Department - Author 1

Electrical Engineering Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in Electrical Engineering

Date

12-2014

Primary Advisor

Taufik

Abstract/Summary

This purpose of this project, sponsored by Boeing and advised by Dr. Arakaki and Dr. Taufik, is to build a high voltage pulse width generator that lyses algae cells to harvest the biofuel within. This project uses Emmanuel Loza's thesis on a cascaded high voltage converter with variable control to build a portable pulse width generator with independent control on the peak voltage, pulse width, and frequency. The project focuses on creating a pulse width generator capable of finding the most optimal pulsed electric field to lyse algae. The pulse width module ranges from 10V-80V peak voltage, 60Hz-100 kHz frequency, 17ms-10us pulse width, and 20%-80% duty cycle according to Emmanuel Loza’s thesis. The pulse width generator’s interface allows users without any engineering background to operate it.

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