A fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2024/01/dirt-powered-fuel-cell-runs-forever/

by wglb • 3 years ago

45 3 3 years ago

news.northwestern.edu

generated 68x more power than needed to operate its sensors
all components...can be purchased at a local hardware store

I can't help but think this would be used for surveillance. All you need is dirt to run a sensor and transmitter. But it's cool science.

It would be interesting to figure out how much does it take away from the soil biome's energy budget. If you did a whole acre of these, would the insects, worms, and millipedes take a hit, and then birds and reptiles etc.?

happyopossum• 3 years ago

A single acre of anything isn’t really enough to affect upper level life forms - birds, lizards, heck - even insects can move a few hundred feet that-a-way and get back to doing what they do.

Metacelsus• 3 years ago

We made one of these in my college microbiology class! It could blink a red LED.

Many kinds of soil bacteria aren't very picky about their choice of electron acceptor. They're "breathing" using wires instead of oxygen.

A fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt

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