SJI Shines at NXplorers 2.0
1 November 2023
Five Year 4 Josephians built Hydrocool, generating electricity from laundry wastewater.
A team of five year four students comprising of Dishnu Premanandan (LE401), Brayden Chang (LE401), Aaron Wong (LE401), Nathaniel Cheng (ML402) and Ciaran Condron (LE401) participated in the NXplorers 2.0 Journey 2023. The event was organised by the Singapore Science Centre and Shell Singapore. It is a platform for young people to develop sustainable solutions to food, water and energy challenges.
As done last year, the team received a seed funding of $2,500 to further develop their project titled Hydrocool. Focused on sustainably generating electricity while reusing laundry wastewater, the team created a prototype that made use of thermoelectric plates. By utilising excess heat from air conditioner compressors as well as the cold wastewater from washing machines, it was found that the sufficient temperature difference could be achieved to generate up to a substantial 6 volts. With the aid of Arduino components using C++ code hooked to a water pump system, the team further improved the prototype’s ability to maintain this temperature gradient and the resultant electrical output constant.
Throughout the programme, the team learnt many important skill sets from the workshop and the camp organised by Shell. Under the guidance of teacher mentors Ms Gina Tan and Mrs Yeo Siew Li, they pressed on, inspired to be positive agents of change.
