Overview of the conversion of flood waste water to electric power by modelling, sizing and characterization of the water purifier, water electrolyzer and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Abstract

The quagmire of waste water flooding around the vicinity of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Lagos has become an issue of concern for the management of the university, due to the prolonged flooding. Despite the installation of pumps in the vicinity to mitigate the flooding, the issue has not been resolved and the flooding is still evident till date. The focus of this work is to design an effective water mitigation system to evacuate the flood and also utilize the waste water by converting it to useful electricity. In this work, 6 modules of 450W solar system was used to supply voltage to the 12Watt direct current pump and the 1700 W from the solar panel will be fed to the water electrolytic system which will separate the water molecules to Hydrogen and Oxygen, where the oxygen gas is fed to a storage tank which can be used for medical purposes in the University of Lagos Health Centre. The hydrogen is supplied to a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell. A water purifier was incorporated before been connected to the electrolyzer. An amount of 33.5 Kg/hr of Hydrogen gas is the amount needed to produce 1KWh of electricity from the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell. The fuel cell power output through mathematical modelling had a power output at 8.4KW.