In 2007 a team of engineering students at MIT created an electric battery that would charge using leaves and grass clippings – essentially biomass. The entire project only cost ~$2 because no precious metals were used. The only down side was that it would take nearly half a year just to charge a normal cell phone using this technique!
While this product isn’t all that useful in it’s current state, discoveries from small experiments like this will lead to better composting and eventually biomass solutions for the masses. What if your home compost heap with rotten food, banana peals, and yard waste was feeding electricity into your home instead of just stinking up the yard? What if instead of emptying leftovers into the garbage disposal bin you put them into a biomass electric car? Furthermore, at the very basic level of composting, the end waste could still be used as fertilizer even after peak electricity had been generated using techniques similar to those demonstrated by this MIT team.
Other breakthroughs in Solar technology at MIT are getting us even closer to living in closed loop energy environments. Keep up the great work guys!
