Jay Aditya

My Project Idea is EFA (Electricity from Algae). In this project we are harnessing electricity from microorganisms such as algae which results as an efficient source of electricity for us. The solar cells of microorganisms such as algae uses it photosynthetic properties to convert light energy into electrical energy. The main aim of this project is to eradicate rural electrical issues through this project because today also a section of our society lives in rural areas and do not have access to proper electricity and cannot afford solar panels to be installed in their houses but a common thing in all the villages is Algae which is generally found in most of ponds and lakes and people consider it as waste. We have chosen algae over plants because of its advantages and also based on our experiments and research. It's main advantages are: 1. Cost and Space Efficient. 2. Can be grown in various environment. 3. Almost no maintenance. 4. Does not need any fertile soil to grow. 5. Helps in reducing pollution. In our current setup we have 500ml of algae( 5 units of 100ml each) consisting 2 different kind of electrodes acting as anode and cathode and all of them are connected in parallel to get appropriate current and voltage. Our current setup which cost about rs 310 can easily charge a mobile phone and produces 5 volts and 0.5 ampere. From our observation we can say that to get the full efficiency of algae we need to keep it in sunlight. The process behind all this photosynthesis, during photosynthesis photolysis happens when H2O breaks into H2 and O2 and the electrons present in the cell gets into excited state and gets exported out of the cell and comes into the medium in which algae is situated basically in water and then we harness it with two different electrodes acting as anode and cathode. It also accomplishes two UN SDGs goals, Goal no. 7 and 13. In short we can say that by photosynthesis algae converts light energy into electrical energy. We also conducted a survey with rural people and they told that they do not have electricity 24 hours a day and due to that their children cannot have proper education and health care facilities. For that reason we are now developing Algae panels which will be just like solar panels but cheaper and more efficient.
THANK YOU!