Electricity from bacteria, sunlight involved

From salinity to electricity

A novel nano-electrode has been proposed by Fablo. et. el that electrical energy can be generated by alternating salinity difference. With the materials sponsored , we have reproduced an even larger electrode (in surface area) with ease. With this at hand, we can turn salinity difference from bacterial action to electrical energy we can use.

Our HR and magnetic-field-responsive bacteria initially coexist with a saline solution in equilibrium without sunlight. <Illustration please>

When the setup is illuminated, HR in our cells will pump ions into the cell membrane, effectively reducing the salinity of the solution which the electrodes directly contact.
<Illustration please>

Action of HR is not related to the life of bacteria. The bacteria will eventually burst, releasing the ions back to the solution; A new generation of bacteria is also formed to continue the cycle. In this sense, the energy supply is from the Sun, and the cell effectively converts solar energy to electrical energy.

The graph above showed the voltage variation of our cell against time.

From the graph above, it is clear that the voltage generated from the cell culture cannot power up any daily electronic device.

Power accumulation

An IC manufactured by Seiko, S-882Z, is a voltage booster that accepts input voltage down to 0.3V. This IC is produced through fully-depleted Silicon-On-Insulator technology that enables such low voltage input. The output is 1.8V/100uA; this voltage is used to charge up a super-capacitor. The supercapacitor can act as a voltage source for dc-dc converters, provide up to 5V for low-power device applications.