Monday, November 14, 2011

Waste Water + Bacteria = Energy

Hydrogen may be the ultimate fuel because burning it and reacting it with oxygen yields only water vapor. Scientists have produced hydrogen gas before but only by providing the bacteria with electrical energy. Logan and Younggy Kim reported that they combined two types of devices to generate hydrogen without any external sources of energy. The device has two chambers: one containing the bacteria and the other containing the salt water. They are seperated by five stacked cells. These stacked cells generated .5 to .6 volts of electricity. For each 30 mL of sodium acetate solution provided for the bacteria, the device generated between 21 & 26 mL of hydrogen gas in a day.
Analysis
This article was an example of discovery science because scientists discovered an alternate source of energy. They found how to generate hydrogen without using energy. This finding is important because if we are ever in need of an alternate energy source we can turn to this method.

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