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Fall Fuel Cell News -- Watts From Wastewater



 
 
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Old April 27th 05, 08:46 PM
snidely
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Default 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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