2007 Winning Essay
St. Thomas More School
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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.
Reference List
“About Fuel Cells.” USFCC. Internet. http://www.usfcc.com/about/index.html (January 8, 2007).
“About Shell Hydrogen.” http://www.shell.com/home (October 18, 2006).
“Algae to Fuel Our Cars?” ZDNet. Internet. http://blogs.zdnet/emergingtech/?p=16 .
“Fuel Cell Basics.” Fuel Cells 2000. Internet. http://www.fuelcells.org (October 18, 2006).
“Fuel Cell Technology.” University of South Carolina. Internet. http://www.che.sc.edu.
Gartener, John. “Algae: Power Plant of the Future?” Wired News. Internet. http://www.wired.com (January 8, 2007).
Hoffmann, Peter. Tomorrow’s Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001.
“Hydrogen Basics.” Fuel Cells 2000. Internet. http://www.fuelcells.org. (October 18, 2006).
Newman, Harold. Environmental Consultant, Newman Environmental Solutions. Personal Interview, December 1, 2006.
“Renewable energy FAQs.” Schatz Energy Research Center. Internet. http://www.humboldt.edu (October 18, 2006).
“Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Introduction.” Siemens. Internet. http://www.powergeneration.siemens.com
(October 18, 2006).
“Types of Fuel Cells.” EERE. Internet. http://www.eere.energy.gov (January 4, 2007).
