Microbe-powered sensors

Soil has a remarkable capacity to sequester carbon, and expanding soil carbon stores could prove instrumental to achieving a carbon-neutral future. However, there is currently no effective way to monitor the cycle of carbon building up and breaking down in soil over large areas in real time, to better measure carbon sequestration capabilities. This work investigates whether bioelectrochemical systems can be used to observe naturally occurring microbial reactions in agricultural soils and links those measurements to soil carbon levels. If successful, this could lead to the design of novel sensors that detect microbial activity, and thus carbon storage potential, for deployment in agricultural and ecological lands. Recent work also shows the exciting potential for using these electrochemical signals as a renewable energy harvesting source, sowing the seeds for self-powered wireless “soil health” sensing.

To learn more, see:

Is it time to start moving soil microbial fuel cell research out of the lab and into the field?
Time-series forecasting of microbial fuel cell energy generation using deep learning
Soil-Powered Computing: The Engineer’s Guide to Practical Soil Microbial Fuel Cell Design
The Future of Clean Computing May Be Dirty
Early Characterization of Soil Microbial Fuel Cells
Farming Electrons: Galvanic vs. Microbial Energy in Soil Batteries