(1.0K) |
Just
Add Sugar
With a little sugar and a few billion microbes, electrochemist
Peter Bennetto hopes to produce enough electricity to run a
watch, a car, or even a city. Peter calculates that an electric
car could travel 15 miles on two pounds of sugar. The electrical
energy to run the car is produced as little microbes eat the
sugar. | Unlike
oil, sugar is cheap and replenishable. Microbes are free. (0.0K) |
Biobatteries
(8.0K)
A microbe digesting its dinner will liberate electrons. Using
a clever fuel cell design, these electrons can produce a small
electric current. As long as the microbes are fed, they will
keep generating power. For example, an E. coli battery
sustained an electric current continuously for three months,
at which time the research team got tired of watching and turned
the equipment off. At present, the power output is quite low,
about two-tenths of a watt at half a volt. Bennetto, however,
is convinced that eventually his "living batteries" will bring
cheap electricity to places too remote or too poor to be served
by conventional electrical generating plants. |
(0.0K) | You
need to light a standard 2 D-cell flashlight. How would you
hook up Bennetto's biobatteries to give you the proper voltage
to light the flashlight. |
|
(0.0K) | Suppose
an electrical device require a minimum of 2 amps of current
and one volt of potential difference. Design a circuit of biobatteries
to meet this requirement. |
(1.0K) | Click
to
http://134.225.167.114/ncbe/protocols/ PRACBK/fuelcell.html
for detailed information on microbial fuel cells. Clicking will
launch a new window. |
(0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) | (0.0K) |