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Fall Fuel Cell News -- Watts From Wastewater
Reading the Penn State announcement of an H2-producing fuel cell led me
to this one which may have more immediate space use: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041030205626.htm quote Source: American Chemical Society Date: 2004-11-02 Watts From Wastewater: New Device Produces Power While Treating Sewage A new technology is being developed that can turn raw sewage into raw power. The device, called a microbial fuel cell, not only treats wastewater, but also provides a clean energy source with the potential for enormous financial savings, according to scientists at Pennsylvania State University. [...] Similar in design to a hydrogen fuel cell, the microbial fuel cell captures electrons that are naturally released by bacteria as they digest organic matter and then it converts the electrons into electrical current. "We generated up to 72 watts per square meter, which is 2.8 times that generated in a larger device reported earlier this year in ES&T," says Bruce Logan, Ph.D., an environmental engineer at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of the paper. . While still a relatively small amount of power, the researchers have used these types of devices to run a small fan. The technology is developing rapidly. Since submitting the current paper, Logan and his colleagues have tweaked microbial fuel cell devices to produce up to 350 watts per square meter. "Two years ago we had 0.1 ... and now we're in the 100s," he says. "We'd like to get in the range of 500-1000. We're looking for another order of magnitude increase. /quote While not a huge power source, it may have a place as in waste processing in the space environment. It will be interesting to see what constraints this system may have down the road a little bit. I found this one while reading http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050422165917.htm which is also at http://live.psu.edu/story/11709 quote Microbial Fuel Cell: High Yield Hydrogen Source And Wastewater Cleaner Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone. /quote /dps |
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