Trains transport goods to and from mining and agricultural areas and the river port. Along with its exemplary school and university system, Mwinda maintains a Cultural Studies Institute to preserve and foster the indigenous cultures, music, and languages. For recreation, visitors and inhabitants enjoy attractions, including world-class hotels and spas, water sports, safaris, rain forest tours, game reserves, and a professional soccer team, the Okapis.
Mwinda, the city of light, bears truth to an African proverb: For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
Essay
Fuel Cells: Power of the Future
The city of Mwinda, meaning light, produces electricity beyond its consumption needs. The city has an integrated system which distributes and collects excess electricity within its boundaries and distributes excess to neighbors, thus brightening other parts of the "Dark Continent." An integral part of the strategy is the use of multifunctional fuel cells in residential areas to provide reliable, cheap, consumer electricity at the point of need. Both single and multiple housing units have onsite fuel cell systems sized for the energy requirements of the unit. Fuel cells operate with renewable energy sources creating no conventional pollution at any point in the process. They create electricity from hydrogen and oxygen and produce water and heat as byproducts. The fuel cells provide a point of use electrical source with these byproducts becoming assets. The pure, sterile water is used as household drinking water in a region lacking potable water, and heat is used to drive air conditioning in a hot, humid climate. Through an integrated point of use system, fuel cells eliminate the use of fossil fuels and substitute with inexpensive hydrogen fuel.
Residential Mwinda selected Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell technology (PAFC) to power its residences. PAFCs use liquid phosphoric acid (contained in a teflon-bonded silicon carbide matrix) as an electrolyte and carbon electrodes containing a platinum catalyst. PAFCs were selected because relatively impure hydrogen gas may be used; cheap platinum for catalyst is available as byproduct of commercial waste destruction in Plasma Gasification Systems, thus overcoming the normal high cost disadvantage of PAFCs, and the PAFCs have the high efficiency (up to 85%) potential of the relatively small units.
The PAFCs were sized by engineers to provide energy to an average Mwindan household with a comfortable margin of surge capacity. To determine the total energy required in the residential zone, engineers calculated an electrical energy consumption based on population. The Republic of Congo (ROC) statistics report an average family size of five. Mwinda, a city of 600,000 requires a total energy of approximately 2,575,000 kilowatts (kW). The residential zone represents 500,000 kilowatts (kW) of the consumption. Statistically, the average energy requirement for a residential home is between 2-5 kW (U.S. Department of Energy per Competition Manual). The calculated need for the average household of Mwinda is 4.17 kW per household thereby agreeing with the statistical average. Fuel cells are sized to give 6kw for adequate capacity and provide surge capacity.
Single family houses and multifamily apartments are sited to allow integrated multifunctional utilities which support and use the PAFCs. Hydrogen fuel is provided by three sources. First is wastewater treatment using genetically engineered bacteria to purify the water and yield hydrogen gas. Second, Phyto-Hydrogen Generators utilize bioengineered algae to produce hydrogen fuel gas. The nutrient rich treated wastewater provides a food source, which combined with abundant sunshine and the engineered algae, produce hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide gases. Impure hydrogen is consumed by the PAFCs, and the purified wastewater may be discharged or routed to the third apparatus for hydrogen production. Third, hydrogen fuel is also produced by the dissociation of water using solar power. Hydrogen containing gases are collected, compressed, and stored in pressure tanks to provide a bank of continuous as-needed hydrogen flow to the PAFCs. The hydrogen collection and storage system eliminates the need for battery banks. Regulators provide a steady flow of hydrogen to allow the PAFCs to run at maximum capacity. The direct current power is rectified to alternating current of voltage to match household needs and match the city power grid. An automatic switching system allows excess electricity to be sold to the city grid, providing additional income to the family. This integrated system is economical because the bioengineered bacteria and algae produce hydrogen continuously, the PAFCs can use impure hydrogen from the reactors, and the typical cost of $4,000 to $4,500 per kW is lowered to an acceptable level through the use of reclaimed platinum. Purified platinum is reclaimed from other nations’ industrial waste in the Ionized Gasification Chambers (IGCs) used by Mwinda. By using such an efficient system, Mwinda truly is a city of light.
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