Green Options

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst evolved a new strain of the Geobacter microbe that increases power output per cell by 800%.

The hairy mud-loving microbe uses its hairlike filaments–called pili–to produce an electric current from both mud and waste water. The pili are only 5 nanometers in diameter (20,000 times smaller than a human hair); they’re also a thousand times longer than they are wide. But they are strong!

The workhorse of the microbe world could turn out to be Geobacter, a hairy looking organism that is actually capable of generating an electric current from mud or wastewater.  Professor Derek Lovley and a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have announced that they successfully evolved a strain of Geobacter into a superbug that is eight times more powerful than other strains.  The breakthrough could lead to the development of a microbial fuel cell system scaled to individual homes, capable of producing electricity from the occupants’ household wastewater.  Geobacter-powered microbial fuel cells for vehicles, portable electronics, and even medical implants are among many other potential applications.