Slashdot Mirror
Bacteria Powered Batteries
Agent Provocateur writes "SpaceDaily reports on
a battery that is powered by chemical reactions caused by bacteria.
A Pentagon-backed project, University of Massachusetts researchers Swades Chaudhuri, an Indian, and Derek Lovley, an American, say the battery's source is an underground bacterium that gobbles up sugar and converts its energy into electricity.
Their prototype device ran flawlessly without refuelling for up to 25 days and is cheap and stable." The chemistry behind this thing isn't really that complex - keeping the bacteria alive and kicking during that time is prolly the tougher part - you can read more on Al Jazeera, and USA Today. Now, what about replacing this battery?
Is it on the back of a Delorean?
Now I finally have a use for all that old pizza stacked up in the corner of my room......
"A clean green technology? Commie hippie anti-capitalist root-eating sons of socialists!" ::CEO starts having a heart attack::
Similar to this Vehicle?
i wonder what the bastard will smell like.. if it isn't pleasant, might take a while to gain acceptance.
then again, if it smells like garbage, maybe it could attract flies, and maybe the flies could feed it.. ah, that would be funny.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/news-item107.htm
to turn leftover food into gas!
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
http://www.ias.uwe.ac.uk/goto.html?c-melhui
I've been running my fridge that way for years now!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Can you run your fridge off what's closest to the back in there?
-- Free speech is only free if your time is worth nothing.
Scientists say 50 grammes of sugar would keep a 40-watt light bulb lit for eight hours.
Now, what I will do, is to just connect this liposuction device with me and their innovation, turn my fat into hydrogen and fuel my car. I assume my excess kgs of excess fat will take me to whereever I want. Haha! Here we come McDonald's!
Imagine,
a stack of left over pizza suspended by a magnet waiting above "the Pit". when the power drops, the pizza drops.... voila, instant power back-up...
Need more power???, just add pizza.
Why are other peoples sig's always more witty ???
The reason Santa is so jolly is that he knows where all the bad girls live.
"It has to be able to use raw materials, rather than giving it refined fuel."
Huh? I for one would happily buy one if it could run my 40W max laptop for 8 hours on an ounce and a half (about 50 grams) of refined sugar. Why does it need further refinement before use?
Mr Fusion doesn't feed the DeLorean, it powers the Flux Capacitor, as the whole plot of episode 1 revolved around the lack of plutonium. The DeLorean itself is powered by gas (which again is the whole plot in episode 3)
A colony of e-coli bacteria? Like I don't already have enought of that shit floating round my kitchen.
From the article:
This I want to power my car. And laptop. And house appliances (not just so that I can pour coffee on my computer to recharge the battery)
This solves the hydrogen-storing problem in the hydrogen powered vehicles: no more dangerous concentration of hydrogen, instead you get a small tank containing bubbling "mud". Not quite inflammable in case of a collision.
Add to this that it's hardly polluting (just as much as taking a dump in a bosquet, I'd say), and it even helps reducing the amount of houseold garbage (Powerplants recycling garbage, anyone ?).
The main aspect of this energy source is that it completely suppress the need for combustion. Instead it uses slow, catalyzed, controlled chemical processes that use a lower amount of initial energy. No more smoke.
Maybe I'm overstating all this, but it definitely looks cool. And it's cheap, too. Carrot-powered car, coming our way !
will suddenly be in demand on long flights
1. The article says that to obtain 40 watts of power you need many such cells. I wonder exactly how many. More than will fit into my laptop case?
2. Besides sugar, the cell needs some mysterious 'redox chemicals'. How expensive they are? Can they be produced environmentally-friendly? Are they safe to store? So, this might or might not be a great invention.
What I need is a back yard composter/fertilizer dispenser/generator that I can throw leaves, grass (actually I mulch these now), kitched scaps (sugar cubes, carrots, etc).
I sell the extra energy back to the power grid, and spread the fertilizer on my yard.
No wait, this would make to much ecological/economic sense, I must be some kind of hippie, tree hugger, freak.
But localizing the energy production is a bit silly.
..
With this method, you run into the same problems that we have with automobiles and other gas powered devices. They are less efficient than large scale counterparts, which leads to waste energy, lost in poor engines, and exhaust.
It seems to make more sense to be to centralize the "compost" and generate electricity that way. This would keep bacteria in one place, and minimize the lost energy. It really wouldn't be any different than a power plant.
infact i'm pretty sure that's already been done. What are the benefits to localizing the energy generation? I can't see any. People will have to clean the devices, organic matter doesn't rot away into nothing. There are components to the waste generated by the bacteria organisms. you cant really stick in food and have it *all* gone
i see problems that are going to be difficult to fix. We already have a huge waste management system. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch for waste management to begin compost of organic waste and become power stations with the tech available. then the generated energy can just be stored in traditional batteries. it doesnt seem that these organic batteries offer any improved life over chemical batteries at all.
