Grow Your Own Electricity

With oil prices keep going up, it is becoming more and more expensive to generate electricity. Since people like to save money, there has been a lot of research into alternative fuel sources. Most people have heard of solar or hydrogen power, but the use of microorganism, such as bacteria, might be a better solution. When a device uses microorganisms to convert a carbon source into fuel, it is called a microbial fuel cell. Some microorganisms are already used to make fuel sources. Ethanol is made with yeast, which is another type of microorganisms. While these alternative fuel sources are a good source of power, there might be a better way to generate electricity. The use of a bacteria called geobacteria could be a great new way to make electricity.

There are many ways that this kind of bacteria is better then methane and hydrogen fuel cells. To generate the power from methane and hydrogen fuel cells, they need to use expensive material as catalysts in order to generate the fuel. The second is that many times the byproducts of the fuel generation are either toxic, flammable, or have other problems. This means that in order to use these products, extra precautions have to be taken. They also usually require high temperatures in order to undergo the reactions needed to make the fuel. They also usually have complex and regulated systems to send the fuel from a plant to where it is needed. Theses systems generate extra costs that make the fuel more expensive. The geobacteria can go around all these problems.

The geobacteria can use products that have little value to us, such as organic wastes, so that can remove the need for expensive catalysts. The bacteria can grow at room temperature and it is thought that it could grow at a much wider range of temperatures. Having the wider range of growth reduces the need to maintain a certain temperature. The growth and generation of the bacteria does not produce toxic and dangerous byproducts so it can be made closer to where it is needed. They are fair easy to grow as long as they have a food source, so they can be maintained easily. This option is good for more remote parts of the world that do not have access to expensive pieces of technology. The geobacteria is better then other types of energy generating bacteria, such as yeast that makes ethanol, because it can gather more energy per unit of organic food.

There still exists one reason why geobacteria is still not used on any scale larger then small devices. This is because microbial fuel cells that use geobacteria are not developed enough for mass use. The fuel cells still have to be quite large in order to gain any real power from them. The best microbial fuel cells that are out now can only generate 50 watts per cubic meter of fuel cells. That is only enough power for a medium sized light bulb. While that is not a lot of power, there is a lot of research that is trying to reduce resistance from electrochemical barriers and improve cathodes and anodes.

While these are still much research to be done on this power source, it is a great idea. There are many benefits to using the microbial fuel cells. Now that more money is going into alternative fuel sources, maybe there will be more money for the research of these microbial fuel cells. Maybe one day in the future people, instead of people have to go out and gather resources for fuel production, they will be able to just grow it at their homes.

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