Using Cow Dung to Power Mobile Phones
A team of MIT students has taken the concept of using biomass (such as animal dung) to generate energy and shrunk it to fit inside a handheld device that could be used to charge cell phones. The team of materials science students, known as BioVolt, won first prize in the inaugural MADMEC (MIT and Dow Materials Engineering Contest), held last month.
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The winners
The slogan which indicates the "power source"
The BioVolt device generates electricity from cellulosic biomass for household use in economically underdeveloped countries. In particular, the gadget is designed to charge mobile phones in rural areas where electricity can be scarce.
Professor Edwin (Ned) Thomas, head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, said the judges were impressed by the team's creativity. The BioVolt prototype uses anaerobic microorganisms to digest cellulose and convert it to electricity and water in a microbial fuel cell.
"They took risks, and it was really different. They had done a lot of materials work," Thomas said.
Five teams reached the finals of the MADMEC competition, which challenged students to use principles of materials science and engineering to build a prototype device that harvests, stores or exploits alternative energy sources. Teams were judged on the creativity, practicality and potential useful impact of their inventions, said Thomas.
Members of the winning team, which took home $5,000, are graduate students Ethan Crumlin, Gerardo Jose la O' and Joseph Walish, and sophomores John Craven and Andrew Hoy.
The second place team was Biogas Nicaragua, which included graduate student Jonathan Rose, 2007 graduates Chris Tostado and Julian Villarreal, and sophomores Xavier Gonzalez and Russell Rodewald. Biogas Nicaragua developed a prototype that uses microbes to convert biomass such as crop waste and animal dung into methane that can be used for cooking. The team has set up a testing station in Nicaragua and plans to continue the project next summer.
The contest started in April, when student teams submitted their proposals. Teams spent the summer working on their projects, and six finalists were chosen in August (one team dropped out before the final round).
Cellulosic ethanol (or non-feedstock bioethanol) is a type of cellulosic biofuel produced from lignocellulose, a structural material that comprises much of the mass of plants. The cellulose chains can be broken into glucose molecules by cellulase enzymes.
This reaction occurs at body temperature in the stomach of ruminants such as cows and sheep, where the enzymes are produced by bacteria.
Posted to the site on 7th October 2007
