Cell Phones Powered By Bacteria?
So you're in Sub-Saharan Africa. You're surrounded by more bugs than Windows 95, and there isn't a power outlet for miles. But you've seen 'The Matrix,' so really it's not that much of a stretch: a bacteria-powered cellphone charger could be the answer to the lack of phone infrastructure in the developing world, even for those without electricity.
The newest iteration of the technology comes courtesy of the brain-builders at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who have designed a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that runs on plant waste; the prototype won the first prize in a recent contest held by Dow Chemical called MADMEC, which was held to encourage new uses of materials that allow alternative or non-traditional sources of energy.
Without getting too deep into it, MFCs use electrons -- released by feeding bacteria on sugars, starches, and other organic material -- to produce electricity. The team's prototypes, which it's calling BioVolt, run on less refined fuel than any before it, and the bacteria digest the cellulose in plant waste. The creators also say they can be produced for only about $2 a pop.
But don't start planting seeds just yet -- the technology is still very much "proof of concept". it would currently take around six months to charge a phone's battery using a BioVolt, which is about five months, 30 days, 24 hours, and 40 minutes longer than a three year-old Nokia.
From New Scientist
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
diane elgin said 11:10AM on 2-09-2008
Hi I am new Here if you are interested in the Govios phone please go to govios.com To get a phone USE THIS REFERRAL CODE 210611. I read the about the students going green. I think it's wonderful that our the new generation really want to change the world by making better choices. I have a Govios phone and they are using satellite, not towers. They also use an sell recycle phones. I think this is one company that will really make us think about what we do with our phones and what happen to our cell phone when we are through with it . Please read. go to the studentsgoinggreen.com
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Herman Arango said 12:28PM on 10-09-2007
I know of someone who when he was just on 8th grade developed energy from Pectines. He later developed a battery based on the same principles. This happened over 30 years ago. But the big companies wanted to buy the technology so that it would not ever see the light of day.
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steve said 12:13PM on 10-09-2007
i've seen this and have invested in the technology. it's the ultimate in reusable energy with no dependency on sunshine, wind or anything more than the nature of virus' to grow. buy it.
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DEL said 3:31PM on 10-09-2007
HI... Honey!
WOULD kiss you but
I see you been on the phone all day...
GOT BACTERIA ALL OVER YOUR MOUTH.
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GRANT said 1:39PM on 10-09-2007
Herman Arango is full of the brown stuff!
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BurlJeanD said 1:16PM on 10-09-2007
Wonderful what new technology can do. Like to see new and old developing possible products for us to use in the future. I will not hold my breath waiting for products to be invented, tested and working in seconds. Why hasn't someone invented an automatic toaster that works in seconds?
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David said 2:50PM on 10-09-2007
How about just using sunlight to recharge and heat stuff? They should be mass producing solar panels or selling the ones NASA doesn't need. Right now, they are so expensive, because hardly anybody makes them.
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Bob said 6:24PM on 10-11-2007
I don't really know if "Herman" is full of the brown stuff but we were making "bug" batteries over 25 years ago in science lab and running small lights on them...
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Tony said 4:07PM on 10-09-2007
What if your skull could be lined with flash memory and your brain grew connections to it over time so you would have direct mental access to say 10 terabits of information that would be download per your specifications. The entire encyclopedia, thesaurus, other languages, etc., then add the ability to download different info as needed with a blue tooth connection using your cell phone over night, as an example, current maps of any area you plan to travel too, were you an architect, all info concerning the design of a building, or if you were a pharmacist, complete knowledge of all drugs, then think of being infected with a man made virus that could enter your brain build this added memory and connect to your current memory. Fear not, these and more you (mankind) will do.
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Lee said 5:36PM on 10-09-2007
Using solar panels makes so much more sense, as the sun shines in Africa everyday. I saw a man on TV who had invented a solar panel about the size of a coffee table top that could fold up and be stored at night or carried where you needed to use it during the day and it could power a radio, cell phone, small appliance, etc. He wanted to make them available for about $30 but I have never seen him on TV since the documentary about 6 years ago. Some oil company probably brought up his rights to the technology so we won't see it in use.
