Pennsylvania University Scientists Created Microbe-Powered ‘Fart’ Machine to Store Energy

Technology.am (Apr. 24, 2009) — Pennsylvania State University scientists have produced an electric “fart” that gives microbes power to convert electrical energy into methane to store energy.

The electrical farting machine could improve fuel cell technology by turning C02 in the atmosphere into methane, and it could help store alternative energies such as wind and solar more efficiently.

Given small jolts of electricity to “archea”, older than bacteria, lacking a nucleus and other cellular machinery, prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny “farts.”

The archea are 80 percent efficient at conserving the electrical energy into the chemical bonds of methane, that is sufficient enough to use the methanogen to store energy generated by intermittent power sources, like wind, solar or tidal energy.