Wastewater treatment is vital to remove pathogens, but is typically incredibly energy intensive – responsible for around 3 per cent of energy use in the UK, equivalent to 13 billion kilowatt hours.
The researchers managed to cut the energy used in the purification process by using microbial electrolysis cells that use electromagnetic microorganisms to break down organic pollutants in waste water, producing clean water and hydrogen gas.
The ability to produce hydrogen gas is valuable in itself, as it can be sold to chemical and plastics industry or used in hydrogen fuel cells for energy storage or electric vehicles.
Although the research sounds promising, it hasn’t yet been developed on an industrial scale, as the anode materials - which are used in the reaction to breakdown the organic pollutants – are made of graphite or carbon and cost several hundred pounds per square metre. They also only produce low rates of hydrogen.
However, the research team has...