King’s Power

Phase : I

Students :
Muhammad Affa Bin Khairil Azizie
Mohd Noh Hazrin Bin Hamzani
Wan Taufik Hidayat Bin Wan Mokhter
Nafiz Adly Bin Najib

Supervisor :
Mr. Irwan bin Hamzah
 INTRODUCTION

I. Dry Cell
A dry cell is commonly used for portable electrical devices. It was developed in
1886 by the German scientist Carl Gassner, after development of wet zinc-carbon
batteries by Georges Leclanché in 1866[7]. The modern version was developed by Japanese Yai
Sakizo in 1887. A dry cell uses a paste electrolyte, with only enough moisture to allow current to
flow. Figure 1 shows the flow of electrons in a dry cell.
A dry cell is used as a source of electricity. It is also a medium of electricity as it
converts chemical energy to electrical energy. With this energy conversion in mind, dry cells are
used in many portable electrical devices and appliances. The criteria which influences a dry cell's
voltage is the concentration of electrolytes used and the gap between each carbon powder
particles in the dry cell. The main goal of our research is to find out the type of biochar in
cathode used in the dry cell which can produce the highest voltage reading by minimising the
usage of non-renewable resources[7].
Dry cells are available in most stores. However, the current dry cells that are sold
in the market are not environmentally friendly. It us to be known that one of the benefits of using
dry cells is we can operate portable electrical devices anywhere. However, the limitations which
come with the dry cell are:
1. Dry cells can only be used once
2. Dry cells pollute the environment upon leakage (from explosions, etc)
3. The current manufacturing of dry cells may stoke the levels of global warming.

Diagram 1.1: cross section of dry cell

II. Biochar
 Basically biochar is charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in the soil as a means
of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It's also rich in carbon due to the pyrolysis
process that was used in producing the biochar[6]. It also plays a crucial role as an adjuvant as
enhancing the absorption of water and mineral salts from the soil due to high surface area and
porosity can enhance the absorption of nutrients other than providing habitat to the useful
microorganisms.[9]
Biochar is also cost-savvy and eco-friendly towards the environment because of the
pyrolysis process where organic materials are burnt in the absence of oxygen. It also preserves
the carbon content and reduces the emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Organic
materials used greatly affects the quality and physical structure of the biochar

Table 1.1 SEM of Biochar (Collaboration with UPM)

III. Biochar Dry cell

Basically, the biochar dry cell is the dry cell which replaces the graphite with biochar in
the cathode. Both carbon and biochar powder contain electrons after mixing with electrolytes in
the dry cell. However, the manufacturing of dry cells that use graphite is costly. The abundance
of agricultural waste in the world can be converted into biochar. Using biochar instead of
graphite is cheaper because this reuses the agricultural waste as the main material in the
production of biochar.

IV. Lithium ion Battery

 Lithium ion batteries first proposed in the 1970s and produced commercially by Sony in
1991. Nowadays, this type of battery used in most of our electronic devices such as cars, mobile
phones and airplanes. It's also formed of four keys components. This battery has a cathode,
anode, electrolyte and the last is separator/wall.[12]
Diagram 1.2 show how does the Lithium ions battery work. basically when charging this battery,
the positive side of the metal will remove the electrons from the lithium atoms and transfer it to
the other side. the positively charged of lithium ions move through the electrolyte and after all
the lithium ions moved to negative terminal or graphite the lithium ions trapped there and its
mean the battery is fully charged. after removing the power sources the lithium ions will travel
back to the positive charged through the electrolyte. so when the lithium ions travelled back it
will produce the electricity..[12]

Diagram 1.2 flow of electron in Lithium ions battery

V. Durian husk
Durian trees grow in tropical land around the world, most of them are in asian of Malaysia,
Indonesia and Thailand.[3]. On average, durian tree can produce about 50kg of fruit per year [2].
Durian fruits consist of 40% of flesh and 60% of it is husk. The estimated waste of the durian
husks in year 2016 amounts up to 2280 metric tons[1][6].
Problem Statement
Approaching the era where portable electrical devices are put forward and in perspective, dry
cells are becoming portable electrical sources that can be hand-carried everywhere. It's not only
the important role to activate the portable electrical device its also help humans save energy. This
is because the rapid decrease of fossil fuel and it is expected that it will only available for another
50 years to come.[11]By setting our focus on creating and applying more renewable energy
sources, we can save precious fossil fuels and recycle agricultural waste for the better. The
disposal of dry cells can bring pollution towards the environment, which is relevant in this
research.

