So you think humanity has exploited all possible sources of electricity? Alex Kibet thinks otherwise. The 24-year-old engineering student from Kenyatta University has opened a new front in the search for renewable energy — chicken droppings.
Mr Kibet seeks to provide cheap and clean energy to rural households, most of whom lack access to electricity. He intends to achieve that using a battery powered by chicken droppings.
He says the nudge to find a sustainable energy source for small-scale power generation was founded on the need to light up his home in Uasin Gishu County.
“I used to ask myself how electricity can be produced to light our home,” he told the Business Daily.
Mr Kibet recalls being forced to retire to bed as early as 8pm whenever he was out of college because of lack of alternative sources of energy, besides lanterns.
But it was not until last year that he had his light bulb moment when he found that chicken droppings left marks that would mildly corrode surfaces after some time.
Soon he was trawling the Internet hunting for a breakthrough.
The Energy Engineering finalist soon cracked the magic formula when he learnt chicken droppings are packed with passels of uric acid. The acid contains charged particles with the ability to spark heat.
“The knowledge was my launching pad,” he said.
What followed next was a journey to create a battery powered by chicken droppings.
“I spent sleepless nights and missed classes to see a bulb connected to the battery flicker,” he said.
He says it took him six months before he started seeing signs that he was not chasing after wind, after all.
Why not cow dung?
Mr Kibet explains that high water content in cow dung tends to dilute the uric acid. The project on Friday won the General Electric University Challenge Awards, having convinced judges of its practicality.
The challenge sought to fete students from universities in Kenya having reliable and affordable energy solutions for rural areas. Mr Kibet says if rolled out on a large scale, the battery can light up to three rooms.
The chicken droppings are mixed with water creating a gooey solution, an electrolyte that enables movement of charged particles to lighting poles.
The solution can be placed either in Perspex (acrylic glass) or a plastic container containing two cables of copper and zinc, which serve as electrodes. Mr Kibet says households will pay a paltry Sh2 per kWh for lighting and powering their electronics.
The fire brand innovator used Sh1,000 to assemble the project.
However, he says: “If one measured the time and effort I expended, it is definitely worth millions,” he quips.
The GE award has now placed him in good stead of landing a deal with the technology behemoth.
The project though has its fair share of challenges, the biggest being a high resistance in the flow of charges thereby resulting in production of only a small amount of electricity.
Also, a solution of chicken droppings, with time, stinks thereby posing a challenge to its convenience.
To reverse this and turn it into a commercial project, Mr Kibet said he needs Sh50, 000 for research and to get better materials. He says he looks up to Evans Wadongo of the MwangaBora lamp as his role model.
“I won’t rest until the chicken droppings-battery has taken off,” he says. -Business Daily
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