IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pbio00/3001970.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is it realistic to use microbial photosynthesis to produce electricity directly?

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher J Howe
  • Paolo Bombelli

Abstract

It is possible to generate small amounts of electrical power directly from photosynthetic microorganisms—arguably the greenest of green energy. But will it have useful applications, and what are the hurdles if so?It is now possible to generate small amounts of electrical power directly from photosynthetic microorganisms. Can this electricity be used outside of the lab, and what are the hurdles to be overcome?

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher J Howe & Paolo Bombelli, 2023. "Is it realistic to use microbial photosynthesis to produce electricity directly?," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(3), pages 1-4, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:3001970
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001970
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001970&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001970?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter, Xavier Alexis & You, Jiseon & Winfield, Jonathan & Bajarunas, Ugnius & Greenman, John & Ieropoulos, Ioannis A., 2020. "From the lab to the field: Self-stratifying microbial fuel cells stacks directly powering lights," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    2. Kadi L. Saar & Paolo Bombelli & David J. Lea-Smith & Toby Call & Eva-Mari Aro & Thomas Müller & Christopher J. Howe & Tuomas P. J. Knowles, 2018. "Enhancing power density of biophotovoltaics by decoupling storage and power delivery," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 75-81, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Theofilos Kamperidis & Asimina Tremouli & Gerasimos Lyberatos, 2023. "Architecture Optimization of a Single-Chamber Air-Cathode MFC by Increasing the Number of Cathode Electrodes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-12, August.
    2. Wang, Haowei & Zhu, Huawei & Zhang, Yanping & Li, Yin, 2024. "Boosting electricity generation in biophotovoltaics through nanomaterials targeting specific cellular locations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    3. de Ramón-Fernández, A. & Salar-García, M.J. & Ruiz Fernández, D. & Greenman, J. & Ieropoulos, I.A., 2020. "Evaluation of artificial neural network algorithms for predicting the effect of the urine flow rate on the power performance of microbial fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    4. Tanvir, Rahamat Ullah & Zhang, Jianying & Canter, Timothy & Chen, Dick & Lu, Jingrang & Hu, Zhiqiang, 2021. "Harnessing solar energy using phototrophic microorganisms: A sustainable pathway to bioenergy, biomaterials, and environmental solutions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Kamali, Mohammadreza & Guo, Yutong & Aminabhavi, Tejraj M. & Abbassi, Rouzbeh & Dewil, Raf & Appels, Lise, 2023. "Pathway towards the commercialization of sustainable microbial fuel cell-based wastewater treatment technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:3001970. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosbiology (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.