Lovley Derek R
Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003, USA.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2006 Jun;17(3):327-32. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2006.04.006. Epub 2006 May 5.
The possibility of generating electricity with microbial fuel cells has been recognized for some time, but practical applications have been slow to develop. The recent development of a microbial fuel cell that can harvest electricity from the organic matter stored in marine sediments has demonstrated the feasibility of producing useful amounts of electricity in remote environments. Further study of these systems has led to the discovery of microorganisms that conserve energy to support their growth by completely oxidizing organic compounds to carbon dioxide with direct electron transfer to electrodes. This suggests that self-sustaining microbial fuel cells that can effectively convert a diverse range of waste organic matter or renewable biomass to electricity are feasible. Significant progress has recently been made to increase the power output of systems designed to convert organic wastes to electricity, but substantial additional optimization will be required for large-scale electricity production.
利用微生物燃料电池发电的可能性在一段时间前就已被认识到，但实际应用的发展一直较为缓慢。最近开发出一种能从海洋沉积物中储存的有机物获取电力的微生物燃料电池，这证明了在偏远环境中产生大量有用电力的可行性。对这些系统的进一步研究发现了一些微生物，它们通过将有机化合物完全氧化为二氧化碳并直接将电子转移到电极来保存能量以支持自身生长。这表明能够有效将各种废弃有机物或可再生生物质转化为电力的自持式微生物燃料电池是可行的。最近在提高旨在将有机废物转化为电力的系统的功率输出方面取得了重大进展，但大规模发电还需要大量额外的优化。
