By Eden
The Greek inventor Archimedes had his Eureka moment while taking a bath, but Israeli student Yaniv Shlosberg achieved that state of clarity when swimming in the sea one day.
Inspired by the sight of seaweed on a rock, he wondered if it could be used to create carbon-free green energy.
With some research and a subsequent publication, the answer turned out to be a resounding “yes”.
For a long time, the negative effects of using fossil fuels led researchers to look for cleaner, more earth-friendly ways to power the world.
One such line of research involves the use of living organisms as a source of electrical current in microbial fuel cells, but the problem with this is that the bacteria need to be constantly fed and, in some cases, are pathogenic.
Another option is photoelectrochemical cell technology called Bio-PhotoElectrochemical Cells (BPEC), in which the electron source can be derived from photosynthetic bacteria, especially cyanobacteria or blue-green algae.
The only problem is that it is commercially less attractive since the amount of current that can be produced is less than that of other sources such as solar cells.
Together with a team of researchers from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology and the Institute for Limnological and Oceanographic Research, Shlosberg began exploring the use of Ulva, or sea lettuce, which grows naturally or with research purposes.
After developing new methods to connect the algae with the new technology, the scientists achieved currents a thousand times greater than those of cyanobacteria, that is, at the level of those obtained from standard solar cells.
Stream in the dark
The researchers noted that the increased currents produced by Ulva algae are due to their high rate of photosynthesis and the ability to use them in their natural seawater as a BPEC electrolyte.
Furthermore, algae can also generate currents in the dark thanks to a respiration process through which the sugars produced in the photosynthetic process are used as an internal source of nutrients.
Not only is this new method carbon-free but it is actually “carbon negative,” as the seaweed absorbs gas from the atmosphere during the day as it grows and releases oxygen.
There is also no carbon released during the day (in the process of collecting the stream).
So far, the researchers have devised a prototype device that collects current directly in Ulva’s grow-out tub. It is that they consider that this discovery can be improved and further developed as a future green energy solution.
“It’s a wonder where scientific ideas come from,” Shlosberg concluded.
Source: israel21c