MIT Creates Virus-Powered Car Battery

Could you ever in your wildest dreams have imagined that one day, viruses – the living kind, not the cyberspace kind – could power batteries? MIT researchers have announced that though it may sound like science fiction, it’s reality. They have successfully engineered viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery.

From Inhabitat:

These virus-built batteries can be created cheaply using an environmentally benign process, tout the same energy capacity as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries, and may one day be used to power everything from personal electronic devices to hybrid vehicles.

This isn’t the plot of the latest ‘B’ movie, although you would be forgiven for thinking so. The research team led by Angela Belcher, were able to create both a cathode and an anode. These are the key components in a battery that allow the movement of electrons across the electrolyte, thus generating power. Before you get worried about turbocharged super-bugs, rest assured that the viruses used will be common bacteriophages, which are harmless to humans (or so one hopes).

Their current prototype is the size of a coin and can only be used around 100 times, but this is MIT – they’ll smooth out the details in no time. They hope to eventually create a full-sized car battery.

We’ve seen some bizarre ideas lately in the field of renewable energy technology – from buses powered by human waste to turning airport travelers’ breath into fuel. How awesome is it to see people thinking outside the box like this? Such innovation really makes it feel like there’s an entire world of clean, green, renewable energy solutions just waiting for us to discover them.

Link [Inhabitat]

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