A germ-powered fuel cell?

[shanek]

Apparently...

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced yesterday that they have built a novel device that uses bacteria to turn garbage into electricity.
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The new "microbial fuel cell," an early prototype, cannot generate enough power to run an appliance, but it can operate virtually indefinitely without interruption, and is far more efficient than anything like it ever built.

"We are not going to be adding to the power grid at any significant rate soon," said Derek Lovley, a professor of microbiology at UMass-Amherst. "But with an electric lawn mower, you could use the leaves and clippings to power up the battery for next week."

The bacteria in the battery generate electrical current when they feed on sugars, which are found virtually everywhere in nature. The technology could create electricity from a wide variety of materials, from human sewage to compost.

The battery relies on a colony of tiny bacteria, called Rhodoferax ferrireducens, first brought up from underground by a research drill in Oyster Bay, Va. The bacterium is unusual because it is able to completely break down sugars without using oxygen. In its natural environment, the bacterium breaks down sugars for energy and deposits electrons on iron as a byproduct.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ar...fuel_cell_uses_germs_to_generate_electricity/

Interesting! An alternative fuel source AND an alternative to garbage dumping!

 

[Jon_in_london]

Well, only organic garbage. Would be good if the bugs ate plastic!

Hmmm.. Sulphur/Iron redox bugs... I knew a guy who got a culture of Thiobacillus Ferridoxans to frow indefinitely by passing an electric current through the culture vessel..... Thats a sulphate reducer....I guess an Iron reducer may be able to produce some EMF...

I have wondered about using a semi-synthetic monster bug to produce very large proton gradients and run electricity from that.... should be possible.