Study Justification
This study focuses on the use of durian husk biochar. Due to the sustainability of the durian
species, the reliance of it will bring green effects to not only our society where the technologies
that use dry cell are affordable, but we can also promote clean energy to the society. Although
there is no doubt that it will not surpass the quality of materials that implements Nano-
technology such as graphene, an eco-friendly and economically friendly dry cell is more in
demand in this polluted world. However, quality wise, biochar can still be as good as graphite
with the precise technique and production
Objective
General objective
The objectives of this project are to achieve several goals if we were to proceed to the next level
of study. However, the main purpose of this study is to replace the graphite used in conventional
dry cells with biochar as an alternative. Due to the fact that biochar production is low cost,
environmentally friendly and renewable, we have every reason to believe that this study could
turn out to be a huge success in contributing to the sustainable development of our world.
Specific objectives
1. To prepare and fabricate treated and non-treated durian husks into biochar
2. To compare the efficiency of durian husk as a carbon source in dry cells.
3. To use the electrolyte in the dry cell as it can be used as fertilizer (kiv)
4. To lower the cost in manufacturing the durian husk derived dry cell
5. To produce a dry cell using durian husk biochar
6. To reduce the carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Preparation of Durian Husk Biochar
Durian husks that we obtained is from local night market. using crucible to undergoes pyrolysis
technique at our school science lab. durian husks undergoes pyrolysis for about ten to twelve
minutes per 70g. By using pyrolysis technique, we can preserve the carbon content in the biochar
and reducing emission of carbon dioxide gases towards the atmosphere.

Preparation of Dry Cells

The electrolyte paste is made of the mixture of 2mols of KOH, 1 mols of MnO and 10g Durian
Husks biochar powder. All these substances will be mixed up until they form a slurry black paste
of puree texture. After that, the electrolyte paste will be put inside the custom-made cylinder
containers with the carbon rod (cathode) at the center. The container will be closed and is ready
to use.

Data Analysis Interpretation

The process of making this dry cell few methods will be used to analyze the physical
characterisation of the biochar including Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) and voltage
reading.
SEM will be used to determine the surface morphology, porosity of the biochar and elemental
composition of the electrodes. SEM uses electrons to form images with the help of light element
energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). EDS can also analyse the oxygen content of the biochar
surface in the SEM system.
Voltage reading used to determine the voltage current using multimeter. Voltage reading uses to
help us to make the comparison between the dry cell that we made.

REFERENCES
1. https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/2018/11/
matecconf_eureca2018_02007.pdf
2. https://www.durianharvests.com/consumption/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropics
4. SDAR. Innovation of Biomass Energy [PowerPoint slides]. [Online] 28 February 2019
5. SDAR. Innovation of Black is the New Green [Microsoft Word]. [Online] 2016
6. Tan, Y. L. et al. (2019). Kinetics of pyrolysis of durian (Durio C zibethinus L.) Shell
using thermogravimetric analysis. J. Phys. Sci., 30(Supp. 1), 65–79,
https://doi.org/10.21315/jps2019.30.s1.4
7. Energizer. Battery history. [Online] . https://www.energizer.com/about-batteries/battery-
history
8. https://regenerationinternational.org/2018/05/16/what-is-biochar/
9. http://makahiki.kcc.hawaii.edu/chem/everyday_battery.html
10. SDAR. King's Power [Microsoft Word]. Online 2019
11. Learn Engineering. 12 April 2019. https://youtu.be/VxMM4g2Sk8U[Online]