Nothing is really a waste in the real sense of the word. Almost
anything one can think of is reusable. Everything has some value one way
or the other. This was what four teenage secondary school girls in
Lagos set out to prove.
Disturbed by the incessant deaths of
Nigerians, most of the time, an entire family, from carbon monoxide
poisoning from fossil-fuel generator, the yo-yo movement of petroleum
products prices, environmental degradation and the recent fuel subsidy
scam, four Senior Secondary School II students of Doregos Private
Academy, Ipaja, Lagos, decided to find solution to the problem. In a
chat with Vanguard Learning, the girls – Duro-Aina Adebola, Bello
Eniola, Akindele Abiola and Faleke Oluwatoyin, shed some some light on
the project and what they hope to achieve. Excerpts:
An idea is born:
Said
Duro-Aina Adebola, leader of the group; “I read on the internet that a
family of five died of carbon monoxide poisoning so I asked myself what
could be done to reduce these incessant deaths from carbon monoxide
poisoning?

From left; Faleke Oluwatoyin, Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola and Bello Eniola
“We
were always encouraged to bring up ideas to help solve human problems
so one day, we were in the Guest Room of our school; we thought of what
could be done to solve this problem. We thought of what we could use to
power the generator instead of using the conventional fuel, something
that can replace conventional fuels and that will not release any
obnoxious substance like carbon monoxide into the environment; something
that will also be cheap for Nigerians. You know that when the issue of
fuel subsidy removal came up, there was hike in prices of petroleum
products,” she said.
‘A problem well stated is a problem half
solved,’ according to Charles Kettering, so having identified the
problem, the girls moved on to seek solution.
“We started looking
at various materials. We looked at water but we felt that the amount of
voltage it will take to break the water molecule is large and we wanted
something small so we can have a larger output. We decided to look at
waste products because Nigerians always opt for something they won’t
have to spend their money on. So we started looking at different
materials, one of which was urine. We were looking for something that is
liquid, something that has hydrogen molecules in it. We also observed
that the amount of voltage it takes to break a urine molecule is less
than the amount it takes to break the hydrogen molecule in water. So we
opted for urine since we have a higher output,” she said.
The generator:
“The
generator is a conventional fuel-based generator. It combusts slower
than the hydrogen gas so we had to slowpoke the ignition of the
generator. We actually slow the back-timing on the generator by 11
degrees.”
Components:
“We have an electrolytic cell, water
filter, an empty gas can, borax and our slow generator. The
electrolytic cell is an old battery cell we got from the junk yard; we
removed the contents of the cell and then used perforated stainless
steel mesh as the electrodes so urine is placed in the electrolytic
cell, where it is electrolyzed, releasing hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture.
This mixture then goes into the water filter. The water filter is to
remove any impurities that might have come in with the gas and then it
goes into an empty gas cylinder which serves as the gas storage.
“The
gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is
used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas. Borax serves as a
drying agent and this is because we do not want lots of moisture going
into the generator. Also, borax helps to remove any other impurities
that might have come in with the gas. The purified hydrogen gas is then
pushed into the generator,” she explained.
Asked how much it will
cost to acquire a unit, she said; “It’s something we are still working
on because this is a prototype which cost us about N4,000 apart from the
generator. We are working on improving this so it can just be our own
generator, a Nigeria-made generator that works based on urine.
Advantages:
For this generator, the exhaust gas is the water vapor. It does not
emit carbon monoxide like the normal fuel-based generator so this
ensures clean environment for Nigerians. Again, one litre of urine can
give you six hours of electricity.
Appeal:
“We are appealing
to people to build up on what we have done. They should take up the idea
and help us to improve on it so that it can be something that can be in
every Nigerian home because this was not made to be lying around; it
was made to be used by Nigerians. All we need is support so we can take
it to the next level. We want a situation where every home can have
this. We also want to make it compact so you don’t have to have
different compartments, they can all be in a single unit that can just
be attached to a generator.”
Other projects:
The students are
currently working on other projects like bomb detecting radar, motor
bike safety device and also paper from maize straw (agricultural waste),
to save our trees and environment.