Microbe-powered 'fart' machine stores energy

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Microbe-powered 'fart' machine stores energy
Could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 into methane

By Eric Bland
Discovery Channel


It sounds like a gag gift instead of serious science, but a new electrical farting machine could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 in the atmosphere into methane.

The technique won't combat global warming directly, since both CO2 and methane are potent greenhouse gases, but it could help store alternative energies such as wind and solar more efficiently.

It works like this: giving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny "farts." The methane, in turn, can be used to power fuel cells or to store the electrical energy chemically until its needed.

"We found that we can directly convert electrical current into methane using a very specific microorganism," said Bruce Logan, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, who details his discovery in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

We envision this as a way to store electrical energy, to convert electricity into a biofuel," he said.

Archea are older, and more primitive, than bacteria, lacking a nucleus and other cellular machinery.

Most archea are still a mystery to scientists, but methane-producing archea, known as methanogens, are well known. They team up with termites to digest wood pulp. With other microorganisms, they help decompose organic matter.

Now scientists hope to use methanogens to create microbial fuel cells, which is where Logan's team found Methanobacterium palustre, the electricity-drinking, methane-emitting archea, clustered around the cathode.

In the natural environment, various bacteria emit electrons that the archea use as fuel. The archea are 80 percent efficient at conserving the electrical energy into the chemical bonds of methane, good enough that Logan and his team want to use the methanogen to store energy generated by intermittent power sources, like wind, solar or tidal energy.

If a wind turbine already generated electrical energy, and energy is lost converting it to methane and then back again into electricity, why not just stick the electricity into a battery and save more of it?

"How big a battery do you have?" answered Logan. It would take a large, expensive battery to store all that electricity. A fuel cell would be an easier and cheaper way to store and transport it.

Yet the single-step archea model is suspiciously simple, said Bruce Rittmann, a microbiologist at Arizona State University. Rittman isn't convinced that Logan's team found archea capable of converting CO2 to methane in one step.

"It just doesn't have the cellular machinery to turn electrons directly into methane," said Rittman, who is drafting a paper arguing against Logan's technique.

"It's an interesting discovery, producing methane with electricity from the cathode," said Rittman. It just might be too good to be true.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30372491/

© 2009 Discovery Channel
© 2009 MSNBC.com
 
Microbe-powered 'fart' machine stores energy
Could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 into methane

By Eric Bland
Discovery Channel


It sounds like a gag gift instead of serious science, but a new electrical farting machine could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 in the atmosphere into methane.

The technique won't combat global warming directly, since both CO2 and methane are potent greenhouse gases, but it could help store alternative energies such as wind and solar more efficiently.

It works like this: giving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny "farts." The methane, in turn, can be used to power fuel cells or to store the electrical energy chemically until its needed.

"We found that we can directly convert electrical current into methane using a very specific microorganism," said Bruce Logan, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, who details his discovery in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

We envision this as a way to store electrical energy, to convert electricity into a biofuel," he said.

Archea are older, and more primitive, than bacteria, lacking a nucleus and other cellular machinery.

Most archea are still a mystery to scientists, but methane-producing archea, known as methanogens, are well known. They team up with termites to digest wood pulp. With other microorganisms, they help decompose organic matter.

Now scientists hope to use methanogens to create microbial fuel cells, which is where Logan's team found Methanobacterium palustre, the electricity-drinking, methane-emitting archea, clustered around the cathode.

In the natural environment, various bacteria emit electrons that the archea use as fuel. The archea are 80 percent efficient at conserving the electrical energy into the chemical bonds of methane, good enough that Logan and his team want to use the methanogen to store energy generated by intermittent power sources, like wind, solar or tidal energy.

If a wind turbine already generated electrical energy, and energy is lost converting it to methane and then back again into electricity, why not just stick the electricity into a battery and save more of it?

"How big a battery do you have?" answered Logan. It would take a large, expensive battery to store all that electricity. A fuel cell would be an easier and cheaper way to store and transport it.

Yet the single-step archea model is suspiciously simple, said Bruce Rittmann, a microbiologist at Arizona State University. Rittman isn't convinced that Logan's team found archea capable of converting CO2 to methane in one step.

"It just doesn't have the cellular machinery to turn electrons directly into methane," said Rittman, who is drafting a paper arguing against Logan's technique.

"It's an interesting discovery, producing methane with electricity from the cathode," said Rittman. It just might be too good to be true.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30372491/

© 2009 Discovery Channel
© 2009 MSNBC.com

I could be wrong, but do you have just the slightest farting obsession, Bysshe?
 
tldr...but I bought some fart putty for my daughter yesterday. Good times :D
 
I could be wrong, but do you have just the slightest farting obsession, Bysshe?

Me? I don't know what you're talking about. :rolleyes:

tldr...but I bought some fart putty for my daughter yesterday. Good times :D

I love fart putty! The best Christmas I've had in years was when my dad gave me several fart-themed presents. I got fart putty, a clock that farted a different fart every hour and a fart detector that sounded an alarm and said, "Warning! Fart detected!"

The fart detector actually works. :o

My favorite part of that article is, "It works like this: giving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny 'farts.'"
 
so bysshe baby, this thing you have for farts, is it just your own, or do you like other people's as well? :straightface:
cuz honestly, i dont think mine are bad at all :o
 
so bysshe baby, this thing you have for farts, is it just your own, or do you like other people's as well? :straightface:
cuz honestly, i dont think mine are bad at all :o

I find everything about farts hysterically funny. :D
 
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