Regan envisions near-term applications that would not depend on cellulose, but rather would degrade the soup of compounds in wastewater. "In waste treatment, the incoming product is free. It's waste material, so you could use that electricity to run pumps or aerators," he said. Even if the wastewater couldn't produce enough electricity to completely power the plant, it could at least reduce the plant's utility bill. Others have found the necessary groups of microorganisms in different environments. Ann Christy of Ohio State University in Columbus discovered that bacteria recovered from the guts of cows had both cellulose degraders and exoelectrogenic bacteria and could therefore be used to run a fuel cell. "The fuel could be hay or any sort of leaf clippings or grass clippings. It could even be manure," she said. Her lab has gathered enough power from these fuel cells to charge AA batteries. "At this point we can probably go to C's or D's," she said. It is already enough to charge an MP3 player. Eventually, these chargers could be used in rural areas without electricity or following disasters where power is lost, Christy said. Christy is also interested in the possibility of scaling up the process to harness power from manure waste lagoons or septic tanks in private homes. Similar devices are already in place in the ocean, powering remote monitoring devices. In that case, the microbes living in ocean sediment convert sediment organic matter into electricity gathered by sediment fuel cells with an electrode stuck in the ocean floor. "We have lots of questions. It's an exciting time to be studying this very innovative and not-so-well-known source of bioenergy," Christy said. Related Links: Microbial Fuel Cell Learning Center at Ohio State University How Stuff Works: Is ethanol really more eco-friendly than gas? |
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