The reason raw sugar won't work, is because it will kill the ecoli. The water content in the bug is much higher than that in the surrounding media(pure sugar in this case). The water will will move towards the region of the high sugar content (following the gradient of high water concentration to low). This will dessicate the ecoli and kill them.
Be sure your batteries get plenty of fiber to avoid constipation.
I don't even know where to begin! Converting organic matter to electricity on demand on a portable scale - and you dismiis it as silly!
I'm a bit rusty on my recycling but:
- Primary: re-use for original purpose (e.g.
second-hand clothes)
- Secondary: re-use for alternative purpose (e.g. clothes as wiping rags)
- Tertiary: reclamation of materials (e.g. clothes as paper fibre)
- Quaternery: reclamation of energy (e.g. burning the clothes to warm you up)
So unless you like eating someone elses left-overs, want to replant the seeds of the tomato they've eaten, or make a halloween pumpkin, you are left with energy or land-fill. Silly energy!?I simply don't understand the argument that it is more efficient to gather the waste to a central location (by truck?), burn/convert it there, transmit across a high voltage line to your house, charge a NiCd, etc, than to stuff your leftovers in a CD size case and get energy provided by nature's best organic catalysts in the middle of no-where, or at the bottom of your loo.
Or were you planning to hook up all of Africa to the American grid? This would be ideal for families in developing countries to run a lamp bulb (or radio, or even a computer) off after 6 p.m. on the equator.
Gaah, nuff said.
Now when we say our battery died, we'll mean it literally.
While this development certainly sounds interesting, calling something cheap and stable based soley on a prototype wihout major major long-term testing seems to be jumping the gun a little.
Finally my B.O. is more than just a pretty smell...
photoplankton
What happens when these batteries rupture, bringing cultured bacteria to the surface to wreak havoc on all living beings?
/tinfoil
I'm telling you, it's SARS from cars.
This sounds like a neat power source for nano-technology. Power the nanobots off the sugar in the bloodstream.
And some get entered just to remove sugar from the bloodstreams of diabetics. Where do I sign up for that? (I'm a type II diabetic already, this could stave off more drastic treatment for years.)
Walk away from the conference table for a few seconds, when you come back there are no doughnuts left! Just a laptop and cell phone sitting there innocently. They'll never tell....
...
. . . for the bacteria.
So, that case of Jolt will now keep BOTH you and your laptop going for that all-nighter! Very convenient.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
The downside, however, is that it's a slow process. That cup of sugar could take weeks to digest. Still, a slow but steady trickle of electricity can be used to charge up a battery, which can then discharge large amounts of power when needed.
Obviously stacking a large cluster of these in a battery type configuration would solve the voltage/current supply issue.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
"Just a spoonful of sugar makes the cell phone turn on, the cell phone turn on..."
Kick in the Head
When the bacteria take over, there is gonna be MAJOR payback.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
If this comes through my fridge could be self powering by using that really old yoghurt that's in it! ;-)
My underwear could generate a few megawatts.
Trolling is a art,
83% Efficient? Thats impressive, if true. If you think that a typical car engine is only 20% efficient. Maybe one day you could run your car on Glucose..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
I wonder how safe these bacteria are? Not in any fearful way, but could they
be used to power an artificial heart, getting the sugar from the body? Perhaps
power artificial limbs?
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
There was an article on this nearly a year ago. As soon as I saw this, I assumed I was looking at a dupe. However, the earlier battery was developed in England, and part of the goal was to eventually have the battery run not off of pure sugar, but rather garbage. As you can imagine, witty comments about Mr. Fusion and the general cleaniness level of geeks ensued.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
Instead of kids needing batteries for toys, they'll all be going, 'mommy, can I have a pet battery for Christmas?'.
Now your Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger really does have power, and it really morphs too, albeit into a green blob of goo that will probably stain the carpet and be toxic to eat.
It doesn't state how much sugar it needs, nor the cost for electricity based on sugar prices. Any chemist know how 83% efficiency translates into cost and amount of sugar needed for a certain amount of power consumption?
Question everything.
yeah they did that in that other movie too :p
i think it was called The Matrix
Free the battery bacteria!
No slavery for electricity!
How many Rhodoferax died for your Walkman today?
Single-celled life forms are people too!
