Electricity from Sand Bacteria

Published on 19 Apr 2022. Written by Bheru Singh

About the project

Given the finite supply of fossil fuels, this biofuel cell is a promising approach for generating power in a renewable, carbon-neutral way. One approach is use of fuel cell and generating the energy using bacteris from muds

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With some mud, salt, and water, you can create a closed circuit that generates a current. This is called a microbial fuel cell, a device that uses bacteria to create electrical power by oxidizing simple compounds like glucose or organic matter in wastewater.

The fuel cell works when bacteria attach to the electrode in an anode chamber of a cell that is oxygen-free. Since the bacteria do not have oxygen, they must transfer their electrons somewhere else

The mud from benthic zone associated the bottom of a body of water where you will find the electrochemically active anaerobic bacteria.

Build the housing using a permanent marker by outlining a hole on the side of one of the plastic containers large enough to fit a PVC fitting.

Prepare the electrodes by stripping the end of the red and black copper wires with a wire stripper and fold one of the ends around a sheet of aluminum mesh and other ends to pre-drilled holes on the containers and seal with glue.

Insert the PVC nipple into the FHT PVC fittings on the containers and hand tighten.

Using gloves, fill the first container halfway with the sludge, take one of the electrodes and bury it then remove any air bubbles and continue filling the container. This will be the anode.

Fill the second container with distilled water and salt and stir. This will be the cathode.Place the second electrode and seal both containers with their lids. Attach alligator clips to the ends of the protruding copper wires.

Begin to measure voltage output on the multimeter by attaching the respective ends of the alligator clips to the multimeter.The performance of your biofuel cell can be evaluated by determining its voltage output which is measured a multimeter

By this we can test and analyse the performance and power capability of the project and further scaling it to large scale can be an added breakthrough for renewable energy

Kit required to develop Electricity from Sand Bacteria:

• Mud
• Salt
• Water
• Fuel Cell

Technologies you will learn by working on Electricity from Sand Bacteria:

• Renewable Energy
• Energy Conversion

Any Questions?