Powerful Ideas: Bacteria Clean Sewage and Create Electricity

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

posted: 31 August 2009 09:34 am ET

Editor's Note: This occasional series looks at powerful ideas — some existing, some futuristic — for fueling and electrifying modern life.

Batteries made with microbes could help generate power by cleaning up organic waste at the same time.

Sewage is loaded with energy-rich sugars that researchers have struggled for years to convert into useful power. To do so, investigators have experimented with nature's experts on breaking down waste — bacteria.