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Joe said 11:56PM on 10-09-2007
I think this is wonderful. Companies like Govios Mobile are currently trying to curb the impact that mobile phones have on the environment, maybe we could all start with recycling our old phones and batteries...
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ukantseeme said 6:56PM on 10-09-2007
.....you can do the same thing with democrats...
pack some into a small room, let them degrade
themselves...and voila !....microbial fool cells.
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zinfan said 9:51AM on 11-24-2007
Regarding the comment from Steve the Investor, viruses are not bacteria. They cannot digest cellulose in plant waste to produce energy. Their sole function is to invade other living host cells and turn them into virus-breeding factories which ultimately rupture allowing the newly created viral offspring to escape and attack other host cells. Unless you packed your "BioVolt" with viable host cells along with the appropriate food and environment to keep them alive, the viruses would not be able to do anything, let alone create electricity.
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byjfritch said 8:25PM on 10-09-2007
Wow, I can't believe that someome would think that "being" would evolve from technology like this! Do you think that we are all just "evolved"?
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bob said 12:23AM on 10-10-2007
Right David. Lee, solar cells cost anywhere from about $2.50 to $3.50 per Watt of energy available. New processes promise to take that down to less than 10 cents per Watt. Also, the new coatings can be applied to plastics avoiding the costs of using Silicon. Also... these can retrieve energy from much lower light levels which opens solar power to places like Seattle. BUT, need to coat them with something because oxygen degrades them. Can apply this stuff like paint and dyes can make it more susceptable to different wavelengths (colors) of light. Contraryt to the theme that large power producers will buy them out, The need is such that these technologies are going to make it. Have a nice day. Good for the BioVolt guys. Good thinking even if it never gets to be practicable.
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RockyRaccoon said 3:00AM on 10-10-2007
All these comments are so interesting,I'm able to nod off while reading them,only to wake-up an hour later tosee no real change.Try to make your comments interesting to the reader. I implore you.
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Adri said 3:26AM on 10-10-2007
ummmm....How likely is it that your cell phone is going to have any reception, therefore any purpose at all, in remote parts of Africa where electricity is not present? Am I the only person that thought of this? I'm all for advancements, but c'mon there has to be a greater use for this than that!
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cimitry said 5:19AM on 10-10-2007
Whenever you idiots talk about a barren or undeveloped land, you talk about "Sub-
Saharan Africa". I am so sick of that crap. Have any of you actually been to "Sub-Saharan Africa"? Everything you have here is there, except for the pompous ethnocentric jackasses who compare everything bad to "Sub-Saharan Africa". By the way, Africa is not a country, it's a continent with over 30 member countries, geniuses.
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Ron Purvis said 2:08PM on 10-14-2007
Lee, those solar panels are available for purchase right now. Many people who go hiking a lot have those type of panels. The only thing is that they cost a whole lot more than $30. If you go to http://www.outfittersatellite.com/solar.htm you can see that they range in price from $175 to $480.
One thing that you have to understand is that many inventors claim that their invention will be easy to make at low prices. Most of the time, they underestimate the cost dramatically.
Herman, you are being irrational with your claims. There are many times that a smart person can show a concept of a technology that appears great at the time. The problem is that many of these things that you conspiracy nuts think are being held back by the evil corporations is in fact not able to be developed economically in a way that can be used today. Either it is just too expensive to make use of the technology, or it is not feasible to ramp it up for use.
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Ray said 10:37AM on 10-19-2007
"More bugs than Windows 95?"
You have to be kidding. Compared to later and later versions of Windows, Win 95 is a fast, solid, dependable work horse. The character-eating habits of Win XP's word processor and the time-wasting "logic" in aol 9.0 are the twin software equivalent of a mushroom cloud.
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