MNNIT scholar generates power from Ganga soil
PRAYAGRAJ Jeetendra Prasad, a research scholar of the department of electrical engineering in Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), Prayagraj has developed a technique of generating electricity from soil of the Ganga riverbed for which he has been selected for the prestigious ‘’Sristi-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award (GYTI Award)-2020.
The award will be presented to him by President Ram Nath Kovind.
Prasad said the technology he used could come handy for lighting remote areas of the country.
Prasad successfully charged a 12 volt battery and then converted it into AC voltage of 230 volts and illuminated an electric bulb for nine hours using this technology.
“The technology will provide power source to electronic devices and military wireless sensors in remote areas,” claims Prasad.
GYTI awards is a Sristi (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) initiative to encourage youth driven technology innovations in 42 categories.
After evaluation in four stages, seven teams have been selected for the award and 15 for Sristi-GYTI appreciation award. MNNIT is the only NIT to receive this award among all 31 National Institutes of Technology of the country, informed MNNIT officials. Many of Prasad’s research work have been published in international journals such as Wiley, Science Direct, IEEE.
Prasad said, “I have developed 35 sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) reactors using 500 grams of Ganga sediment to charge each SMFC reactors.
Microbes present in the sediment create electrons in the anode chamber. These electrons flow from anode to cathode via electric circuit and produce voltage. Each SMFC reactor generates a voltage of 1.16 volts and a voltage of 5 volts, generated by connecting all SMFCs in seriesparallel connections, is harnessed.”
Further, the voltage is increased up to 12 volts using electronic circuit and a charged 12 volt battery converts it into an AC voltage of 230 volts, which is enough to illuminate an electric bulb for nine hours, he claimed.
This work has been published in “Journal of Power Sources,” an international journal. This technology does not create pollution in generating electricity.
Prasad was born in a small family in Shakkarpur village of district Ghazipur (UP). His father, Ramkrit Prajapati, is a retired electrician from UP Bridge Corporation. Prasad gets a stipend under ‘Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme’ from the union ministry of electronics and information technology.
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