Et cetera, et cetera....
Coffee sweetners become the new unleaded.
It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious. -B.Hicks-
Amazingly, I've been able to obtain this confidential photograph of their prototype.
"Where we are now is where solar power was 20 or 30 years ago." So we have a few more decades to bicker about it while they make a working device.
Now when they x-ray your laptop at the airport, either:
a) your batteries will all die or
b) they'll mutate into a super hero or villan and take over the city.
Regradless, this is just another typical slashdot "Technology of the FUTURE!" article about something that we'll never hear about again. 99% of all "new technology" articles on slashdot just sort of fade away.
I know this will be modded OffTopic, but I think it important to reply to this (and I have karma to burn).
It is important to see the other man's point of view. One of the problems in Iraq at the moment is incomprehsnsion between the US forces and the locals. I agree that Al Jazeera does reflect an anti-US viewpoint. However, it does not create such a viewpoint - it reflects that of the world in which it lives. AJ is not killing US soldiers - is just speaks the same language as people who are. If you disregard all Arabs as "anti US terrorists", you will never achieve enough understanding if the Arab world to retire from Iraq gracefully.
Apart from the fact that the AJ piece is an amost exact dupe of the SpaceDaily article, it is an entirely impartial report about a piece of US innovation. It makes the US look good. What is bad about quoting an Arab source saying good things about the US? You need that - Arabs don't read the New York Times, they read Al Jazeera.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
The process that is core to this experiment(breaking down of sugar ) takes place in our bodies also. :-)
How long will it take for researchers to come up with a method to tap the extra energy in human beings(that usually gets converted to fat)? And then, when your cell goes dead - you'll have to eat more sugar
Further imagine what would happen if some major energy company decided to couple this knowledge with genetic cloning? Welcome to the real world!
even if we use "harmless" bacteria, nobody knows how they will influence our health and above all - the ecosystem - if they really are cultivated in large masses to satisfy the market for battery's. so what if the "living battery" is depleted, how do you prevent the bacteria from spreading like a wildfire and eventually mutating in something harmful? before this tech should go into large scale production, massive, and i emphazise the word !massive!, tests about the implications on human immunesystem and the ecosystem of this sort of bacteria should be conducted
".Sig Stealer" was here
So if I catch someone recharging a half discharged battery do I report them?
A calculator uses really tiny amounts of current compared to Christmas tree lights. My calculator hasn't had a battery charge in years, and my watch has a calculator in it too. Christmas lights got to use hunderds of times more power in comparison.
I can imagine the new movie already....
I'm still wondering if this variety of battery would have any ethyl alcohol output...
I could use a laptop battery that puts out a nice little shot of vodka for the end of the day. This feature could also motivate users to take very-good care of their bacteria.
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
I wonder if this means energy plants in the future will be pretty rotten places.
Interesting story. Given that the power is generated by bacteria, my first question would have to be: Is an optimal temperature required for bacterial function / electrical generation?
Maintaining a warm environment for the sake of the bacteria would certainly rule out plenty of uses from cars to flashlights, and most importantly: that little light that goes on when you open your freezer.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
As biological systems, these battery bacteria should be susceptible to a host of illnesses -- viruses (called bacteriophages), mold, other bacteria, etc.. Swiping a packet of sugar from the restaurant to fuel a laptop might get you some extra surfing time (about half an hour according to my back-of-the-envelope-calcs) or it may get you some nasty battery disease. Will we need public service announcements on practicing safe laptop recharging?
Sugar may be cheap, but sterilized sugar solution in a handy refill cartridge will cost a pretty penny. And, yes, it only means more sweet spam.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Just as I was getting set up to rant, I discover that "prolly" is now a recognised acronym for "probably".
To newspeak is good. I did plus ungood thoughtcrime.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Yoghurt contains mass produced bacteria.
Most soft cheeses like Camenbert and Brie depend on bacteria for their production.
Bacteria is used in most sewerage treatment plants.
You're hatching them in your gut and every day you shit them. Multiply that by everyone in your city, the world etc and be very afraid. Ie you are mass producing them.
Did you know living in an environment artificially depleted of bacteria (eg too much bleach), can increase your chances of things like Asthma?
Bacteria are used every day by farmers to control other pests like mould and fungus and caterpillers (dipel). (Ironically penicillin is a fungus to control bacteria). Bacteria are also important to good quality soil and natural recycling of vegetation and animal manure.
It probably wouldn't be a good idea to eat your phone battery, but that's no reason to be afraid of it.
Bacteria only multiply out of control in very favourable conditions. That's why they say you should keep your food refrigerated or boiling ie keep your food at temperatures not conducive to growing toxic bacteria like some salmonella.
