Power from wastewater

An environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has created a device similar to a hydrogen fuel cell that uses bacteria to treat wastewater and create electricity.

Lars Angenent, Ph.D., assistant professor of Chemical Engineering, and a member of the University's Environmental Engineering Science Program, has devised a microbial fuel cell which he calls an upflow microbial fuel cell (UMFC) that is fed continually. Unlike most microbial fuel cells, the chambers work on top of one another rather than side by side.

Angenent has created electricity with the device, which is about the size of a thermos flask, and says it has to be scaled up considerably to someday handle the two million or so gallons of wastewater it needs to treat to churn out enough power.

"We have proven we can generate electricity on a small scale," Angenent said. "It will take time, but we believe the process has potential to be used for local electricity generation.