Rafi Yusuf Adrian
Rafi Yusuf Adrian
2006517852
Brief Conversation With ChatGPT
Rafi Yusuf Adrian
2006517852
ME: What is the correlation between sugarcane factories, fuel, and the automotive industry?
ChatGPT: The correlation for this is that sugarcane factory produces sugarcane juices and molasses which through a certain process can be turned into ethanol. Ethanol can be used as fuel for vehicles in the automotive industry, it can power internal combustion engines similar to conventional fuel with the benefit that in theory will not add more CO² onto the air.
ME: So can ethanol be the future fuel?
ChatGPT: Ethanol has the potential to be a significant part of the future of fuel, especially as the world moves towards a more sustainable and renewable energy future.
One of the main advantages of ethanol as a fuel is that it is renewable and can be produced from a variety of feedstocks, such as sugarcane, corn, and other crops. This means that ethanol can potentially reduce dependence on fossil fuels, which are finite and have environmental impacts. Additionally, ethanol has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants when used as a fuel for vehicles.
In some countries, such as Brazil, ethanol has already become a major part of the transportation fuel mix. In Brazil, the vast majority of new cars sold are "flex-fuel" vehicles that can run on either gasoline or ethanol, and the country has developed a robust ethanol industry based on sugarcane. In the United States, ethanol is also used as a fuel additive in gasoline, and it has the potential to play a greater role in the future if infrastructure and other barriers to its use are addressed.
However, there are also some challenges and limitations associated with the widespread use of ethanol as a fuel. One of the main challenges is the availability of suitable feedstocks, as producing ethanol from some crops can have negative environmental impacts, such as deforestation or competition with food production. There are also concerns about the energy and water inputs required to produce ethanol and the impact on food prices and availability.
Overall, while ethanol has the potential to be a significant part of the future of fuel, its role will likely depend on a variety of factors, including government policies, technological advances, and environmental and economic considerations.
Project Synopsis
Rafi Yusuf Adrian
2006517852
"The world is going electric" or so they said, fossil fuel is bad, it turns solid/liquid carbon through a combustion engine and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thinning out the ozone layer and making the rays of the sun heating the earth, rising its temperature and melting the polar ice caps. The solution? Electricity, or so they thought, moving from fossil fuel to electricity only complicates the matter as the production of batteries produces more CO² than any ICE car, further more, batteries are created using rare earth metals such as lithium, etc, which when being refined not only produces much CO², it also creates toxic waste, cause heavy metal poisoning, and destroy ecosystem just to name a few. So we essentially have not solved the problems, only moved them.
Then what is a good solution you might ask?
The best solution is probably a combination of ICE and electricity which is a hybrid powertrain. Gives the best of both world, it saves fuel as the engine displacement is usually smaller and the battery is probably isn't that large that it does not produdes as much waste as its fully electric counterpart. Also I might add to this, is the use of KERS or Kinetic Energy Recovery System, you can find early use of KERS in motorsport, particularly Formula 1. It works by converting kinetic energy produced by the ICE engine and as the engine spins either directly from the crank shaft or attached to the wheel axle, the KERS system revovers the kinetic energy produced by the rotation attaching it to a alternator and charging a battery with it. This might reduce the time people have to stop at a gas station to fill up their tank or plug-in their hybrid car to an electric socket that is probably powered by a coal powerplant. I truly think if the automotive industry can implement this system, it would greatly reduce emission.
Note (28/2/2023)
Rafi Yusuf Adrian
2006517852
What is Pyrolysis? Pyrolysis is the process to combust biomass, it is done with the absence of oxygen. It is usually done in high heat so it can deconstruct the biomass mentioned above. The proffesor showed us a simple experiment of burning a peace of paper can be concluded as a pyrolysis process. It is such a simple notion, but it has such extensive use in this world.
Summary of Lecture (7/4/23)
Rafi Yusuf Adrian
2006517852
Today we talk about desalination, biomass, pyrolysis, and drier. Desalination is a process where we take the minerals from salinated water (probably salt water) and turn it into a clean water that can be used into many usage. If water is desalinated, it can be used for clean drinking water which is getting more and more scarce, it can also be used for industrial uses since the mineral content of the water has been taken away, it is safe and does not harm the machinary. One of the method to desalinite water is to use graphine oxide (GO) where the salinated water goes through the pores of some type of membrane containing GO, the membrane then desalinate the water.
