Tech

Bug eats electricity, farts biogas

An intriguing new idea involves "feeding" surplus power to the microorganisms instead, which combine it with carbon dioxide to create methane. That could then be stored and burned when needed. The method is sustainable too, as the carbon is taken from the atmosphere, not released from long-term storage in oil or coal.

There are no noble metals involved, so it should be very cheap

Of the energy put into the system as electricity, 80% was eventually recovered when the methane was burned – a fairly high efficiency.

If the CO₂ used to make the methane was captured from the flue pipes of power stations or even – using more complex methods – from the open air, the methane would become a carbon-neutral fuel.

What I like about this method is it's simple, it's replicable and it's scalable."

Journal reference: Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/es803531g)