UMass Team Promotes Microbial Fuel cell to Clean Up Waste

A group of physicists and engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst propose a portable water closet that uses bacteria to clean up waste, eliminate odor and generate its own electricity.

The essence of the company is a particular strain of bacteria and an associated microbial fuel cell. According to Malvankar, a recipient of the Eugene M. Isenberg Award at UMass, the bacteria’s ability to generate small amounts of current made it useful, but only for certain applications.“It doesn’t generate enough energy to compete with wind or solar, and it isn’t really cost effective for waste water treatment,” he said. “But it works well in portable toilets, which are traditionally very unpleasing places.”

The system can produce enough power for the unit’s fan and light, according to Malvankar.Bug Power’s bacteria doesn’t break down all the waste, but Malvankar said that when dealing with porta potties, any reduction is an improvement.“If we can even reduce the servicing by half, it will be a huge savings for distributors,” he said.

While Bug Power’s application may be novel, the potential of microbial fuel cells is being looked at in several other local companies. Fall River’s Hy-SyEnce Inc. and Cambridge’s IntAct Labs LLC are applying the technology to generating large-scale power from waste water and industrial waste products. At Harvard University, a group led by researcher Peter Girguis is hoping the technology can help provide power for lighting and other systems in developing nations.