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I think researching in the opposite direction has more potential. Let me explain: what we want isn't to generate electricity through bacteria that digests wast
by mpreda 3y ago
I think researching in the opposite direction has more potential. Let me explain:
what we want isn't to generate electricity through bacteria that digests wastewater -- what we want is to feed electricity to the bacteria that digests wastewater, just to enable that bacteria to do it better, faster, and "wider".
Let's imagine I have a septic tank behind the house. I don't need to find out how I can run a LED light from the bacteria in the tank. What I want is to plug that biosystem to electrical power, so that the septic tank biorection is 100x speeded up, in a 10x smaller tank. Even if it uses up a few Watts of power.
And, once we do that, think of the possibilities that open up: once you feed power into the biosystem, it becomes energetically possible to drive bioreactions in the opposite direction from the energy gradient, basically driving the reaction "up the hill" with electrical power. Now that's something!
- ashin 3y agoYou can do this to some degree with a septic tank aerator pump.
- whatshisface 3y agoYou could check the idea by throwing sugar into the septic tank.
- mpreda 3y agoYes, and that might help the reaction. Also heating the tank to the optimum temperature (for the particular bacteria) helps, optimum pH, etc. helps. But the point is to provide the "help" with electricity directly.
- whatshisface 3y agoWhat the sugar and electricity have in common that the pH and temperature don't is the possibility of setting up an ecosystem that crowds out the original one for nutrients but doesn't process the waste, due to having another more effective energy source.
- rcxdude 3y agoOne important version of this idea is using electricity to drive photosynthesis. If this manages to be even 10% efficient it could massively increase the amount of calories available without much increase in land usage (or ecosystem damage). Of course I suspect this wouldn't produce particularly good food, so it would probably be something of last resort.
- KarlKode 3y agoWe actually do this as the basins populated with bacteria that process our waste are heated to improve their metabolic activity and speed up the process. edit: in regular waste processing plants