Another thing we talk about is biomass, which is a renewable source of energy from plants and animals. The component most sought after is the carbon-chain that binds biological mass, that is why we use fossil fuel which comes from prehistoric microorganisms and even ancient forest. But by taking these fuels from their solid/liquid state, processing them, and using them will release carbon into the air in the form of carbon dioxide (CO²), and harming the ozone layer. That is where the biomass comes in, it has many form from manure, food waste, waste of crops, and may other things. It can be used as a heat source for cooking and living amenities, it also can be to generate electricity via boiler turbine.
Side Project
As a man of motorsport, I truly believe that the developments and innovations sparked by major racing events such as Formula 1 or Endurance championships, also help the developments and innovations of street cars. Hybridization of Formula 1 cars, started with the last of the V8 era cars, it used what's called a KERS system. A KERS system is a system where kinetic energy is recovered and then stored into the battery and then used when needed such as in a straight or when overtaking.
Right now, F1 has what are called an MGU-K and MGU-H systems, MGU stands for Motor Generator Unit, and the K and H stand for Kinetic and Heat. The MGU-K works similarly like the KERS system as previously mentioned, the MGU-H recovers the heat produced by the high-revving V6 engine via a thermal probe. So by using those, Formula 1 have one of the most if not the most energy dense and energy efficient engines ever.
As the world goes for a greener option, I think that it is a no-brainer to think that the world isn't going to go through some ""sort of electrification revolution, yet charging ports are still scarcely available and not the most time efficient. I think by using method that recovers the energy kinetically or thermally just like in Formula 1, we can create automobiles with greater range, wether it is a hybrid or fully electric.
Personal Project - Hydrogen Electrolyzer
For this personal project, I am going to create a metallic plate for a hydrogen generator via electrolysis by using cathode and anode poles connected to a positive and negative electrical output. For the plate, I am using stainless steel 304 (SS304) as the cathode and anode with a plate area of 15 × 15 cm and a thickness of 0.3 cm meaning around 2250 cm^2 of effective area for electrolysis to occur. The plate is also attached parallel to each other.
The hydrogen generation is done via electrolysis, the SS304 acts as a cathode when connected to a negative volt, generating hydrogen (H2) while the other metal act as an anode after being connected with the positive charge, which creates oxygen (O2). Below are the chemical equilibriums regarding the process:
Anode:
4 OH- > O2(g) + 2H2O + 2e-
Cathode:
4 H2O + 4e- > 2 H2 + 4 OH
From this, data are gathered and the experiment resulted in the flow rate of hydrogen coming out of the system through a flowmeter which counts the flow rate at 73, 52, and 45 mL/Min with different variants of current from 10 amps, 8amps, and 6 amps, the result of the flow rate from each current drops exponentially from the prior current.
Then, OpenModelica is used to calculate the production of hydrogen in 60 seconds (1 minute) and the horsepower (HP) generated from the hydrogen produced by each current in 60 seconds. From 10, 8, to 6 amps, the hydrogen generated is 2.1156, 1.69245, and 1.26934 grams respectively. With each value of hydrogen generated in 60 seconds from each current variant (10, 8, 6 amps), the power output can be calculated and the results are 5.91495e-9, 4.7317e-9, and 3.54892e-9 HP respectively. Since the experiment is only done in such a short amount of time and not to mention that SS304 is not a good conductor of electricity, the hydrogen produced is not abundant, hence the HP generated by it is very small.
So in conclusion:
> Compared to other metals, Stainless Steel 304 is a poor conductor of electricity
> From the experiment conducted, the hydrogen flow rate from 10, 8, and 6 amps are 73, 52, and 45 mL/Min respectively
> From the experiment conducted, the hydrogen flow rate drops exponentially at 21 mL from 10 to 8 amps and 7 mL from 8 to 6 amps
> From the calculation, the production of hydrogen in 60 seconds from each current variant (10, 8, & 6 amps) is 2.1156, 1.69245, and 1.26934 grams respectively
> From the calculation, the HP generated from the production of hydrogen in 60 seconds is 5.91495e-9, 4.73174e-9 HP, and 3.54892e-9 HP Respectively
> The drop in hydrogen production and HP generation is quite linear with the drop in hydrogen production from 10 to 8 and 8 to 6 amps coming in at 0.42513 grams and 1.18382e-9 in HP with the power drop
