Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States have developed a technique to treat small samples of bacteria that live in relatively oxygen-deficient environments and measure their ability to produce electricity.
The microfluidic technique is based on measuring the polarity of the bacteria to assess its electrochemical activities.
Researchers have found that some bacteria in oxygen-deprived environments have developed their ability to produce electrodes for electric charges rather than bacteria that live in environments rich in oxygen, making them potential pumps for electricity.
Bacteria that live in mines, lake beds, health banks and even those that live inside the human intestine are the most powerful candidates to demonstrate power generation capabilities.
"Tests have shown that there is a wide range of bacteria that have electrical capabilities," said MIT researcher, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qianro Wang.
Wang concluded that it is important to measure the degree of polarization of this group of bacteria and classify them by their ability to generate high electrochemical activities.