Week 3

Summary

Written by Trumann (4 Nov 2021)

What was done this week

For week 3, the team focused on further developing the design of the prototype. This was done with the assistance of Dr. Noel who gave insightful suggestions to our current design. He also gave us inspiration and ideas by showing us other water electrolyser devices and demonstrating how they work.

Figure 1: Water electrolyser Device with an inbuilt measuring cylinder and powered by solar panels

Figure 2: Water electrolyser "Battery" for a hydrogen fuel car 

Figure 3: Senior’s FYP final design main body

The team followed up by discussing areas of improvements. An additional support was added at the bottom of the design to further strengthen its structure integrity as there were concerns about the bottom plate being unable to withstand the weight of the electrolyte on top of it. Refer to Figure 4 for better visualization.

Figure 4: Support structure for the bottom plate

Second improvement that was added was the implementation of the water displacement cylinder which will be used as a way to measure the amount of hydrogen produced. The tube connecting the cylinder will be connected on top of the plate through one of the two holes. The other hole will be used to collect hydrogen through a pipe. Both pipes will have valves so as to enable us to control the flow.

Finally for the third improvement to the design, a drainage point was to be added. It was decided that it will be located on the side for ease of use and access. The first location was at the bottom of the body, and although that would make draining arguably easier, it would be in close contact with the electric wires, and harder to access. This would also make detecting potential leaks harder, should the hole be not sealed properly or a crack were to appear. Refer to Figure 5 for reference.

Figure 5: Main Body of the prototype

Follow-Up

The team has decided to build our prototype out of cardboard first to identify any oversights for the measurements of the prototype. Afterwards, the team planned to build it out of acrylic once the design and measurements were right. Procurement of other things like pipes and valves will be done by Week 5. The research for how to dissolve chitin and chitosan has been going well and testing will be done in the lab on Week 4.