A Dirt-Bag Fuel Cell
A simple microbial fuel cell could offer reliable power in the developing world.
Kristina Grifantini 01/14/2009
- 5 Comments
A startup that is striving to bring energy to countries that lack reliable power has developed a remarkably simple new microbial fuel-cell design: grain bags, stuffed with metal and dirt. Lebônê, a startup based at Harvard University, has already shown how to make fuel cells from buckets full of wastewater, with a graphite cloth as the anode and chicken wire as the cathode. In this setup, bacteria extract electrons from organic waste at the anode to generate small amounts of power--enough to charge, say, a flashlight or cell phone.
A contact at the company tells me that the bags work pretty much the same way, but they should be even easier to make and more portable than the bucket design. What's more, owners can bury the bags in the yard, so that they are undisturbed and out of the way. They can even link several of the bags together--in series or in parallel--to increase the voltage or the electrode area, respectively.
The bags are fairly ubiquitous across Africa, according to the startup. "They're very familiar to the people there, so it's a natural material to use for something that we want to get widespread acceptance for," says CTO Aviva Pressner. The team is still testing the best materials to use, and it reports that a graphite anode and aluminum cathode combination works well. With funding from a World Bank grant, Lebônê plans to deploy several hundred bags in Namibia this summer and thousands more in 2010.
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ranadrew
31 Comments
at the risk of sounding cynical
Just what every adequate food and clean water lacking impoverished individual with no health care needs... a battery to charge their cell phone or flashlight...
Hmmmmm, what else, maybe their Palm? Is this low energy enabling intended to tap into the masses of less fortunate in the world in order to convert them into consumers of personal electronic devices and services? OK, so the conspiracy theory is a bit far fetched.
There has to be alot of people out there alot smarter than me. Help me out here, what survival critical devices might these people be able to afford whereby the low voltage energy source would actually improve their chances in life? Bug Zapper for the disease carrier mosquitos... nope, I think those are pretty high energy devices.
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gigonaut
1 Comment
Re: at the risk of sounding cynical
Add something like this to the mix and they are beginning to use that power to solve problems. Having power even in small amounts is an enabler that brings new options to the table.
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Guest (jeep1104)
Re: at the risk of sounding cynical
Maybe a poor child could charge a flashlight. With the flashlight he could do his homework after dark.
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