While a new algae fuel cell can not supply power to the grid for a short period of time, its ease of manufacture and low cost make it suitable for use in developing countries such as the sunny African countryside.
Bio-Photovoltaic (BPVs, also known as Bio-Solar Cells) Batteries have gradually become an environmentally friendly, low-cost method of solar power generation that utilizes the photosynthetic characteristics of microorganisms such as algae that generate electrons in cells during photosynthesis Convert light to current.
At present, bio-photovoltaic cells both have the functions of collecting electrons and transporting electrons into the circuit in a single chamber. After the algae absorb the sunlight and generate electrons, some of the electrons run into the cell wall and are injected into the circuit immediately. However, The university team realized that if you separate these two programs, the battery will be more efficient.
Kadi Liis Saar, the lead author of the study, said that battery-charging components need to be exposed to sunlight (algae photosynthesis) to charge efficiently, but electron transfer components do not need sunlight and the latter should do more effectively convert electrons to electricity , So they devised a new 'dual-chamber system' in which the transfer electronics used the microfluidic technology to lower the internal resistance of the battery and lower the electrical losses. The battery's power density was lower than that of the existing equipment Increase 5 times, up to 0.5W / m2.
In addition, the battery during the day to produce the energy can be saved, choose to use at night or cloudy, the night lighting system may be quite useful.Although the new algae fuel cell is still not compared with the traditional silicon solar fuel cells, the latter Has 10 times the power density of the former, but requires less investment in algae energy and does not require mass production at a time, even if the power is not enough to power the grid system and can also be used in rural areas where there is no grid system in sunny sunny developing countries such as Africa One's own power.
This study has been published in the journal Nature Energy.
