"Northwestern University researchers have introduced a soil-microbe-powered fuel cell, significantly outperforming similar technologies and providing a sustainable solution for powering low-energy devices, with full public access to its designs for widespread application. The fuel cell’s 3D-printed cap peeks above the ground. The cap keeps debris out of the device while enabling air flow. Credit: Bill Yen/Northwestern University" (ScitechDaily, Scientists Develop New Dirt-Powered Fuel Cell That Runs Forever)
The main problem with solar panels is that they don't work at night-time or in dark or dirty space. The fuel cells are more effective systems. Especially if they can get fuel straight from their environment. The new fuel cell can turn the dirt into methane using bacteria. The fuel cell involves bacteria culture. Then it drives dirt in that chamber. Robots can use this kind of system to produce energy for the robots that operate in areas. There is a lot of biological waste.
The system called "mechanical cow" is a robot that eats biological material into the chamber where there are bacteria. And then that bacteria transforms that biological material into methane.
There are two ways to use microbes as electric producers. The first way is to use them as methane preducers. Methane can be used as fuel in the same systems as natural gas. The other version is that bacteria acidic metabolite can be put between the electrodes.
That system is the conventional way to use bacteria. And in that case, the metabolite just replaces other acids in the regular batteries.
Today so-called green methane that bacteria produce in dumps is used in power plants. Methane is easy to clean from carbon. The carbon filters can remove carbon from that molecule and turn methane into pure hydrogen. The new system that uses this technology is the book-sized fuel cell. The new fuel cell uses dirt as fuel.
The system uses bacteria to create methane from dirt into methane. And then that methane can burn in fuel cells. If the system removes carbon from methane, that thing can turn the methane into pure hydrogen.
In that highly portable system, bacteria that normally live in swamps turn dirt into methane. Then the system can use it in normal fuel cells. The bacteria used in this fuel cell require nutrients.
This kind of biological fuel cell can use all kinds of biological dirt. This kind of thing can used in larger-scale power production. Fuel cells are like all other batteries. They can connected using parallel or serial connections. So that makes it possible to decrease energy payments in buildings and cars.
That fuel cell can operate theoretically forever if carbon does not cover its electrodes. This kind of tool can be the next-generation tool for at least small system power production. And this kind of fuel cell can give electricity to robots, and why not for things like mobile telephones and laptop computers?
This type of fuel cell can operate separately as independent power units. But in the future, they could replace conventional lithium batteries.
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Georgia Tech researchers have innovated a cost-effective and rapid method for printing nano-sized metal structures, using light-based technology that could revolutionize nanoscale 3D printing. (Art concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com. (ScitechDaily, Light-Speed Leap in Nano Printing: Faster, Cheaper Metal Structures)
The 3D nano-printing technology can turn fuel cells more effectively than ever before. The 3D printing systems can increase the fuel cell's electrode surface areas. And another thing is that 3D printers can also produce more complicated structures than ever before. The next-generation fuel cells can have a burning chamber or cell-structure fuel cell group between the shells of the product. In that system, the system might look like a drinking bottle.
The fuel is in the chamber middle of the shell, and the system burns fuel between the out and in the shell. That keeps its size compact. The vacuum-thermos layer keeps the internal structure and the outside shell's temperature low. This kind of system can installed in small portable fuel cells that people can connect to mobile systems. Or that kind of system can used in small submarines and robot drones.
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-develop-new-dirt-powered-fuel-cell-that-runs-forever/
https://learningmachines9.wordpress.com/2024/02/10/the-new-dirt-powered-fuel-cells-can-work-forever/
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