Urban Renewable Energy Project

I have built and tested a gasifier with the hopes of finding a way to use trash to power a house. A gasifier uses the fumes from burning wood in a limited-oxygen environment to take the place of conventional gasoline fumes, meaning they can be used in an engine. So far, the project has been successful.

My overall goal is to create a sustainable energy solution by converting waste materials into energy. This project aims to improve waste management and energy production, contributing to sustainable energy and environmental conservation, as the average American produces over 1,600 pounds of trash per year. This equates to 268 million tons of waste per year with 140 million tons going into landfills (https://www.dumpsters.com/blog/us-trash-production).

Initially, I demonstrated the feasibility of this concept. The next phase is to focus on improving and scaling the system to handle more trash efficiently and autonomously. By using a wood gasifier, which historically powered cars with wood fumes, I aim to substitute wood with waste products, showing that trash can be a viable future energy source for homes. In the future, ideally, we can find ways to cleanly burn inorganic materials in addition to organic materials.