Nano-watt fueling from a micro-scale microbial fuel cell using black tea waste

Abstract

In this report, we show the rapid assessment of black tea as potential fuel to power up nanopower systems using a microsized, simplistic and sustainable air-cathode microbial fuel cell. It was found that tea produced more power compared with traditional sodium acetate media due in part to its acidophilic pH and its higher organics content. Although high internal resistance remains a big concern, this simple, curiosity-driven experiment gave us the preliminary results to say that energy could be extracted from the reuse of waste resources such the collection of our afternoon-tea's leftovers.