'Bacteria battery' grazes on biomass for baffling benefits

A new university experiment claims to give new life to the promise of a fuel cell made from bacteria, with the added benefit that it could clean up the earth as it feeds on waste biomass for its fuel.

Natalie D'Silva, a student of Dhempe College of Arts and Science in Miramar, India, has been researching this technique, referred to as microbial fuel cell (MFC). Her current experiment netted a surprising 0.47 volts.  Ideally, this power would go towards powering small devices such as cell phones and other electronics.

Similar research has also produced promising results, but the challenge has been to make a sufficient amount of power to be useful (see Fuel cells go to waste).

According to D'Silva, the device converts chemical energy to electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of microorganisms. The trick is that inside the battery a substrate is oxidized by microorganisms, which generates electrons and protons.

The phenomenon being harvested is similar to "bioluminescence" in marine organisms, the deep-water and bacterial organisms that produce light.

What is particularly promising is that because MFCs can utilize almost any organic material, they can be installed in places such as water treatment plants and produce clean electricity from waste, and in the process consume the waste material itself.

Also, unlike other processes that create heat, these MFCs work at room temperature, which is helpful in small devices where cooling is an issue because it takes up valuable design space.

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