I suppose you still eat chicken or eggs? The salmonella is not completely eliminated, only minimised...
And bacteria doesn't generally "spread" really fast without help.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
Al Jazeera comes freom Qatar, where women are allowed to drive - as they are in Iraq and most of the rest of the Arab world.
You prove my point - you are treating the Arab world as if it was a monolithic whole, then apply the worst of the worst to the whole. Of cvourse Al Quaida and Saddams thugs are murderous thugs. Bu they are no more typical of the whole Arab world than the Klu Klux Klan are typical of the USA.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Have you read USA Today before?
From Al Jazeera:
"The bug in question is Rhodoferax ferriducens, which was found in airless sediment deep below ground at a terrestrial site at Oyster Bay, Virginia, and identified as a promising candidate for oxidising simple sugars."
USA Today:
"Bacteria are tiny living things. So tiny you can't even see them with your eyes! You need a microscope to see them. Microscopes help scientists see very small things."
note: usa today quote made up for fun's sake.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
wats ur prob? lngwg alwys evolvs. lemme ax u somfin, do u use cntractns? prolly do, sinc u sed "I'll". dis is no diffrnt, u only sav 2 lttrs.
Ow. That sprained my language center.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Arthur C Clarke talked about this years ago in one of the Rendezvous with Rama trilogy - technology from the giant spiders IIRC.
Somewhere, there is a tiny bacteria named NEO being offered a blue pill.....
One step closer.
It was the episode where Homer became an astronaut. He was up on the shuttle, and he ended up breaking an ant farm and releasing all the ants. So the ants were floating around in the microgravity, and when Kent Brockman was relaying the story on the news, the picture that came in from the shuttle was an ant on the camera, and many floating around in the background.
(A page on the episode, with the quote)
So Kent Brockman says:
"Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."
Great episode. A very good one to watch, if you get a chance.
*honks*
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
But it's extremely unfortunate and in poor taste that Slashdot choose to highlight it using Al Jazeera as a news source. This news outlet is the largest voice of anti-US sentiment in the Arab world and is a particularly offensive forum to highight while our soldiers are still dying in that area of the world.
Uhm... it's unfortunate yes. But ONLY because Al-Jazeera is such an unreliable source of accurate news.
no thanks
Of course, this was the concept behind the Dracucell, which theoretically will be able to extract about 100W from the bloodstream (though actual efficiencies will be quite a bit below that).
I suspect Dracucells will do wonders for the diabetic population.
--Dan
I built a bacterial fuel cell (from their description, identical except for the bacterial species) as a high school science project in 1964! We just used some bacteria from the Kansas River.
It worked... dump in sugar, get out current.
I think what is new here is the high level of efficiency.
The only good weather is bad weather.
The Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab at the University of the West of England has demonstrated a robot doing phototaxis, powered entirely by a microbial fuel cell.
In a Pentagon-backed project, University of Massachusetts researchers Swades Chaudhuri, an Indian, and Derek Lovley, an American, say the battery's source is an underground bacterium that gobbles up sugar and converts its energy into electricity.
They didn't go on to show any especial suspicion about that, they just noted it. Later on, at the end of the article, they described the Military applications -- "the US Department of Defence was interested in it for powering underwater microphones and sonar to spot passing ships and submarines." They were quite positive, all told, describing the batteries as remarkable for a proof-of-concept. They mentioned applications in impoverished areas, using batteries working from sewage for example.
On the other hand, USA Today didn't mention the Pentagon connection, describing the scientists only as being "at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst." The USA Today story was considerably shorter, lacked Al Jazeera's detailed description of how the thing worked ("...each side containing a graphite electrode and separated by a membrane. On one side was R ferriducens swimming in a glucose solution, which it broke down into carbon dioxide (CO2) and electrons. The electrons were transported to the nearby electrode...") and just generally read much more superficially.
I wouldn't describe the Al Jazeera story as amazingly well-written -- it included some grammatical slips that read as if they'd been made in translation -- but it was a more complete bit of reporting by far, and showed no determined bias other than noting the military connection in a neutral way, IMHO.
I'd bet the story's submitter included that Al Jazeera link because it's just plain better. Take a look yourself.
(And as far as the world news thing goes, you should try to understand why it is that the Arab world watches this channel rather than the Western World's channels, which they see as bought and paid for by US corporate interests. It is a point of view, and you might want to understand it even if you don't agree.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Lysol. Kills 99% of airborne bacteria. Now with patented Dura-kill for those tough to reach batteries.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."