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The Hydrogen-generating System powered
from Fallen Leaves in the Yard
Environmental Microbiology and Biomass Energy
Motivation
After the cleaning time at school, there are always piles of fallen leaves on the playground. Those
fallen leaves wait to be sent to the incinerator. Seeing so many fallen leaves, I wondered whether we can
have some applications with the nautral waste. I've got an idea that maybe we can devise a system to turn
these leaves into a useful energy resource. The system enables us to use hydrogen produced from fallen
leaves to generate electricity. And such a system can serve as a power station and meet our everyday
demand for electricity.
Creativity
This system uses plants that are inedible for human beings or animals, which means we can not only
make good use of natural waste but also save more food for those prople living in those developing
countries.
The system uses mixed microbial communities to decompose mixed substrates. The rich varieity of
ingredients from fallen leaves can increase the stability of the system.
The hydrogen-storing system is separable. That is, the hydrogen-storing system can be separated from
the fuel cell system so the entire system can keep producing and storing hydrogen. The hydrogen won’t
be consumed or sent into the fuel cell until it is needed for generating power.
Microbes in this system are reusable.
System Structure
Fallen Leaves Inlet
Physical
Treatment Tank
Fermentation I tank
Chemical
Treatment Tank
Fermentation II tank
Hydrogen storing system
Fuel Cell
system
Separable
Recycle System
Physical Treatment Tank: Stir fallen leaves with water.
Chemical Treatment Tank: Acidify and saccharify cellulose.
Fermentation Tank I : Main tank for cellulose to generate hydrogen
Fermentation Ttank II: Regenerate hydrogen or alcohol.
Fuel Cell System: Cell produces electricity by oxidation of hydrogen and oxygen.
Recycle System:Dispose of the waste and collect of alcohol
Hydrogen-storing System: Store hydrogen in airtight tanks for future use.
Expected effect
Develop the first system which supplies the electric power that is produced from fallen leaves.
Develop a hydrogen-generating system using microbial community to decompose multicomponent
composition and such a system opens the new way to the research on the decomposition of the
multicomponent composition with the use of mixed becterial communities.
The system can be set on campus or in communities.
Research Flow Chart
Allocate the microbial communities
consisting of hyfrogen-generating bacteria
and those cellulose-decomposing ones to
find the best conditions for the expected
reaction.
Isolate new hydrogen-generating and cellulosedecomposing bacteria from soil, sludge, decayed leaves or
the digestive tracts of animal and allocate these selected
bacteria for the best bacterial communities of reaction.
Acidify and saccharify celluloseof fallen leaves with chemicals. (Chemical treatment tank)
Generate hydrogen from cellulose. (Fermentation tank I )
Regenerate hydrogen or alcohol through the fermentation products and those untreated ingredient.
Dispose of the waste from the process and collect
alcohol compounds.
Recycle microbes.
Store up hydrogen.
Generate electricity by the fuel cell system.
Feasibility and Practibility
This hydrogen-powerd electricity generation system is the combination of natural resources available to
the public and well-founded scientific knowledge. Innovative as the combination is, there is a wealth of
confirmed theories supporting its feasibility. In addition, all the hydrogen-related technologies or
applications prove the practicability of the system.
In this eco-friendly system, the apparatuses of hydrogen generation, hydrogen storage and waste
recovery, even the microbes used for generating hydrogen, are all reusable and therefore, the fixed costs
for the system can be greatly decreased after long-term use. The microbes used in this system are dark
fermentation bacteria, which can produce hydrogen without light . Besides, the hydrogen-storing apparatus
can be separated from the fuel cell system. When there is no need for the fuel cell system to generate
electricity, the hydrogen-storing apparatus can be separated from it and keep working independently.
Preliminary Results and Photo
Useing fallen leaves to produce hydrogem is not a joke. My preliminary result shows that every litre of
fallen leave can produce 15 litres hydrogen. The best effeicency I found from papers which have been
publish for waste to produce hydogen in the world is 15.09 L/H/L.
Main Reference
鄭如琇 （2006）以微生物組成探討厭氧發酵系統之產氫效能 中興大學 環工所 碩士論文
Ueno, Y.,T. Kawai, S. Sato, S. Otsuka, and M. Morimoto. 1995. Biological production of hydrogen
from cellulose by natural anaerobic microflora. Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering. 79:
395-397.