Working with biomaterials to add to the sustainable energy mix

Working with biomaterials to add to the sustainable energy mix

Subject : Science and Technology

Section :Biotechnology

Context: Researchers are experimenting with silk cocoon, spider silk and other natural materials to harvest electricity.

More on the News:

• Tiny bio-batteries from natural materials that can create and generate electricity at a low scale, perhaps even at the household level, is a new area of investigation that scientists hope could be a route towards a sustainable future.
• Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the University of Central Florida, in the U.S., are banking on silk, a complex membrane protein, to craft a device that can power a kitchen.
• The battery prototype developed can be charged with water vapour and is inspired by the ecology of cocoons of silkworms. When dry, silk cocoon membrane behaves like an insulator. On absorbing moisture, it generates electrical current, which is modulated by temperature.
• The inherent challenges to designing and fabricating such devices are the complexity of extraction of such proteins and their short shelf life. The scientists bypassed the challenge of membrane protein isolation by using a naturally occurring robust protein membrane in silk cocoon.
• When the silk cocoon membrane is placed between two electrodes and exposed to water vapour, it generates current to power LEDs. LED stops glowing when we switch off the water vapour
• It can be installed in kitchens in remote areas, or body patches to measure physiological properties like dehydration, salt loss, perspiration, and even anxiety.
• Advantage:
  • Invention is eco-friendly
  • Ensure sustainable rural connectivity
  • Use truly local materials and technology and can replace for expensive photoelectric cells.