Research Scholar from IIT Kharagpur Uses Sewage Water to Develop Disposal Battery

IIT Kharagpur research scholar developed a flexible and throwaway battery powered from sewage water bacteria, said the institute.

This is an environment-friendly battery that initiates on injecting the bacteria found in the sewage water for energy production.

Generally, the MFCs (microbial fuel cells) consume a longer time such as a couple of days to begin with the power production and this is because the bacteria require to get set to the new environment.

Fortunately, for this device within 10 seconds the power production starts and it can be considered almost immediate said Ramya Veerubotla, the Biotechnology department PhD student.

Currently, the device power is in the microwatts range. In fact, multiple devices stacking help in promoting the power and also help driving several practical applications.

It is completely different as this device is made one a paper platform developed by Veerubhotla, and is not heavy as other batteries, it said.

The battery is made using air cathode and the anode is prepared from any simple carbon-based material.

Veerubhotla presented from IITKGP’s her research paper ‘Team Electrodes’ at KPIT Sparkle 2018, recently in the annual National Design and Development Innovation Contest.

The project also won the first prize and an Rs 10 lakh cash award, said the statement.

“It may be difficult with this device to power household devices, but it can surely power certain electronic components,” she informed.

Veerubhotla’s PhD supervisor, Professor Debabrata Das from the Biotechnology Department is confident that this invention is sure to be tremendously useful when applied in the bio-electric toilets.

The best advantage is that this device is biodegradable by 100% and is also environment-friendly, that is not usually with chemical batteries, said Das.

Faculty members from Mechanical engineering, Materials Science and Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering departments of IITKGP are working together to harness this bio-energy.