VATIS UPDATE Article

Researchers at Binghamton University – State University of New York (SUNY), the United States, have developed the next step in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with the first micro-scale self-sustaining cell, which generated power for 13 straight days through symbiotic interactions of two types of bacteria.

“The evolution of this technology will require additional exploration, but we, for the first time, realized this conceptual idea in a micro-scale device,” said said Seokheun Choi, at SUNY. In a cell chamber about one-fifth the size of a teaspoon (90 microliters), researchers placed a mixed culture of phototrophic and heterotrophic bacteria.