Eco Factor: Process to clean wastewater and generate electricity using a modified microbial fuel cell.
The world today is facing two major issues, one is the unavailability of energy and the other is the decline in the sources of fresh water. New researcher conducted by an international team of researchers from China and U.S. have tried to solve both the problems with a modified microbial fuel cell that generates electricity and also desalinates water.
Desalinating water using the reverse osmosis process is one way to deal with the problem of fresh water, but it does require vast amounts of energy. The team modified a microbial fuel cell, which carries naturally occurring bacteria to convert wastewater into clean water, while generating electricity.
The researchers claim that their system isn’t as efficient as it should be for any practical use, as it uses 200 milliliters of artificial wastewater to desalinate about 3 milliliters of salty water, but the team is confident that they’ve hit upon a system which can have enormous potential if more research is done on it.
Via: ScienceDaily
