Now, device that harnesses sun and sewage to produce hydrogen fuel

Washington, Oct 11 (ANI): Researchers have developed a new device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas.

The solar-microbial device developed by a research team led by Yat Li, associate professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz, could provide a sustainable energy source while improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment.

The hybrid device combines a microbial fuel cell (MFC) and a type of solar cell called a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). In the MFC component, bacteria degrade organic matter in the wastewater, generating electricity in the process. The biologically generated electricity is delivered to the PEC component to assist the solar-powered splitting of water (electrolysis) that generates hydrogen and oxygen.

Either a PEC or MFC device can be used alone to produce hydrogen gas. Both, however, require a small additional voltage to overcome the thermodynamic energy barrier for proton reduction into hydrogen gas.

Li's hybrid solar-microbial device is self-driven and self-sustained, because the combined energy from the organic matter (harvested by the MFC) and sunlight (captured by the PEC) is sufficient to drive electrolysis of water.

In effect, the MFC component can be regarded as a self-sustained "bio-battery" that provides extra voltage and energy to the PEC for hydrogen gas generation.

Li said that the only energy sources are wastewater and sunlight and the successful demonstration of such a self-biased, sustainable microbial device for hydrogen generation could provide a new solution that can simultaneously address the need for wastewater treatment and the increasing demand for clean energy.

The researchers also noted that hydrogen generation declined over time as the bacteria used up the organic matter in the wastewater. Replenishment of the wastewater in each feeding cycle led to complete restoration of electric current generation and hydrogen gas production.

The study is published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. (ANI)