OSU's Microbial Fuel Cell Could Make Waste Treatment an Energy Source 70
An anonymous reader writes "A team of engineers from Oregon State University has developed a breakthrough microbial fuel cell that is capable of generating 10 to 50 times more electricity from waste than other MFCs. The team hopes that their innovation will enable waste treatment plants to not only power themselves, but also sell excess electricity back to the grid. 'If this technology works on a commercial-scale the way we believe it will, the treatment of wastewater could be a huge energy producer, not a huge energy cost,' said associate professor Hong Liu. 'This could have an impact around the world, save a great deal of money, provide better water treatment and promote energy sustainability.'"
Re:Good news for the enviornment! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah I'm not sure we actually want "profitable" slabbed on something as important as waste treatment. That word is commonly followed by words like "margin" and leads to all sorts of nasty shortcuts that are just barely inside the often arbitrary law requirements.
Re:Good news for the enviornment! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah I'm not sure we actually want "profitable" slabbed on something as important as waste treatment. That word is commonly followed by words like "margin" and leads to all sorts of nasty shortcuts that are just barely inside the often arbitrary law requirements.
In developing countries such as China, economic development has higher priority over the environment. If protecting the environment is profitable, private businesses would do it. So I would say this is a step forward helping countries like China.
As usual, all press release and no paper (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do these things never have a link to a peer-reviewed paper that I can read to see what they're actually doing?