A Northwestern University-led team of researchers has developed a new fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt. About the size of a standard paperback book, the completely soil-powered technology could fuel underground sensors used in precision agriculture and green infrastruct

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11549319

Scientists Develop New Dirt-Powered Fuel Cell That Runs Forever

Northwestern University researchers have introduced a soil-microbe-powered fuel cell, significantly outperforming similar technologies and providing a sustainable solution for powering low-energy devices.

  • Boscrossos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    5 months ago

    The key word here is low powered. This is not for your washer, tv or even phone. It might power a sensor here or there, or a small led. Amazing technology, though. Imagine the “powered by dirt” stickers…

    • whaleross@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      5 months ago

      Pairing it with a low powered either mesh- or long range networking (like LoRa) will be great for monitoring whatever parameters in agriculture and nature, as mentioned in the article.

      Not everything needs to end up in consumer devices to be groundbreaking (heh).

    • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
      8·
      5 months ago

      The goal is to power sensors in agricultural contexts, and if that works, great. You could do some amazing things if you know exactly what’s in your soil (humidity, nutrients, etc) without having to first lay cables to create a powered network or whatever. It could save water and stop farmers from using excessive fertiliser.

    • batmaniam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      As someone in this field, thank you lol.

      It is really really cool tech, and has some really interesting use cases but was WAY over sold on power at the beginning.

  • ImperialATAT@lemmy.worldEnglish
    212·
    5 months ago

    That’s pretty great. I was just expecting this to be a clickbait letdown, but they seemingly found the right geometry for a sustainable energy solution that’s works for a specific industry. I call it a win!